10 Feb 2019 - Water Heater Issue, H-E-B, Iowa Game

10 Feb 2019
Uneventful Sunday in Corpus Christi.  Slightly warmer today and no rain, plus the wind has died down.  Woo hoo! 

Somewhere out there is the bay!

The warmer temps has caused the fog to roll back in, though.  At least it stopped raining!  We had a nice long walk with the dog this morning and then went for a drive which included a stop at H-E-B for a few items.  We wanted to do another roast in the Instant Pot so Doreen got all the fixin's to do that.  With the visibility obscured we did not go for any sight-seeing today.  Dense fog advisory again tonight with lows about 58F.  It is supposed to be nicer tomorrow peaking out about 67F but still cloudy.  We may see the sun Tuesday and then Wednesday we head south to my sister's in Mercedes TX.

We got back to the campground and I dived into the water heater troubleshooting.  I have never used the water heater in the gas mode for any length of time other than just checking that it works.  Normally we use it in the electric mode as electric is included in our site fee.  The only reason I tried using propane yesterday was to conserve our electric load since we are only on 30 amp service here.

Turns out the problem was likely my own impatience.  I suspect we had air in the gas line.  When you turn the water heater on in the propane mode, it attempts to lite three different times, and if it does not sense flame, it locks out.  Then you have to shut it off and then turn it back on and it will go through that sequence again.  I did that once yesterday, but apparently there was enough air in the line that I needed to do it more than once.  Anyway, it is working fine.

I did discover an issue, though, and ordered parts to correct it.  One of the terminals on the thermostat is burned and could fail such that the electric mode would not work.  Glad that I found this before it created a failure or worse.

While I was working on the water heater, Doreen was making an enchilada soup which was really good.  We finished up the day watching Iowa basketball squeak one by Northwestern on a last second three pointer!  We may head out to visit the Corpus Christi Aquarium and the Corpus Christi Museum tomorrow.  

One more picture - this is a picture of our Garmin GPS that Doreen took as we headed out the north gate of the Naval Air Station on Ocean Drive a few days ago.  Notice the elevation!  I think we better get the scuba gear on!