A restless and mildly stressful night.  The refrigerator kept beeping and displaying an E3 code – low voltage.  Tom blamed it on poor input voltage, based on flickering lights while on campsite power, but nothing we could think of doing at night solved the problem, so Scott just turned the refrigerator off at 2AM and hoped the food wouldn’t spoil overnight (it did not.)

In the morning the solar panel on the roof produced enough voltage to run the refrigerator, we figured since it was running okay when turned back on.  On the way to cousin Ted’s we stopped at Walmart to buy groceries and a multimeter (which we seemed to remember that we owned but could not find.)  Our theory was the 3-year-old battery in our pack of two house batteries had failed and would not hold a charge.  We replaced one of the batteries 2 years ago, but the other seemed fine so we decided to leave it alone.  Two years ago we added water to the batteries, and we’ve been carrying distilled water to do this for some time but never got around to refilling them.

We now recalled why we don’t have a multimeter.  We had been looking at them at Walmart, but Walmart wanted a confiscatory $40 for one, and we figured we could do much better at Harbor Freight for $5 or so.  We never got around to finding a Harbor Freight.  Turned out this Walmart was next to a Harbor Freight, and they still did not sell a cheap multimeter, so we purchased one for $7.99 at the Harbor Freight and proceeded to the Brattleboro, Kampfire Campground to work on the power problem.

Turns out after considerable debugging and getting so desperate that we almost consulted the manuals, Tom noticed that the battery switch – that after owning the RV for over three years and 14 separate trips he “wasn’t really sure what it does”  controls the interface between the house batteries and the chassis batteries.  Tom had left it off.  That was a mistake.

Turns out the day before Scott turned on the inverter to run the microwave for our lunch meals.  We left it on.  We left Starlink and the computers connected to the inverter-powered AC.  Turns out that drew the house batteries real low.  Wouldn’t have been a problem if the battery switch was on, as this would have charged up the house batteries with the RV engine.  But since the batteries were so low the inverter/charger could not charge them without help from the disconnected chassis batteries.

After we turned the battery switch on all was well.  But we (Tom) added over a gallon of water to the batteries so we could cross that off the list.

We arrived at Ted’s still unfinished sorta-off-the grid house, which Scott remembered from several years ago when it was unfinished.  He asked Ted if it was on the third decade of construction, and Ted assured us it was only 17 years so far so it was only on the second decade.

When talking to Ted about the bike trip, we agreed we could follow Ted in his car as our bikes were already in the jeep and he had a carrier for Elliptigo bike, the only bike he can ride since his knee – after multiple surgeries – will not bend enough to ride a conventional bike. This would get us to an old-age-appropriate trail. However, when we arrived Ted had a better idea.

“Let’s just leave from my house” he said.  “We can ride on a short carriage trail to a set of nice paths”  He might have said something about the first trail being a little rough – we don’t remember.

Bit of e-bike background.  For years Scott rode a ancient Veego he bought from fellow OWGRV’er Steve Van Meter.  On the last trip the bike let him down by running out of battery power, so he bought a Lectric bike like Tom’s Lectric XP3, but the newer model the XP4 .  One of the improvements over the XP3 is that while they both have bike locks, the XP4 does NOT require the key to ride.  They tout that as an improvement.  They are right.

As we get on the bike, Tom asks Scott where the key is.  “In the drawer in the RV where you told me to put it” was the reply.  It was removed when we locked the bikes outside at a prior campground. Shit!  Tom drove the 10 minutes back to the campground while Ted and Scott chatted.

Off we go, with Scott riding the XP4 for the first time and getting used to the geometry, new locations for controls like throttle and shifter, and finding the right settings for the seat and handlebars.  Was maybe 10 minutes before Scott fell – luckily wearing a helmet that Tom had loaned him as Scott’s OWGRV helmet was back in Pennsylvania.  When Scott mentioned his bad luck falling down, Ted responded that he had previously fallen for a living (as a clown)…

The trail from Ted’s house was, as Steve Van Meter would say “not what these bikes were designed for.”  Ted fell as well, and the least in-shape person – easily Scott – struggled to get the bikes up the hill, and everyone learned it is very difficult to get started riding the bike when going uphill.  The steep, narrow, rock-and-root covered trail was no trail for old men., especially while getting used to a new bike

We eventually made it to a better trail after a bit of busy-road riding, and the 3.5 mile long West River Trail was very nice – wide, flat, and along a picturesque river.  Unfortunately, Tom had a half hour long business Teams meeting and missed much of that portion of the ride.  Ted studied a map at the end of the West River Trail and plotted a “much better route” back.  We believed him.  A little more road riding, but much wider paths.  Supposedly.

Turns out we missed a turn and made it to the ski jump.  Scott was too worn out and bruised to make it to the reportedly spectacular view, but he’ll see the pictures on the blog when posted.  Then back to the turn we missed and some of the roughest trail so far.  Downhill, but very narrow and rock and root strewn.  As Tom and Ted flew ahead, Scott had a somewhat more serious fall and hit is cheekbone on a rock.  He screamed like a girl, and luckily Ted returned after a few minutes to extricate Scott from under his bike.  Back down the hill.

We made it back to Ted’s house with the score Ted: Two falls, Scott: Two falls plus one tangle between the pedals and his knee, and Tom:  No falls!  On to a too-short dinner with Ted’s wife Marybeth (who was delayed by work), then had to leave early to go to her Rock Voices practice.  The Kipling’s Tavern was full, service kinda frantic, but it was a good meal except for not having more time with Marybeth.

We were exhausted when we got back, but Ted gave Tom a “first one is free” puzzle from his company Hidden Wisdom Puzzles .  Tom managed to complete it in under two hours before going to bed – far faster than the average puzzler, we suspect.