On the Road Again

CANBERRA ODESSEY August 2012

Day 4 – 5 – 6- 7-    
                           

Thursday 16th August 2012

Much time spent with the family, bonding with our 2 year old grandson and getting to know our new grandson Harry whom I’m pleased to say is home and doing extremely well, home Thursday morning all going gang busters.

We have moved back into the van today and wouldn’t you believe, it has rained for the first time since we have been here.  I went to play some music and soon found I had no 12v power, after much searching, checking fuses, I went for the multi metre and that battery was flat, you guessed it no spare 9v batteries, needed 2, 1 for the multi metre and 1 for the smoke alarm.  Sheryle was great she did not blow her stack just went to the shop and bought some.  Thinking I must have left something on I felt I had checked and double checked everything, in the end I rang The Home of 12 Volt in Mt Barker Adelaide whom I know well, spoke to John within a couple of minutes I realized on Sunday when leaving the van I switched the fridge to a/c, no, dumbo turned the switch to d/c flattening both very new 120amp batteries quickly.  John suggested a number of ways of charging, however, Sheryle and I felt taking 1 battery out taking it to the auto electrician who has a special AGM charger would be the best move.

On returning to the van after dropping the battery off then cuddles with Harry the penny dropped, lights! All but 2 of our lights are 12volt, luckily we had purchased an led strip light from The Home of 12 Volt in Mt Barker a few months earlier, until now we have never had the use for them, out with the Thumper whammo we have good lighting for the night.

Whilst traversing the Hay plain there had been road repairs from the flood damage earlier this year, loose gravel lay across the road several semi trailers passed in the opposite direction that threw up stones onto our windscreen and left star chips, when we re-fueled at Yass Sheryle noticed a crack in the base of the windscreen right in the middle, between Yass and Queanbeyan that little crack is now about 6 inches long this will be replaced tomorrow providing the rain holds off, it’s good to have good insurance.

Keep the shiny side up

John