Mid August adventure

Hello faithful readers!
(Hey to y’all that just come by now and then :P)

Today was packed full of adventure (problems) and I reminded myself several times that I really should be blogging more of my adventures, so here we are.

I did all the big packing last night, like I always do, so I only had a few key things to pack and put away this morning. I ran some errands, got those done, and proceeded to make ready, bring in the slides, and hookup.
I was camping in a park, on the lake (BEAUTIFUL site, AMAZING view!) but it was water and power only, no sewer, so I had to stop by the dump station on my way out, no big deal.
Well, it was a big deal (ominous music here).
I got to the dump station, got lined up just right the first time (Easy to do, there’s a big concrete strip in asphalt where your dump tube goes!) and hooked up my sewer hose. I pulled the black tank handle (Always dump the black tank first!), and watched with a silly satisfaction as the liquid quickly filled the hose and whooshed away (sound effect here). That lasted of all 10 seconds, and then, a slow, tiny, brown trickle (I hope you’re not eating while reading this!). Trickle, trickle, drip, drip, nothing.

Ok, no problem, just a clogged valve, I can handle this! I quickly cycled the valve gate several times in an effort to dislodge the stoppage, no help.
I hooked up the sewer flusher hose (having a built in sewer flusher is AMAZING) and turned it on… no noise, no sound, no flow inside.
The downside to doing this solo is that I have no one to tell me what’s going on inside, or to turn valves outside, while I do the other thing, so I have to walk around the RV, go inside, wipe my feet real good (hey, i’m solo, not an animal!) and look/listen for signs of my sewer flush system working. Nothing. No sound, no movement of water under the toilet flap, nada.
So I go back outside, disconnect the hose, check the water flow, and it’s flowing fine. Great. Take the elbow connector off, and find crud on the screen washer between the elbow connector and the hose fitting into the RV. Awesome, little screen did it’s job, I clean out the mess, verify the screen is good to go, and put it all back together. Now we have water flowing through the sewer flusher pushing the clog out, right?
Walk around the RV, get in, wipe my feet, go into the bathroom, look/listen. Nothing. Nada. Zip.
Go back outside, walk around the RV, look at hose connection, scratch head, shrug, turn hose off, move hose to sewer line flusher. Turn on full blast, turn on little connector between hose and sewer connector, and…. psssss….. little tiny spray of water. That little rubber piece inside? All smashed up. Yay.
Ok, fine, next idea. Close black tank valve. Connect city water connection. Turn on city water connection, walk around RV, go inside (wipe feet), go into the bathroom, point very bright flashlight down toilet bowl, press pedal to the floor, and watch water swirl into the tank. Hold this position until tank is almost full (doesn’t take long, it was FULL when I started, and only let out a little).
Great! Go back outside, open black tank valve, grin as waste goes WHOOOOOOSSHHHH. Awesome.

Tank empties, I close valve, go back inside (wipe feet), fill up tank with toilet again. Takes forever, play on facebook and search on indeed while I stand there. Side note, there are no jobs for pedal holder, but plenty of jobs around pushing a pedal. I’m clearly overqualified.
Tank is full, go back outside, open valve. Big whoosh, mostly clear, much happy. Hear metal tinkling sound, think, “THat’s not good…”, turn to sewer connector in ground (less connector, more hole at ground level that you drop your elbow connector into) and watch as the ground burps up my connector, shoving it two feet to the side, and then spews… waste.
I take a BIG step back, close the black tank valve, and watch as the ‘water’ overflows the concrete drain area and into the grass area around it. It was at this point I took note of the much thicker, greener, taller grass in the middle of the small valley where the runoff was going, and it suddenly dawned on me… Yeah.
So, I scratch head some more, text the park manager, and attempt a couple of ways to unclog the drain. All failed, all made more mess, so I simply diluted the water until it was clear around the drain and didn’t stink anymore. I cleaned up my hoses, hung them on the back steps to dry while I drove, and pondered my next move.

Whew, we’re over the worst of it now, right? Wrong.


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