There are real benefits in living in an extremely rural area.

Today we took the truck and camper into our local auto repair shop to have the electric systems checked out.  The guy spent quite a while diagnosing the problem.  It turns out that the truck charge line is only putting out 8 volts instead of 12.  This causes the relay in the camper to overheat and turn off every few seconds.  Then it cools down and makes contact until it overheats and the cycle is repeated.

The electrician spent quite a while diagnosing the problem… and didn’t charge us a penny for the diagnosis!

He is coming to our HOUSE Monday to diagnose what exactly is wrong with the charge line.  Then he’ll know what parts he needs to order.

I think the reason is that he and his wife are looking for a used Casita, and he is really enjoying poking through ours!

In addition, we spent over an hour today excitedly talking about the Indian artifacts he has found on his property along a river in Alabama.  He and his wife spend countless hours looking for them.  They have found broken pottery, arrowheads, knives, spear points and all kinds of interesting things.   He said the Hillabi Indians has a settlement on his property, and it wasn’t that long ago.  He has discovered that the old fire rings are usually within 50 yards of the river.  So he and his wife take rakes and rake back the forest debris looking for rocks that show discoloration from old fires.  Then they rake down about 4″ and find the old fire ring, and usually find fragments of arrowheads and pottery.  He also found a spearhead stuck in a tree with the tree growing around it.  He said in four more years, the spearhead would probably have been completely buried inside the tree.

He said one man from the area donated his extensive artifact collection to the museum at Cheaha State Park.  Afterwards other local people donated their collections.  They can be seen by visitors to the State Park.

Then somehow the subject of mushrooms came up, and he was off and running again.  He said he and his wife have been very interested in learning to identify mushrooms, but they didn’t know where to start.  I told him about the very best books in my collection that would be a good start for them, so I’ll give him the names and authors when he comes here Monday.  I forgot to tell him that there is also a great mushroom club in Alabama.  I’ll be sure to have that info for him when he gets here.

He also said that he could replace our damaged stabilizer jack, install the 3 stage converter with smart charger that I want someday, and he can install the high lift axle and 15″ Load D tires that I want when the time comes.

He is a godsend, as far as I am concerned.  And what fun to make a new friend who is passionately interested in some of the things that I am passionate about!

Also, my new MiFi is here, and I love it.  What I especially love is that when I camp with my sister, she can share my internet access without my having to remember long strings of security codes and passwords.  All she will have to do is enter the password numbers that are right on the MiFi device.

That’s great because the whole reason I got the MiFi is that I couldn’t get the old security codes and password on my old Cradlepoint aircard router to work.  I called customer support where I bought it, but it is out of warranty and I’d have to pay for the online help.  It was much cheaper to get the new MiFi.

So things are really looking up for us!!!!