Electric - Event Date: 18 Nov 2019 - 28 Nov 2019

Sometimes things are not as they seem. Take, for example, our weekend trip to Meramec State Park in Sullivan, Missouri. We pulled into our campsite and set up our trailer: leveling, disconnecting, and connecting to the electrical outlet. Because the water was turned off due to the season, we brought water with us. It was cold, so we turned on the furnace to warm up the Pod, let it run a bit, and then headed off into the local town to run some errands and have dinner. When we returned, we learned that the furnace wasn’t working because the propane tank had run out. No problem…just connect our spare tank and fire it up. Ah, no…it blew cold air, but the igniter wouldn’t activate. Crawled under the bed and took off the grate looking for a reset button after numerous times turning the furnace off and on at the thermostat. Checked all the breakers and fuses, too, but everything was ok…so no heat and the temp was going into the high twenties overnight. Thankfully we had brought the heavy down comforter and felt as if we could stay warm under it. After sitting around the campfire, it was time to turn in; however, upon entering the POD we noticed that the lights had really dimmed. So, we, thinking systems, looked at all the electrical connections, and saw that nothing was amiss. Decided that maybe it was the electric source, so we took out the extension cord and went to the next electric box and connected. Same thing. We tried using the 30-amp port, 50 amp with the 30-amp adapter, the 30 to 110 ac adapter multiple times with both boxes…no change. Brain hurting, we snuggled under the comforter and tried to sleep under the comforter with multiple blankets on top with Sam and Spot our two Shih-tzus on top of us. We slept off and on throughout the night.

Next day, thinking we had missed something went through the whole process again thinking systems…where was the faulty link?  The Mr. Coffee worked but the lights dimmed appreciably when we plugged our phones in to recharge. Finding the problem still existed and deciding that we could not repeat the previous night’s fun, we drove to the nearest Walmart and bought a space heater. It worked and we slept that night.

Next day…getting ready to leave and we try to bring the slider in…you guessed it: it wouldn’t activate. So, we threw a Hail Mary pass and connected the POD to the Beast (our F-150) and it activated; and we made it home without incident.

 Lessons learned:

1. Sometimes things are not as they seem, I was thinking it was the POD; but the problem was the electrical hookups. The camping area is in a flood plain along the Meramec River that floods regularly and some of the electrical hookups are faulty. Our neighbor had no electrical problems with their Jayco Hummingbird and the hookup at their site.  We wondered if the hookups were the culprit and our theory was confirmed when we got home and plugged our electrical cord into our garage 110 outlet with our adapter and EVERYTHING worked: furnace, lights, slider without hesitation. Next time I’m going to find the host and get a new spot. Any other ideas?

2. Numerous entries have recommended the use of a portable heater to use the electricity that has been purchased instead of the propane. Did and will use.

3. Have fun and roll with these little glitches. It didn’t ruin the weekend, the scenery along the river was beautiful, and, due to it being November, there were only 5 other campers.