Yesterday I was moving rather slowly. I pinched a nerve in my neck, probably an overuse issue from washing and waxing the coach with my arms up and my head tilted back. After I posted to the blog, I ordered a small pizza to go from the Red, White and Brew.

I spoke to Donna on  the phone. She was on her way home from Albany, New York and waiting for a connecting flight in Chicago. Everything seemed to be on schedule. I was looking forward to her return home around 8pm.

When I picked up the pizza, I remembered there was a car show down the street from us at the Apache Wells Community Center. After lunch, I scootered over to the show.

It seems like I’ve been running into live music everywhere I go lately.

There were several rows of cars on display.

Some of cars really caught my eye. I didn’t take photos of all the cars I liked, but I’ll share a couple that I thought were really cool.

This 1962 VW Beetle with the canvas sunroof was a real beauty.

And it had a super-clean hot-rodded engine with dual Weber carbs, 2180cc.

I didn’t know what to think of this next one – it’s a motorcycle with a side car powered by an inline 6-cylinder car engine.

I spent about an hour looking at the cars. Then it was time to get stuff done.

When I returned to the coach, I thought I should take a look at the 6-volt battery bank that powers the house 12-volt system. We have a bank of four 6-volt deep-cycle golf cart batteries. These are flooded, wet cell type lead/acid batteries. The batteries are wired in pairs. Each pair is wired together in series – positive to negative. In effect, this creates a big 12-volt battery. Then the two pairs are connected together in parallel – positive to positive and negative to negative. This creates an even bigger 12-volt battery. Wiring in series makes the voltage additive; i.e., 6 volts plus 6 volts equals 12 volts. Wiring them in parallel makes the capacity (amp hours) additive, but voltage remains constant.

The flooded wet cell 6-volt batteries require maintenance. Our inverter charges the batteries when we are on shore power or when we run the generator. The electrolyte in the battery is 35% sulfuric acid and 65% water. The water will evaporate when the battery is being charged. Periodically you need to remove the caps and look at the electrolyte level. The lead plates inside each cell must always be completely submerged in electrolyte. If the plates are exposed to air, they will be damaged.

If you need to add water, you need to use distilled water. Tap water or drinking water contains minerals that will build up and eventually short the plates. Never add more electrolyte to a battery. Only the water evaporates, so only distilled water needs to be added. I use a turkey baster to add distilled water to each cell.

I need to clean the dust off the batteries. That’s a chore for another day.

Donna made it home around 8pm. She had a great trip. She says the housewares show in Chicago was amazing and she met with some interesting people including a buyer for the Camping World catalog and representatives from the Home Shopping Network and QVC. I’ll share some of the goodies she brought home tomorrow. She also enjoyed visiting her parents who live west of Albany, New York. From all accounts, they are both doing very well although, like most people in the Northeast, they are ready for winter to be over!

We watched an old Quentin Tarantino movie called Jackie Brown last night. Donna was jet-lagged and barely stayed awake to the end.