Tuesday April 26

First, Costco replaced my glass frames at no charge. They happened to have one identical frame in stock. That was a blessing.

Tuesday is our 42nd anniversary. The day wasn't all that rainy so I got under the 5er and tried to sort out the brake problem. Everything, including the controller readout, was now totally normal. I couldn't duplicate the problem. That bummed me because of the risk of future failure. Murphy's law hinted the problem would surface again at the worst possible moment. Working on tracing wiring on one brake I notice the tire tread was separating. The tires had all looked fine at every stop on the way north. When I pulled the wheel off I noticed the tread on the next two tires didn't look right either. Those two were in early stages of separation. The result is three new trailer tires, an unexpected $450 expense. A verse crossed my mind. "Where goods increase they increase that eat them." How true.

I pulled the wheels to take them to a tire shop. I had been reluctant to pull a brake drum in the rain for fear of getting a bearing wet and/or dirty. But while a wheel was off and only a light drizzle fell I decided to pull the brake drum and see if I could notice anything in the actual electric brakes that looked suspicious. Sure enough. I found a wire with the insulation worn through where it touched a moving arm. The wear was not significant, but enough to show a bit of wire which would short out the brakes when it contacted the brake arm. I happily re-routed the wire and am optimistic that will fix the intermittent problem. Earlier I was bummed about the additional tire costs. After finding the worn wire I became grateful for the additional tire problems because they helped me find the probable cause for the brake failure. Tires are cheaper than a wreck. My prayer has been that any problems would surface now rather than on the remote stretches of the Alaskan Hwy. Thus no murmuring. It is now 8:20 PM and time to try to locate the anniversary card I bought for Paulette. I somehow misplaced it in the events of the past two days, and hers to me is sitting as yet unopened under my nose.