Last night, after washing up the supper dishes, I noticed the refrigerator making a rhythmic clicking noise, something it never does. Odd, I thought. After supper I went outside to set up the telescope….

and once the sun set I spent a lovely ninety minutes or so sharing views of Jupiter, Saturn, the Perseus Double Cluster, Albireo and M13 with the Robbins family. About 9:30PM, after everything was put away, I returned to the Little Guy and started the furnace against the 40F cold…..and it wouldn’t run! The fan came on but the furnace itself didn’t light (as happened a year ago when the sail switch failed), and so the fan would just cycle off. Also odd, I thought. And then I put two and two together, looked at the refrigerator again (the “check” light was on and the power source lights were off!) and realized I was out of propane.

Fortunately I am prepared for such an eventuality, having last year purchased a Mr. Buddy Heater (highly recommended! See the “Cupsuptic Campground” post) — so I fished it out from under the sink, attached a 1-lb. Coleman propane can, turned it on low and went to bed. I awoke at 2:30AM in a dry sauna, sweating bullets, the interior thermometer reading a torrid 76F; so up I got, turned off Mr. Buddy and returned to a fitful sleep. I had intended to get up at 7AM to be on the road before 9AM, but that wasn’t happening without propane as I knew that temperatures would be close to freezing tonight — so I waited until 8AM for the local Tractor Supply Company to open, drove the empty propane tank over there (about 6 miles), had it refilled, came back and installed it. I ended up on the road after 10AM, but the lovely Robbins family gave me free water with which to replenish my freshwater tank, so it was worth the short delay. The upshot of this whole experience is that apparently a full propane tank has about five cold nights worth of propane in it before it runs out, something I’ll have to remember for future trips in the shoulder seasons.

Anyway, I decided to spend my last Little Guy night of the season back at Peaceful Acres Horses farm, as I consider it a worthy cause to support and also because hostess Nanci is so gracious.

This time, I arrived well before sunset, so I was able to walk all the way to the top of the hill and admire the views, which are frankly spectacular — 270 degrees of gorgeous fall color. Photos don’t do it justice.

On the way to the summit I spied this sign:

I don’t know whether Carolyn is a donkey or a person.

There is a lovely pavilion near the top of the hill which with minor modifications could be a fine wedding venue.

Tomorrow I will be back home, the 2022 RV and scooter travel season concluded. Thanks so much for following along this year — I hope to be able to continue this blog in 2023. We’ll see where the road takes me!