We had a really interesting and fun weekend…when we weren’t worrying about electrical issues with the RV! If you’re interested in the details of that, it’s at the end of the post…feel free to skip it if you’d prefer. I’ll start with the fun stuff!

Saturday was a bright, sunny day with temperatures in the 30s. Chilly for Virginia, but warmer than home! We drove about an hour to Charlottesville VA with two destinations planned…Monticello (Thomas Jefferson’s home) and the University of Virginia. We took a guided house tour at Monticello, and it was fascinating. Our tour guide was excellent, and we both learned so much about our 3^rd president and author of the Declaration of Independence. We were really impressed with the very balanced presentation, given the contradiction that Jefferson lived every day, having penned the words “all men are created equal”, but enslaving over 600 people at Monticello during his lifetime. Here’s a man who impacted human rights around the world with the Declaration of Independence, founded an exceptional university (University of Virginia – UVA), fought hard for religious freedom, and called slavery a “moral depravity”, all while directly profiting from slavery and fathering multiple children with an enslaved woman.

Monticello means “little mountain” in Italian, and the hilltop location offered views of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Charlottesville, and the UVA campus. I’m sure the view is really amazing in the spring, summer, and fall! Jefferson was a self-taught architect, and he incorporated much of what he saw in France and Italy when designing (and redesigning) Monticello, which was built in his retirement years after his two terms as president. I’ve always found it so interesting that Jefferson died on July 4^th, 1826…exactly 50 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He died at Monticello and is buried on the grounds. You might recognize the building from it’s presence on the back of the nickel!

From Monticello, we headed to UVA to check out the original “Academical Village” (interesting new word I had never heard before!) which opened in 1825, and represented Jefferson’s vision for the university. The architecture is simply beautiful! The rotunda was the library originally, and the other buildings lining the east and west sides included classrooms and living spaces for both students and professors. Edgar Allen Poe lived in one of the rooms for his one year at UVA, until he left because he ran out of money to continue. Interestingly, the “Academical Village” sits on land once owned by 5^th President James Monroe! Monticello and UVA are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Sunday morning, we had brunch at a cute little restaurant in Richmond with one of my former co-workers from Home Properties, Jeff, and his partner. Haven’t seen him in almost six years, after working together for 11 years, so it was fun to catch up over a yummy meal!

After brunch, at Jeff’s suggestion, we took a drive down Monument Avenue in Richmond. There are lots of large concrete pedestals that no longer have any statues on them, or that are in the process of being jackhammered out after all of the protests and controversy in the past few years. Never having been there before, we can’t compare to what it used to look like, but it seems to have gone through quite a transformation. And the homes along Monument Ave are beautiful!

We headed to the botanical gardens where they were having a Bonsai exhibit, and enjoyed walking through the conservatory. The Bonsai trees were pretty impressive – I’m always amazed at these miniature replicas that people are able to create! Sunday afternoon brought the end of our electrical issues, thankfully, and a nice walk around the campground (chilly, but nice!).

Today was our last day in Virginia, and it was another rainy one…so unfortunately, overall, the weather was not our friend for the past few days, but the forecast for our next stop looks beautiful – warmer and sunnier! Looking forward to it!

And now the details of the not-so-fun part of the weekend…read on if you’re interested…

The electrical issues started during the night Thursday, when the power in the RV went out briefly during the night. We blamed it on our electric space heater, thinking maybe it was having an issue that was tripping the GFCI outlet (which is then tied to all outlets in the front portion of RoVer). So we went to Target on Friday and bought a new heater. Tried that on Friday, but the same issue was happening. It was annoying, but livable because the GFCI could be reset and power would be okay for a while (until it tripped again). Overnight Friday it was worse, so we stopped at a nearby Camping World store on Saturday to see if they had any experience with issues like this, or knew of any solutions. The tech said he’d seen it before and sometimes heaters could send a bit of a power surge that could trip a GFCI…so we decided to buy a surge-protected power strip to plug it into, in the hopes that would prevent the surge from hitting the GFCI. Saturday evening, plugged the heater into the power strip and things were good for a while, but then things really went wonky. The GFCI kept tripping and couldn’t even be reset some of the time. The TV went out, which isn’t linked to the GFCI. The microwave was flaking in and out. UGH. Fortunately Mark had packed an extension cord, and we ran that from one of the outlets in the bedroom to the power strip to the front of the RV so we could keep the heater going (with the unseasonably cool temperatures here in VA, we really needed the space heater to supplement the furnace and avoid having to run the furnace nonstop which would then mean we would run out of propane). Mark didn’t sleep well, between worrying about the electrical issues and monitoring our propane levels.

Sunday morning we managed with our limited power options and then headed out to meet friends for brunch. When we returned around 2pm, there was no power to anything – microwave was out, TV was out, everything kaput. Mark went to check the electrical box that we connect into (“shore power”), and as he flipped the circuit breaker there, he could hear crackling. Hmmm, seems like there’s an issue with the campground power supply. So we walked to the office and told them what was happening; they sent someone over, and he said he’d replace the circuit breaker. The electrical box has both a 30amp hookup and a 50amp hookup. The RV is 30amp, but we have an adapter that allows us to connect to a 50amp plug and when Mark tried that, no power. The campground guy wanted to check it, so Mark put the adapter on and plugged it in, and the guy flipped the breaker…and it was fine (Mark was using the wrong breaker for the 50amp; oops). So, what we think happened is that the circuit breaker on the 30amp line was slowly going bad from the time we arrived, and eventually just died on Sunday. Here we were worrying that there was an electrical issue in the RV (gee, who would have thought we’d have any issues with the RV?!?) and it turns out that “shore power” was the problem all along. Ever since he switched to the 50amp circuit, we’ve been fine – over 24 hours. Thank goodness! What a relief (oh, and the campground guy is going to replace the 30amp circuit so the next campers don’t have any issues!)