Eddie & George Wake Up at Indian Lake in the Adirondacks!

Eddie and George woke up this morning in a picturesque little campground called Thornbush Acres RV Park:

It's located near Indian Lake, New York, in the heart of the southern Adirondacks.  The boys got here just as the leaves reached their autumn peak colors.  Eddie even got to sample some apples ripening on the tree:

Dave and Kathy weren't quite as happy as the boys, though.  On September 30, when we arrived, as soon as they plugged the rig into the 50 amp campground outlet, all heck broke loose in the rig. Something popped in the fireplace.  A smoky smell came from the circuit breaker panel and the GFI circuit breaker tripped.  A smoky smell erupted in the bedroom.  Suddenly, none of the outlets in the rig worked.  Dave and Kathy decided to unplug from the campground outlet and investigate.  It seemed that the campground electricity was okay, but something wasn't right in the RV.

They tried for several hours to hunt down an electrician, but it seems that, this deep in the Adirondacks, there aren't that many.  And, with the end of the tourist season, any electricians in the area were either on vacation or already committed to some big jobs they had deferred until after the summer season.  Finally, George, our campground host, persuaded Bob, the local fire chief and a master electrician, to drop over and try and diagnose our problem.

Bob did a quick survey and found that a connection had melted inside the hose and plug that connects our rig to the campground electricity.  It seems the plug wasn't manufactured well, and a hot wire pulled out of its connection and arced with the neutral wire, causing a feedback into one of the lines in the 50 amp service.  This DOUBLED the voltage on one of the 50 amp lines and fried anything in its path.  Luckily, our GFI circuit breaker protected all of the GFI outlets, but gave its life in the process.  We lost our electric fireplace and our bedroom TV.

Bob fixed the problem by bypassing the GFI circuit breaker temporarily, then hard-wiring our 50-amp campground electric line where it plugs into our rig.  David and Kathy started searching for replacement equipment, and ordered it for delivery in a couple weeks.

In the meantime, here is how our bedroom looks without the fried TV:

Eddie and George said they prefer sleeping in the closet, rather than staring at a hole in the wall. Dave and Kathy couldn't disagree with that.