Now that I have told you all about the inverter, let’s take a step back and deal with the more critical electrical problem: the failure of the inverter switch. The problem manifested, about 10 days ago, with the refrigerator suddenly and unexpectedly losing power. I was panicked at first, thinking that the refrigerator itself had failed – a problem that could potentially cost more than $3,000 to fix. But after trying several things (checking circuit breakers, jiggling wires, voodoo incantations) that were unsuccessful, I, on a whim, flipped the inverter (the old one that never worked) on. It still didn’t work, but it failed in a comfortably familiar was – the refrigerator came on, briefly, until the inverter overloaded and quit. This was pretty solid proof that there was no problem with the refrigerator (whew!) and that the problem was somewhere in the rather complex circuitry that powered it.

So I got, from the file of RV stuff that we keep, the documentation on the inverter and, along with it, the documentation on the inverter switch. This is the electronic component that automatically switches the power on the refrigerator circuit between regular (land) power and inverter (travel) power. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that this switch was likely misbehaving. I pulled the cover off this box and the junction box below it, just to get an idea of the circuitry. I tried various things that sort of worked for a little bit, but then the circuit would fail again. I eventually gave up, re-routed the circuit to bypass the switch entirely and hooked it up to an external outlet. Then I ordered a replacement switch.

After a week of running the refrigerator on a jury-rigged circuit, I received the replacement switch. It took about an hour to install it. Much to my relief the refrigerator ran perfectly on both land and inverter power.

Total cost of the inverter and switch: about $300. But now, for the first time, I am confident that the refrigerator will have power when we travel.

Now we have to go somewhere and test it out.

As much as I hate spending good money on things that shouldn’t break, I am deeply grateful that it failed while we were in residence. Had that switch failed while we were up north, we would have returned to a refrigerator filled with thawed, rotting food.  It would have been an unholy mess and I can’t imagine what the smell would have been like or how long I would have had to toil to make the place livable again.  So if it had to fail, it picked a good time to do it.

Rusty, the Corolla and I are all back in Florida. Four days, about 1750 miles. The best thing that can be said about the trip is that my back isn’t too sore. And no breakdowns and no near-disasters. The worse thing that happened was that I took a couple of wrong turns. They added a few minutes and a few miles to the trip, but no big deal. I did end up crossing the Hudson River via the GW Bridge, which is never fun, but I made it.

On the last leg I stopped for 2 hours in Ocala to visit my son, Tony. We went to lunch. I hadn’t seen him for nearly a year, so it was nice catching up.

Jett was supposed to fly in last night, but, as usual, her flight was delayed for hours. She will join us today.

I was pretty apprehensive about what I would find when I got into the RV. Mice? Spoiled food in the refrigerator? Dry toilets? Well, yes, the toilets were dry, but the seals seem to be okay. Likewise, the refrigerator didn’t seem to be harboring any bacteria colonies (though I will let Jett decide what freezer food can be kept). I even opened the half gallon of ice cream that had been in the freezer for 5 months and it was delicious. So my biggest fears were unfounded.

There were, however, a couple of unexpected problems. The water tasted terrible. I tried making coffee with the tap water and it was undrinkable. I used bottled water for the first cups, then let the water run for about 20 minutes to flush the lines. My coffee this morning, made with tap water, was good.

The other unexpected problems had to do with the TV and internet. The router, located in the shed, was off. All of the general outlets in the shed were out. Something happened during the electrical inspection that resulted in the outlets being disabled. I haven’t figured out what happened yet, but in the meantime I was able to move the router to the A/C outlet, which still had power, and get the internet back. I had to re-enter my ID and password to connect to Netflix, but I now have internet and Netflix.

I had been notified a few days ago that my beautiful bougainvillea bush had broken free from its support and was doubled over. I straightened it up and reattached it to its supporting stake. Hopefully it will survive as it is a beautiful bush.

I had loaded the car with as much stuff as would fit, leaving the storage unit (downsized from 5×10 to 5×5) only half full. I think I might be able to fit what is left into a large SUV. Then I can close out the storage unit and save $68 per month.

So, I am pretty much back in residence in Fort Myers and, hopefully, today Jett will be able to say the same. She will continue her immunotherapy treatments here. She already has a meeting set up with the oncologist on Friday.

Today the high temp in Chelsea MA will be in the 50’s; it will be nearly 90 here. Jett will like that.