Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Power Restored

(Joliet, IL) Hi 73  Lo 59 -- We had a very rough night trying to sleep. With no electricity we had to leave our windows open. We're next to a truck yard and all night they'd back up the trucks and we could hear the beeping. It was also humid and the air was cool but damp, so it felt wet. Also, we couldn't run our "noise maker," the white noise machine we've gotten used to. We did do well all evening running the generator. Including running it a couple of hours this morning, we got 6 1/2 hours out of a partial tank, and it's still not empty. We don't have an inverter, so we ran the generator on a light load (laptops and TV only, no a/c). So we know we can go several days on two 30 lb. tanks if we have to.

This morning the electrician showed up just as we were getting up. Jim started the generator so we could make some coffee, then went out to talk him. He started to work on getting our power restored, then he called for back up. By the time everything was repaired there were four guys working on it. They found a bad underground wire that ran from the main panel, and also some grounding problems in the panel itself (which caused Jim to get a shock yesterday) just by touching the box not  plugging in the power cord. They fished a new wire underground and fixed the grounding problem, and we now have power.
















They had to hurry because a storm front was coming in.















We got rain from about 10am until around 3, and it sounded nice pattering on the roof. Then it cleared up nicely. Here's a picture of our site.















We both did computer stuff most of the day, and later took a stroll around the park. A lot of rigs came in today, and we found out they're the Oregon Good Sam's Club. They started rolling in about 2:00.

Once the sun came out the humidity started rising. We'll have a/c tonight, but it sure was an interesting experience last night.

6 comments:

Paul and Mary said...

http://www.droidapps.org/white-noise-lite-android-app-to-help-you-sleep/

White Noise is a great app....check it out.
I have it on my iphone. Looks like there's one available for your droid, too.

Jim and Sandie said...

Electricity is such a great thing to have. Sure glad you got yours back. But a good test of the generator.

Speedy said...

Another bump in the road gang! Glad all is well. We plan on heading north here in Oklahoma to check out a COE park. Us old farts have to stay where we get half price!

Rick and Elaine NB said...

so you sort of experienced boondocking :)....glad to see all is right as rain again..and a great test for your genni...these little glitches seem to add spice to life right?
take care
hugs
Elaine
Rick tucker and lilly too

Diane and Rich said...

the campground was sure responsive to your power problems..I wonder how many campgrounds would have had an issue like that repaired so fast.

squawmama said...

So glad your electric was fixed... I can't imagine another night like that!!! Get some rest and enjoy the AC!
Have fun & Travel safe
Donna

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