The good folks at Samsung updated my smartphone software on Tuesday. The improved software version they pushed onto my phone can’t be accessed with my PC. When I connect my phone to my PC via a USB cable, the phone is recognized but no folders are available. So, I can’t access my picture files until I figure out what happened.
Tuesday was another wet day with periods of drizzle broken up with dry spells throughout the day. I got busy checking out the 50 amp line from the garage. There is a NEMA 10-30 outlet on the wall in the garage. The landlord said he used this connection to power a welder. An RV needs a TT-30 connection and isn’t compatible with the 10-30 outlet. A cable comes out of the box behind this outlet with a NEMA 14-50 outlet on the end. This matches the 50 amp cable found on most motorhomes. However, it didn’t work.
When I checked the 50 amp outlet with my Progressive Industries Electrical Management System (EMS) box, it wouldn’t power up. When I checked the individual blades in the connector, I found 120 volts on one leg only between the blade and ground lug. The other hot blade wasn’t hot and the neutral blade was an open circuit.
The 30 amp outlet was connected to a double pole 20 amp circuit breaker in the service box. I opened the breaker and then took the cover off the 30 amp outlet. I saw it was wired normally, but the 50 amp extension coming out of the back of the 30 amp box was incorrectly wired. After thinking about it for a few minutes and talking to my daughter Alana about the situation, I decided to eliminate the 30 amp outlet and rewire the 50 amp extension.
I went to the hardware store and bought a 50 amp double pole circuit breaker. I disconnected the wiring to the 30 amp outlet and replaced the double pole 20 amp breaker in the box with the 50 amp breaker. Then I fed the end of the romex cable with the 50 amp outlet on the end into the service box and wired it to the breaker and connected the neutral and ground wire to the bus bar.
I tested the outlet and it worked. Everything checked out and it powered up my EMS without any errors showing. Voila! We have power for the coach! I ran the extension out of the garage and connected our 50 amp cable to it. I wrapped the connector plug with Press ‘n’ Seal plastic wrap to keep the rain out and we’re in business.
Wednesday was a fine weather day. We had a few clouds, but it was mostly sunny with a high in the low 70s in the afternoon. Alana and Lainey had the day off from work so we headed out. We all piled into Alana’s car – Alana, Lainey, Gabi, Donna and I and drove down to Alki Beach in west Seattle. Alki Beach is a sandy beach on Puget Sound across from downtown Seattle (map).
Donna, Lainey, Alana and Gabi
There’s about a mile of public beach with a paved walk and bike path. Across the street from the beach area there are a number of restaurants. It was the middle of the week, but the beach was bustling with people sun bathing, playing in the sand and entering the water. There was a beach volleyball clinic in one area with coaches taking girls through volleyball drills. We walked for a while then went to a Mexican restaurant for a late lunch. The food at El Chupacabra was very good – I don’t remember finding much in the way of good Mexican cuisine when I lived here.
Donna and I at the point at Alki
View of the waterfront and downtown Seattle from Alki
We had a good time exploring and watching the ferries and freighters on the sound. After we came home, I set up a table and chairs on the lawn and we had happy hour. Alana’s mother, LuAnn and her husband Jerry stopped by on their bicycles and joined us for a short while.
Donna and Alana shared a special brew from Deschutes – only available at the brewery
Around 6pm, I had a delivery from UPS. I ordered new front shocks for our coach and they arrived. When we were driving up here, the section of I-5 from Tacoma to Seattle rivals some of the worst road surfaces we’ve been on. It was just as bad as I-75 from Detroit to Toledo. Driving through this section of road, I realized our front shocks were worse for wear from all of the pounding they’ve taken.
When I bought our Koni shocks about two years ago, they were a huge improvement over the existing suspension. About five months after I bought them, Koni came out with a new shock made for the Alpine Coach Peak chassis and the Monaco Roadmaster RR4 chassis. The new design has a much larger bore and piston and works at a lower operating pressure. These new shocks should be more durable than the older design. I hope so. My front shocks only have about 15,000 miles on them and they are tired! That will be my project for today.
The high temperature for the day is supposed to be in the upper 60s with a chance of rain this afternoon. Hopefully I can complete my shock installation before it rains.
Update – I figured out the change Samsung made with the OS update and added photos.