I don’t empty the grey & black tanks at every campground. It’s work, it invites soupsies & poopsies, the tanks are supposed to be at least 2/3 full before emptying to ensure good ‘flush-age’, and I’m one person – it takes days to fill those tanks.
The campground I’m at now, Shubie Park in Dartmouth, doesn’t have sewer lines at many of the sites, so instead, three days a week, they come around and pump out your tanks for you. You don’t even have to be there – they just come along, hook up their truck, and deal with your waste. Nice.
So I booked to be here over one of those days, Saturday. But I hadn’t really thought that out. It will have been quite a few days since the last flush out, and I’m starting to worry that I will have left it too late. Particularly the grey tank. Washing dishes, washing hair, and showering all really add to the grey tank. And you can’t throw dishwater out onto the lawn – that attracts wild animals. So for the past three days, I have tipped the sink’s waste water down the toilet, to at least make sure I have enough space in the grey tank for my showers. But I noticed it was still getting higher (this is a gauge on the wall – I’m not peeking down any drains or anything).
That’s led to a new hack: when it’s time to pack up, I have to turn off the water from the city line (the hose). So first thing I do is open the kitchen faucet, then head out, around the back of the RV, and turn off the spigot from the campground. That results in between one and two litres of water from the time I open the kitchen tap until the hose drains – most of the time it just runs down the sink drain. I am so worried about the grey tank filling up and the shower stall flooding with dirty water, that I have taken to capturing this runoff in an empty bottle, and saving it to use later in my tea, or more likely, just travel along with me until the tanks are finally emptied and I can pour it away. I know have two full 4-litre bottles of clean water sitting in a cabinet.
The dump service comes today while I’m out – thank heavens, as both tanks are registering Full and I’m rationing water like a Californian in August.
Going forward: Must pay more attention to tank flushing!