Day 143, 144 - Chehalis, WA - TT

Saturday (143) - Last night when we returned to the RV, the refrigerator wasn’t working again. The status panel claimed that AC was not available and the propane fault light was lit. This light comes on if the propane flame doesn’t light. After messing around with it, the propane burner fired up and the refrigerator/freezer temperatures started dropping. From the graph it looks like it stopped working around 3pm and I got the flame lit around 9pm. This morning, the flame didn’t relight.

I probed around with this little Fluke AC voltage tester. The outlet was good and after removing the access panel to the control board, there was power on one side of a fuse but not the other. There was no evidence that the fuse “blew” but checking continuity verified that it failed. Drove to O’Reilly’s Auto parts for a box of 5amp fast blowing fuses. After replacing the fuse, it is now running on AC. I think the propane burner needs to be cleaned. After fifteen years of soot buildup, it probably has never been maintained. The burner would not have been replaced when the refrigerator was repaired last August.

We went to Country Cousins restaurant in Centralia. It is described “kitschy barn-like spot” and the menu was mostly “American comfort food”. The place was well set up with plexiglass panels between the booths and only a fraction of the booths open. All of the staff and most of the patrons wore masks when entering but, obviously, removed them after being seated. Very delicious dinner and we really enjoyed visiting with our friends.

Sunday (144) - Another trip towards Seattle today. Bridget is flying to Minnesota to visit with our grandson for just a few days. We leave here on Thursday morning heading for the Oregon coast.

The WeBoost Drive-X cell signal booster has been working fine. As with most boosters, the retransmitted signal is pretty low to minimize interference so your device really needs to be close to the inside antenna. Without the booster, we get one to two bars of 1x “Extended” on Verizon which is barely enough for occasional email. If I put my iPad next to the inside antenna, it switches to two bars of LTE. I have the iPad plugged into the front TV and can stream YouTube at 720p. I also have that iPad set up as a hotspot and have the Ubiquity Nano connected. I have been able to connect to our HomeAssistant server through the Internet.

I sealed the front seam with Eternabond tape. The Dicor had cracked which wasn’t there a few months back. Hopefully that addresses the small drips along the windshield during heavy rain. I still need to run Dicor around the edges of the tape but need a 70°+ day. I cleaned out the propane burner on the refrigerator and it now seems to start and run. I’ll leave it on propane for a while to make sure it continues to work. And watched some YouTube videos off of the cell amplifier. All in all, a quiet afternoon.