We returned to Albany from South Florida on Sunday evening and drove the RV to the Cummins service facility a couple miles away where we spent the night in order to drop the RV off for service early Monday morning (hoping they would be open on Columbus Day).

I had narrowed down the problem we were having to either a bad alternator or a bad voltage regulator, leading to an overcharging of the batteries and the shorting of several circuits in the electrical warning system. The manufacturer, Tiffin Motorhomes, had acknowledged that the problem should be covered under the warranty and had directed us to Cummins.

Since we had the day while the mechanics diagnosed the problem and ordered parts, we decided to drive up to Broadalbin on the edge of the Adirondacks to stop in to see the family home of our Keys neighbor, Col. Jim Brown. Jim had told me that the house had been a stop on the Underground Railroad during the movement to abolish slavery before the Civil War, but I hadn’t expected to see an historical marker at the place.

It didn’t appear that anybody was home, but we poked around just a little on the old homestead. Everything looked in order. You can see that the leaves are falling as winter approaches.

Jim had suggested that we also stop by nearby Nightengale’s Maple Farm, so we did. The maple trees were beautiful.

In the Spring, the owner of the place taps into the trees to collect sap…

…which runs through a total of 11 miles of tubing back to his distillation operation next to his homestead. It was a real spiderweb of tubing running through the trees.

We’ll be dining on waffles and pancakes with real Maple syrup for a while.