One Scary Night

We have been busy doing stuff..work always getting in the way, of course.  But that's necessary to take advantage of all the fun stuff while we're here in the Smokies.

I have finished two Christmas presents for our grands in Raleigh, but their family reads the blog, so I can't put photos of them up until after Christmas.  (I hope I remember, because they are really fabulous!)  But I did finish the headboard and am really pleased with it, too.  This decorating thing sure is fun!  Next is the pillows for the bed - oh, a funny thing:  Gary and I put up the headboard on Sunday morning before I went to work.  I'm getting my shoes on, and he comes out of the bedroom with the large Euro pillows and says:  Maybe these would look good covered in that fabric?  I agreed.  He puts those back on the bed, and comes out with the small accent pillows and says, "perhaps a bit of that fabric on these?" Of course, I had already planned that too, but giggled to myself to find he was having as much fun as me getting into the DECO MODE. 

And, by the way, I could be for hire...

Now about our very scary night.  Last Thursday Gary woke up at 2:15 and smelled something.  When he gets up, I wake up so then I smelled it, too.  It smelled like burning wires.  Not a good thing.  We checked the fridge, and all was OK.  But it was coming from the area of the shower - what???  It was really, really strong, so we opened the windows and went outside with flashlights trying to keep as quiet as possible.  In the electrical bay, we felt the converter boxes and surge protector for excessive heat.  They were warm, but not hot.  There was no smoke, but the smell was very strong. 

It's interesting to me that one knows the smell of burning wires or the plastic that coats them.  Why?  Are there that many opportunities to smell such an odor?  That can't be a good thing...

Anyway, Gary called our friend, Ron, hating to wake him, but he has many years experience in RVing and we hoped he might be able to identify something somewhere that might be the culprit.  Ron came over and smelled it and agreed it was burning wires.  Then Donna came over - I'm surprised the whole campground wasn't watching as the boys were out looking in the bays and Donna and I were opening windows and vents.

In the end we decided to just unplug from shore power.  We all returned to bed (at 3:15 am), but the odor was horrible.  Next morning leaning into the bay, Gary was asked by Bill, the Asst. Manager riding along in his golf cart if Gary was just cleaning or was something wrong?  Gary relayed our scary evening, so he came over to check the post, and the electrical stuff and said 'this is a job for the professional' dialing Jeff's RV Repair on his phone.  Jeff's agreed to come out to see what the problem was and arrived around 2:30.  He smelled the odor and removed one of the converter box covers.  It was OK.  Then he removed the other cover and, sure enough, there were melted wires and soot marks.  He agreed that we narrowly escaped catching fire. 

The reason we smelled it so strongly at the shower is because the electrical bay is right below it and there is a hole drilled up under it (which I noticed when I took off the air vent to clean under the shower) where all the wires spread throughout the coach.  We continually learn. 

He made a phone call to our warranty company, got the go ahead to replace both, then said he'd place an order for them and they should be in next week.  Whew.  We plugged back in, and all was well.  Jeff came back with the two new boxes, installed them and we are good to go.  Glad once again that we have an extended warranty. 

On the fun side, we all went to see the Temptations at the new Nate Evan's Theatre on the Parkway.  It was a Wednesday night so there were only about 100 people there.  It was a GREAT show.  I know everyone secretely wanted to get up and gyrate to the music as we were all over 40 and KNEW these songs.  Took us all back to the "good ole days", doncha know. 

Today is Ron's birthday and we started celebrating it by having breakfast at Grandmother's Cafe.  They advertise 'Cat Head Biscuits' on their sign.  Brenda and Larry suggested it as it's down at the bottom of 'their mountain'.  It was really the best omelet I have ever had.  And tonight we are having Ron's favorite:  Buffalo Wild Wings while we watch X-Factor on TV, as we know someone on it.  If he makes a cut, we can say who he is, but it's hush hush until then.  I probably shouldn't have said this much, but it'll be OK by the time you read this. 

Gary decided, because we are leaving in less than two weeks, to get up top and wash the roof.  That's usually my job, but he wanted a turn.  Well, OK, honey, whatever you want...  I just heard that we will do the sides, then wax her tomorrow.  Great.  Cross that off the list.

Oh, and yesterday we replaced our bathroom fan cover.  That was a fun project and took about 30 minutes with the help of Ron (who was tall and could hold his arms over his head longer than me on tippy-toes). 

                That is obviously Ron's arm, not mine.  It's so much brighter in the bathroom!

Soon we'll be heading to Raleigh to see our two little grands and celebrate Gary's mom's 90th birthday!  Ron and Donna will be coming with us (first time we've ever traveled with anyone!).  Their daughter-in-law and son moved to Morrisville this summer so they will get to visit with them.  We are planning a BBQ to introduce our kids, Mandy and Joe to their kids, Paul and Holly as they are about the same age and everyone needs more friends, right? 

Right now:  Life is good.