RV Travels With Huggy

Our first stop on our recent RV trip was one of our favorite RV parks, the Icicle River RV Park at the Bavarian town of Leavenworth, WA. This park is about three miles up the Icicle River Road which is the first road you come to as you enter the town from the west on highway US 2 after coming through Stevens Pass. We did stop at our candy store, The Alps, but knew they had a bad fire there over this past winter and the building was totally destroyed. They are operating from one (soon to be two) small buildings that have been setup near the location of the old building but they did not have room for anything but candy. I bought some divinity fudge, Pat bought some cashew bark, probably our two favorites, at least in what they carry. They will rebuild and hopefully by next season be returned to full operation. It has always been a good place to buy toads and I am married to a toad collector. The previous photos that I posted of our tow dolly were taken here in this park and here are a few more photos to show a bit more of the place.


This shows our RV parked in space 100 which is right on the river. Our VW Bug is shown behind the RV. We used to travel with a Saturn which can be flat towed behind the motorhome but I traded it in on the Smart Car. The VW is front wheel drive (ours has a diesel engine with an automatic transmission) but it has to have it's front wheels off the ground when being pulled behind the RV. So, we had to buy the dolly. More on that later in another post.


This is a view looking alongside the driver's side of our RV toward the river which was right in front of the rig. This is one of the most popular spaces in this park due to the fantastic view of the river. Right now the river is running fast and high due to snow melt in the mountains. Of course the water is also very cold. We went to sleep every night listening to the rapids outside our front door. This view shows our slideout extended. When we bought this rig I wasn't sure if I would like having a slideout or not. So far, I really do like it as it gives a lot more useful inside room. Ours isn't real large and there is only one so the weight added is not too bad. As long as it keeps working as it should, I'll like it.


This view is looking downstream from an RV site that is a couple to the right of ours as you were looking at the previous photo. I think this shows the general lay of the land pretty well and a bit broader view of the river. The elevation of Leavenworth is 1200 feet so it isn't way up in the mountains although it does look to be when you see them all around you.

Our first morning there I got up, turned on the furnace to bring up the temp inside to a more comfortable level and started the coffee pot. Electric heat turned was off as I always do while the coffee pot is brewing. This was just after 6am, about our usual time to get up. At about 6:20, while watching the news on TV (cable in the park) and enjoying a cup of coffee, all our power went off. The only things we had running were the fridge on electric power, the coffee pot but it was finished brewing so just keeping the hot plate hot, and the TV. I may have turned the electric heater back on but it would have been just idling as the propane furnace made quick work of bringing the inside temp up from 56 to 68.

I went outside to check the electrical breaker at our campsite post but it had not tripped. Next I checked the inside breakers in the rig but the only one that could have turned everything off was the main and it had not tripped. I looked around but the campers on each side of us were not yet up. However, the lights were on on the porch of the clubhouse, just behind our campsite. We listened to the radio running on our small inverter, drank our coffee and got ready to leave. In town, we had a wonderful breakfast at Sandy's Waffle Haus (remember this is a pretend Bavarian town and that is the way they spell it) and when back to the campground, I hunted up the guy who maintains the place. He said they had every campsite double fused and reset the breaker that had tripped. It was inside a locked box on the side of the clubhouse behind us.


Here is that clubhouse and you can see the large breaker box on the side of the building. We hoped that would solve our problem. We went back to town, did our usual shopping, managing to only buy one thing each. But we did enjoy a lunch at what is probably our favorite restaurant there, Cafe Christa and even went back later in the afternoon to share a decadent Kahlua chocolate mousse cake like thing. Pat knows the name of it but she isn't here right now so I can ask. But it was VERY good! We also had mochas at Starbucks.

We were intending to eat at the rig, heating things from our freezer in the microwave, for dinner. Pat started heating the one that would take the longest time while we also watched the news on the TV. After the microwave ran for about three minutes, that d@#n breaker blew again. Now it was about 17:30 and the office was closed but I managed to find the volunteer on duty, told him of the problem, and he came with the key to reset the breaker. Again. Remember that box has a padlock on it.

Back to the RV, Pat restarted the microwave, this time with nothing drawing AC power except the microwave, and it is only a 1000 watt appliance. We were on a 30amp service so should have been okay for up to something like 3600 watts (120v times 30 amps) but again after three minutes or so, it blew the breaker! Me back to the volunteer who unlocked the box, reset the breaker and this time left it unlocked. (The park was not very full this time of the year on a weeknight so this was pretty safe. I knew exactly which breaker tripped and needed to be reset by now.)

Back to the RV. Pat had been thinking and came up with the idea that it seemed to go after a steady draw of power for about three minutes. So, she cooked our dinner using just two minute bursts of the microwave. This time it didn't blow the breaker again, and we were able to use the TV, the fridge on electric mode, the heater (all night) and the converter that powers the 12v lights, etc all evening without it tripping again. It just seemed to go with the draw of the microwave after about three minutes of running.

The next morning (Friday), as we were getting ready to leave the park, the maintenance guy came down to ask about it. Our conclusion is that perhaps that specific breaker has grown weak. He has extras and was going to replace it in the main box before the next camper arrived to use space 100. I was almost tempted to just give up on the campground power and use our generator to cook that dinner, but didn't want to pollute the area with generator noise!

Labels: Griping, Pat and I, Photos, RVing