Day 39, Year 10: From Tennessee Back to the Carolinas
Date: Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Weather: Chilly from Tennessee to the Carolinas
Location: Back Home on Windbird in Little River, SC
It was 38 degrees F when we got back to Little River, South Carolina this evening, but thankfully that was twenty degrees warmer than it was in Mt. Juliet, Tennessee this morning. We drove from the Nashville area across the Cumberland Plateau, into the Tennessee Valley, and on to the Great Smokey Mountains this morning with snow on the side of the road and views of the highest mountains covered in white. And all this time, the thermometer never rose above the freezing point. Finally, as we descended from the mountains and drove into South Carolina, the temperature broke that freezing point–but regardless, it is cold everywhere.
We had a bit of a scare when we got back on Windbird tonight. Lee Kaufman had come over today and turned our little heater on. It was running when we got home but the inverter was not charging. That meant the power to run the heater was coming from our batteries and the batteries were already running low. And that meant we’d have to run the engine to get power to heat the boat. Mark launched into trouble shooting mode and finally realized that the power pedestal that we are plugged into had been turned off. That was an easy fix and a great relief. He flipped the switch on the pedestal and we were back in business with electricity. However, we weren’t really prepared for weather this cold because the way things are hooked up at present we can only run the heater on low without blowing the breaker. That means with outside temps in the 20’s we can only get the inside temp in the main cabin to 60 degrees F and the aft cabin where we sleep up to about 50. We’ll be fine with that until morning and then we’ll rewire things so we can run two heaters on high if needed. Or maybe we’ll go out and buy a Mr. Heater which runs on propane. Lee and Lynda Kaufman have one and are spending the night on their boat tonight to see how warm it will keep them. We will anxiously await their report in the morning.
Posted with this log are some miscellaneous photos from our time spent at Janet and Monica’s. We had a wonderful time and look forward to the next time we can visit them. Janet and Monica, thanks for putting up with us!
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| 141118 Day 39 Tennessee, USA–At Home at Janet and Monica's |
