Late Friday afternoon, our power went out. Kevin traced it to a blown breaker in one of the main fuse boxes. It was a 200 amp breaker for 15 of our campsites. He reset it, and things were fine for the rest of the day. Friday's high was 92 degrees, so that was a good thing.
Around noon on Saturday the same breaker blew again. The high on Saturday was 95 degrees. Kevin reset it, and it lasted for a whole 15 minutes. We asked all campers on that circuit to put their refrigerators and water heaters on gas, and use electric for air only. That worked for about an hour, and it blew again. We called our boss who called the electrician the county uses. The breaker blew about 4 more times that afternoon. It started that it could be reset immediately to taking over an hour because it was getting so hot.
At dinner time, our boss called back and said the electrician would be there Sunday morning. I went around and spoke to all the campers on that circuit and asked that they not use their air until the electrician could come. We were hoping that we could keep the circuit going without air being run, and that way at least fans could be used. People were very cooperative, and almost everyone complied with the request. The power stayed on all night, and we were able to use our fans. It was very humid, so not a very pleasant night for sleeping.
The next morning the electrician came, but said he was having trouble getting in touch with anyone from the parts house. We told him we had looked online, and we thought the breaker was available at Menards or Home Depot. He went to Menards, and was able to get the part. He was surprised they had it, and thanked us for letting him know. Alliant Energy had to come turn off the power before the part could be replaced. While they were here, they noticed that the voltage was low.
They ended up tracing the low voltage all the way back into town. It took them until 8 pm until they had the problem resolved. They turned off the power several more times throughout the rest of Saturday, but it was only for a few minutes at a time. By the time the power was fully restored, it was 95 degrees in our RV. It took all day for it to get comfortable inside again, but we were just so very grateful to have power back.
We actually ended up having record high temperatures three days in a row. What a crazy way to start the camping season. The good news is that the breaker worked like a champ the rest of the weekend, and that the campers that were here were very cooperative and didn't give us a hard time.
Our friends Wendy and Jim and Terry and Tom camped here for the weekend. We had a good time, but really didn't do much because of the heat and humidity. No one felt like doing much of anything. We did manage to have plenty to eat and drink as usual.
On Monday our friends Tim and Pam invited all of us to go on a pontoon boat ride on the lake. That was a nice break from the heat. We really enjoyed ourselves.
Activity at the bird feeder has been slowing down. Many of the migrating birds have come through on their way north. I did see a new bird for me, a beautiful Indigo Bunting.
Tomorrow the heat and humidity are finally supposed to abate. It looks like the next week will be beautiful. Maybe we'll be able to go golfing on Monday. We're definitely hoping the heat on Memorial Day Weekend is not a sign of things to come for the rest of the summer.
Don’t wish upon a star – Reach for one!
