I have a new respect for mechanics. It always seemed ridiculous that a shop could keep a vehicle for the better part of a week and then tell me all I needed was $30 worth of replacement parts. Why does it take a week to figure that out?

Apart from the fact that the mechanic likely has more than one car in the shop, it also takes serious time to trace electrical problems. And there are a lot of wires in an RV. Like, I’m pretty sure an RV is really just a giant collection of wires being held together by a big box and an engine.

The good news is that we’re all fixed up! Dad crawled around inside and outside the RV for a good two days to figure out the problem. He replaced a fuse and the solenoid (a mysterious black box that adjusts the amount of power going into the house batteries), so now we’re getting power and charging the batteries like we should.

He’s also welded the trailer, helped us lower Ryan’s motorcycle, fixed some other cosmetic issues on the bikes, fed us amazing breakfast (he makes his own bacon) and dinner everyday, and has two refrigerators stocked with beer. He also does carpentry.

We’ll stay in Southern California for the week. This area was on our itinerary anyway, we’re just here sooner than we had planned. We’re going into LA and Pasadena today to check out a couple of museums and visit friends. More soon.