Monday, April 29, '14

My pictures of Meteor Crater have still not made it to my email inbox!  So I'll wait to talk about it until they do--should be this afternoon.   I had about a dozen pictures, and got greedy and emailed three at a time.  Usually I send two because they come through faster.

I forgot to tell you about an interesting event Sunday morning.  I had taken a shower, had my french toast, and was starting to wash dishes when my smoke alarm went off.  (It is in the ceiling above the kitchen area, and has gone off before when I was cooking.)  I opened windows and turned on the house fan, but it kept buzzing.  I took the battery out, it kept buzzing.  Opened the door, waved it back and forth, walked around to see if I could smell smoke, it kept buzzing.  Finally I called Forest River (Manufacturer) Roadside Assistance.  The nice guy walked me through everything I'd done one more time, then asked whether I had a carbon monoxide alarm.  I said yes--and remembered how loud the alarm had sounded standing by my bed.  The CO alarm is located near the floor in the base of the bed--sure enough, that was what was buzzing.  I hit the reset button and got blessed silence!  Felt dumb and very relieved at the same time.  I meekly thanked the guy and turned off the fan, closed windows, and started to faintly smell gas.  Stove was fine, fridge was running fine on electricity.  But I had turned the water heater on to take a shower and left it on to wash dishes.  The strong winds must have blown the pilot light out, because as soon as I turned the water heater off the smell disappeared.  Another valuable lesson learned!

I'm off to the painted desert and the petrified forest this morning.  I'll make a stop in Winslow (hmmm with me) on the way back.