07-11-09

Sleeping at Wal Mart was pretty good. Other than the music from the car dealership it was fairly quiet.
I took a shower and have a new problem. It’s not a huge thing, but quite annoying. The water temperature drifts from too hot to too cold about every three seconds. If it was a bit too hot my body could adjust. It if was too cold I could adjust, but back and forth is borderline torture. “Ouch!...bur!...ouch!...bur!” but I did get clean.
I fueled up and washed my windows at the Flying J. It was very busy and a tight fit, but I got in and out easily. It was almost fun. My truck driver training is helping me immensely.
I headed west. Snow capped mountains slowly came into view on the horizon. I was excited and they were beautiful. It was fun to see them get bigger and bigger as I drove closer. The terrain started to get hilly and I to adjust my driving. I now watch my temperature gauge like a hawk. It would go up when I would climb larger hills. When I go up, it goes up. When I go down, it goes down. It was a hot day; 91 degrees.
I pulled in to Sheridan Wyoming in the afternoon. I spotted a car wash. I still needed to wash the coolant off of my Jeep. There was a Wal Mart right there, so I pulled in and found a nice spot with a grassy field on one side.
When I unhooked my Jeep I remembered that the locking hitch pin that I had was bent and I had switched to the original non-locking pin. The tow bar cost $900 so I didn’t want to leave it unlocked. I went into Wal Mart and bought a new, better locking hitch pin and installed it.
I drove my Jeep to the car wash and all around Sheridan. It was nice to cruise about easily in a small vehicle.
Sheridan is a fun western city. It was Rodeo Weekend. Many businesses had signs welcoming cowboys and fans. I found it fun that the Perkins was open 24 hours a day for 3 days only special for the rodeo.
It was nice to finally have a day with not much to do. I was looking forward to relaxing back at the bus.
While running the generator I blew a circuit breaker running too much stuff at once. This was an often occurrence. I was learning what things I could run at the same time. I opened the fuse box panel, but none of the circuit breakers had tripped. I tried and failed to figure out what was wrong. I now had no 120volt power, no regular plug ins, microwave, air conditioners, TV and no way of charging my laptop, camera, or MP3 player. It was hot and I was frustrated. I just wanted to relax.
I’m learning to cope with problems and kept fighting. Eventually I found a circuit breaker right on the generator, outside in the front compartment of the bus.
The bad times make the good times all that much better. Happy, I turned on the air, watched TV, and worked on my laptop as it charged.