June, 2019
This is an ugly sight. In fact, it can ruin your whole day.
For those of you who don't recognize the items in this scene, allow me to explain. Every modern RV has three holding tanks onboard. One is for potable water. When you're not hooked up to "city water", as most RV parks offer, you can still bathe, cook, soak your head, whatever, using the water in that reservoir. Second is the grey water tank. That holds waste from the sinks and shower — everything that goes down a drain. It's not drinkable, but neither is it toxic. The third tank holds the "black water" which, as you might guess, is connected to the toilet. That's right, you carry the contents around with you. Campsites typically provide either a central "dump station" where you can... well... dump your gray and black water tanks, or they offer "full hookups" which includes a sewer connection at each site where you can run a flexible pipe (which you also carry around with you) from the RV, thus allowing you to empty any or all of your tanks at will. These hookups might be located beside your vehicle when you pull in or they could be at the back of the site. And to make it a little more interesting, the discharge port on your RV might be anywhere from the very front to the very back. Each manufacturer has their own way of doing it. The bottom line is, you never know how far you'll be from the utility connections until you get there. Got all that?
OK. The photo above shows the sewer pipe and the discharge port under the trailer to which it connects. Nothing ugly about that. Usually that hookup is an RVer's friend, as it allows us to live a fairly normal home life, plumbing-wise. But here's what happened in this case.
We had pulled into our campsite in Cherokee, NC, which is in a gorgeous, pristine, unspoiled area adjacent to the Smokey Mountains, and just up the road from Harrah's Cherokee Casino and Resort (to which none of those adjectives apply). Getting set up at an RV park involves the following: park the trailer, unhitch the trailer, level the trailer, open the slide-outs and straighten up everything that moved during transit (and, believe me, everything moves during transit), hook up to electric, water and, of course, sewer services.
The photo above was taken after the trailer had been parked, unhitched and leveled — normally the most time-consuming jobs — and many of the other points on that list had been seen to, but not the last one. What you see there is a sewer line that's about 4 feet short of achieving its worldly purpose. The utility services at this campground were way at the back of the site while my sewer connection is toward the front of the trailer. That gap is not what you want to find after a long day on the road and all that setup. That's the ugly part!
And did I mention that the black and gray water tanks were nearly full from a 5-day stay at a friend's house? (I've been trying to get him to add a sewer hookup for me, but for some reason I've had some push-back on that.)
Granted the chances are probably pretty slim, but if you ever find yourself in this situation, here are the choices you'll face: 1.) Re-hitch the vehicle and try to get it closer to the sewer connection, then re-level and pretty much re-everything else; 2.) Make a run to Wal-Mart (in this case, about 25 miles away) and desperately hope they have the sewer line extension that you need; or 3.) ...Just hold it.
In case you're wondering, I opted for a combination of 2 & 3: limited potty visits and a Navy shower (you know what that is, right?) until the next day, then a trip to Wal-Mart. And yes, they had a sewer line extension (things like that are mostly made it China, so of course Wal-Mart had it). Under NO circumstances was I going to move the trailer after all that work. It was a point of pride.
Oops, I almost forgot the happy ending.
It was a nice park in a beautiful part of the country and after that rough start, we spent a very pleasant week there. Had a good meal or two and a great hike in the mountains with a clear rushing river and a couple of waterfalls to enjoy.
The place would have been perfect if Wal-Mart had been as close as the casino.
Leave a comment below ⇓
Your ‘voice’ is sounding a bit like Richard Bach on occasion ~ that’s pretty cool as far as i’m Concerned ~ so happy for you that you are getting to embark on this adventure ~ and that you have a great traveling companion. I will be anxious to hear what happens next! Be safe and have wonderful adventures … well … story telling worthy anyway..