Day Two: SPAM-tacular

Alternate (but ultimately rejected) title: Ruh-roh [in Scooby Doo voice]

In my previous post I said today would be a shorter drive.  While technically correct, it definitely felt like it was a lot longer.  Cross-country through Iowa and southern Minnesota is…well let’s just say…BORING.  Lots of a straight, relatively flat roads through countryside filled with mostly nothingness, except cornfields.  Cornfields, more cornfields, followed by more cornfields.  And after that, some more cornfields.  Oh look, a slightly different cornfield!  Did I say cornfields?  No?  Ok, well, there were LOTS of cornfields!

Fortunately, I broke the trip up with a stop at the SPAM museum in Austin, MN.  This is a quirky, but somewhat interesting little museum.  And, it is free.  The workers, the SPAM-bassadors (that’s what they call themselves), are annoyingly friendly, but it‘s part of the whole shtick.  I didn’t stay long, partly because I was preoccupied with a van technical problem (see next paragraph), but I did buy a cookbook, a magnet, and of course, a can of SPAM.  I opted out on the SPAM putter head cover, the SPAM flyswatter, and the SPAM sunglasses.  A SPAM T-shirt was tempting, but that would be too much, even for me.  For lunch afterwards?  Why of course, a SPAM-which.

Note the SPAM "train" at the top, which meandered throughout the museum, including the gift shop.

Everything conceivable SPAM.  These SPAM peeps have a sense of humor.

 

SPAM is sold around the world.  Surprisingly, it's very popular in Asia, especially the Philippines.  So much so SPAM created a special flavor for that market: Tocino.

My haul.  I couldn't resist the SPAM with bacon.  Wait...isn't this essentially pork with pork?  Works for me!

The SPAM-bassador in the gift shop said her favorite recipe was on page 55. "It's delicious," she said. Might have to try it with a recommendation like that.

After lunch I tackled my technical problem, which involved the house electrical system.  Specifically, the battery didn’t seem to be charging.  The day before I remember thinking that the charge was a little lower than normal but chalked it up to simply using more power than usual.  But, when I left for the museum, it was only at 52%.  Since it had been sunny all morning and I hadn’t used any power since I left Clinton, IA, the solar panels should have charged the battery more than that.  Hmmm.  After some investigative work, I discovered that the toe of one of the rubber boots I had hanging in the “garage” had bumped the button on the circuit breaker for the solar panels and tripped it.  What were the chances of that happening?  I reset the breaker, and the solar panels immediately started charging the battery.  That was easy!  (Of course, I’ll need to find a different location to store the boots.)

The boots were hanging on a hook above this breaker.

Off to my final stop for the day, another Harvest Host location, Take 16 brewery in Luverne, MN.  Just to be safe, I switched on the DC to DC charger, which charges the house battery from the van battery/alternator.  I normally keep this off for a number of reasons, but mainly so the solar panels will be the primary charging source.  While the drive was only 2½ hours, it seemed much longer.  Not only were there more boring roads through…you guessed it…cornfields, but it was extremely windy (sustained speeds well over 20 mph).  Driving a big van like Ansel in high winds was not much fun (I got a sense of what it must be like for semi-truck drivers).  To top it off, the winds were directly out of the south and most of the drive was on I-90 which goes due west.  The wide open…wait for it…cornfields didn’t do much to hinder the winds either.  Then it started to rain.  Perfect.

After arriving at the brewery, I checked the battery charge level, expecting it to be at least 85%.  It was only 59%!  What gives?  I knew the solar panels wouldn’t charge much since it was cloudy most of the way, but the DC to DC charger should have bumped it up quite a lot.  I first checked all the breakers and fuses on the electrical panel.  These were fine.  I got out the electrical meter and started checking various loads.  The ones I checked were fine.  Since the problem seemed to be with the DC to DC charger, I pulled out the manual to see if that would help.  Eventually I discovered that there was no power to the charger from the van battery.  Ah-hah, we’re getting closer!  I pulled off the battery cover (which is located under the floor in the driver’s compartment…not easy to access) and checked the cables to the charger.  No power.  I then disconnected the cable to the charger and pulled off the lug fuse.  It was blown.  Bingo!!  I didn’t have a spare fuse so just direct connected the cable to the van battery (there is additional downstream protection so no concern doing this), and the charger was now charging the house battery.  Whoo-hoo!  

The blown fuse.

 I went into the brewery.  Time for a beer!

The brewery is so named because it is located on US Route 16.  While less known, and less nostalgic, than Route 66, it is a historic route that once connected Detroit with Yellowstone National Park.  See Wikipedia article.