We didn't have to wait until tomorrow to see what happens next. About ten minutes after I finished last night's entry, we heard a loud sort of a "Thud!" and suddenly the generator quit. I grabbed an umbrella and went out to see what was wrong. I got the generator started again right away, but shut it down until I could figure out what had happened. I walked around to the door, and Jonna was inside looking aghast as smoke began coming out from the cabinets under the sink and the oven. We got the fire extinguishers and stood ready as I opened the cabinet doors and more smoke came rolling out - but I couldn't find any place where anything was burning or smoldering or even hot. We had lost our 110 volt power since the generator had shut down but still had twelve volts for the lights and such.

I spent the next hour trying to find anything that was smoking or hot or might suddenly burst into flames, but couldn't find a thing. To make a long story a bit shorter, we spent the rest of the night sort of taking turns sleeping, with a hand on the fire extinguisher all night. Nothing else happened and nothing else seemed to be wrong.

In the morning I decided that since nothing else seemed to be amiss I should put in a shorter day walking and then find an RV dealership where we could possibly discover what new calamity had befallen us. I made it to Winfield, then we motored on ahead to Augusta, which was the nearest place that we could find with an RV repair shop.

It turns out that the power converter - yes, the same power converter we had just replaced back in Denton on the 30th - had fried on us. The good news is that we should eventually get the price of the converter back under its warranty. The bad news is that we had to shell out almost another four hundred bucks that we couldn't afford right now - and won't recover the cost of labor for putting another one in.

Some years back we had friends who farmed all of their lives. During the summer and fall they would stock up on all their produce, and they had a huge freezer that they'd fill with chickens, turkeys and every imaginable part of a pig. The wife told us once that they would never worry about anything over the winter and early spring until they roasted the last turkey. At that point, it was time to worry. And that became a standard phrase around their house - which we adopted. When things looked bleak, they'd say, "Well, we haven't roasted the last turkey yet."

Ladies and gentlemen. we have now roasted the last turkey. Today we sent the last $2,000 of the money we had available for this trip to our bank back in California in order to cover the expenses we encountered today and the bills we have yet to pay for this month. When that's gone, the last turkey will not only be roasted, it will have done its duty as turkey supper, turkey sandwiches, turkey salad and turkey gravy. We will have only a wishbone left. If we had the five grand we paid the ne'er do well for the first camper we bought we would probably be fine - but since the courts have no real way of enforcing the judgments they hand down, we may not see any of that for a long, long time.

So once again, and more pointedly than ever, we come before you with hat in hand. If you can help, please do. More importantly, if you can do some public relations for us and let whatever media you can think of know we're out here, please call on any contacts you have - because that is the surest way for us to tap additional sources of income to keep Nessie's wheels rolling.

As I've said before, I will complete this walk no matter what, and we have contingency plans that we don't want to employ - but will if we have to. We think that what we have left will get us through Missouri. At that point, we'll be at our daughter's place in Hannibal. If we can't come up with additional resources by then, we'll return to the Tucson-to-El Paso operation; Jonna will stay behind with Nessie and the guys in Hannibal and find some employment, while I continue on to Washington on my own. We reallyreallyreally don't want to have to do it that way, but will if we must. Your help can make it possible for us to complete the journey together. Thanks.