My blog posts from Scotland were fairly ‘clean’ – apart from a story about the NHS (UK’s OHIP) requesting a stool sample from me, or an occasional scatological joke – but here in the RV, I am much closer to all the basics of life: heating, plumbing, fuel, car maintenance, and waste. And as this blog is primarily a record for me to look back on, I do intend to include things others may not wish to read, but which are part of my overall journey. Skip ’em if you prefer not read about waste. All kinds of waste.
This campsite is an electricity/water only site – there is a dumping station about 20 metres up the lane, which you use as you’re leaving the campground. I had already missed emptying both the grey (sink & shower) and black (toilet) tanks at Heidi’s due to a stupid 3’ hose, so I had no choice here; it had to be done. The dumping station was right in front of many of my neighbours, but my rig would be blocking their view, and if I left at a decent hour, maybe no one would see.
So off I went. I’m just going to share one piece of TMI: the black tank was pure liquid. For reasons we need not elaborate on, there was no solid waste in the tank (so that was a blessing). Got everything else taken down and put away. Pulled out of the site, pulled up to the dump station, got out, and got started.
First problem: I am too weak to easily remove the tank cap, or to screw on the hose coupler (clearly hand-, wrist-, and arm-strengthening exercises are on the table for the remainder of this year), but with gloves, I managed. Now that the hose was screwed in at the RV end, I extended it to the drain, which was a simple metal hole in the bottom of a shallow wok-shaped cement basin, about 1 metre in diameter. I eased open the grey water valve first for a minute (if there’s been a loose connection somewhere, you want to find out with soapy water, not . . . you know), then closed it (you want to end the whole process with grey water flushing out the last of the black water), and opened the black water valve (you want to open it fully and fast, to really flush the waste out). Well. Because the hole at the dumping station is just that, a hole with no fitting to secure the hose to, and because the tank was quite full, the waste (oh, who am I kidding here, just say it: the urine) came whooshing out causing the end of the hose to jump up out of the hole in the ground and start splashing pee everywhere in the basin. I got a hold of it (think: grabbing a running hose that’s swirling around on the lawn), and managed to direct it back down into the hole. The entire basin was soaked, as was the sewer hose itself, as were my gloved hands (wearing protective gloves hadn’t really helped, as the force had been such that the inside of my gloves got soaked). But it finished draining properly, so I closed the black, opened the grey (MUCH more slowly this time) and emptied the second tank. I then rinsed everything down, returned the hose to its bin in the storage area, closed up the cabinets, washed my hands seventeen times, did my final road check, and was on my way. All I can say is Thank Heavens it was urine only.
Edit: Got to my next stop and realised that in my gross-out at the dumping station, I’d forgotten to return the cap to the tanks and had been dribbling whatever remaining pee and soapy water there was all the way along Highway 7. Oops.