An instant update: we are still in South Bend, ID, one week now. We think the battery & solar install will start tomorrow!

Now for the rest of the story!!!

On Aug 3rd, we continued our journey to Wheaton, IL. One of the things we want to do on our adventure is to travel the backroads, stay off the interstates as much as possible, to slow down and see rural America, on the roads less traveled. 

We started this leg of the trip from Wesby, WI. We took Hi-way 61 South to Dubuque IA, then worked our way down to Savanna, IL. We were quite impressed with the rolling hills(?) on this stretch. It must be absolutely stunning when the autumn leaves are at peak.

At Savanna we started heading east, main route being Highway 52 & 64 to I39, then a few miles south to east I88 to Wheaton. Got set up at Blackwell Campground, I still had to deal with no power to the slide out, well sort of, it moved 6" then stopped. I climbed under the trailer and removed an access cover, found the motor in question. At the factory they had connected the wires together with a crimp wire nut and only had maybe 5 strands of one of the wires in the crimp. It must have been arcing ever since we've had it and finally just burn its self thru (see below). We quickly located a hardware store to buy some threaded wire nuts, then ran over to say hi to Mark & Mihaela, Starr's brother & his wife & their kids, exchanged a round of hugs with everyone, then back to the campground so I could finish fixing the motor issue, which I did, and must say the slide out has never work or sounded better!!

A rest area near Galena, IL, picture does not do it justice!

One broken wire!! Arrow shows where it's suppose to be!

Next installment will be the Labor Day weekend with the Goldfeld's (Starr brother)