We drove over Poncha Pass, hoping to see golden aspen trees. But they were just pale green.
But I did notice some in the side mirror and quickly stuck the camera outside for a shot.
Throughout the rest of our trip, we battled strong winds out of the southwest. When we arrived at Walmart in Alamosa, we were gobsmacked to see the solar panels had lifted themselves during the drive.
Ron had invented the system to enable the panels to be lifted from the ground, but it was not supposed to do it on its own. Yikes!
One piece of the aluminum framework had bent and it took both of us to bend it back. Ron temporarily tied it down with wire and will work on it in Mesa this winter.
For those incredibly handy people out there who are wondering about this system, he used pneumatic struts to raise it and gate latches to lock it down. Here's a picture of the aluminum framework without the panels. He still can't understand how the gate latch came open.
(That's our neighbor's house with the rooftop solar, not ours.)
Gobsmacked!
ReplyDeleteThat's a new vocabulary word for me. I wrote It down for future reference.
Murphys Law got into your solar panel latch. Glad there was no major damage.
Thank heavens you didn't go under any low bridges! You beat Murphy to the punch before he could make it a disaster. Good for you! Love it when Murphy strikes out. :c)
ReplyDeleteYikes is right! So many ways that could have gone bad, but at least it didn’t. Good reason to make sure you get your regular stops in and do a walk around.
ReplyDeleteSo happy you didn't lose them...Ron is an amazing engineer!!
ReplyDelete