Black Water

Coker, Alabama

Weather: low 49 degrees, high 85 degrees, clear skies, light breezes

We had a few things to do around the RV this morning before we went to Terri's house. The most pressing chore was to dump our holding tanks. They were chock full, and I didn't want to wait another day and have an accident happen. For those of you who have never lived in an RV, tank dumping is somewhat of an art form that has to be done in a certain way to keep the dreaded pyramid of crud from building up.

RVs are built to be able to be off the grid for a number of days. That means they have up to four holding tanks for the waste water, plus another tank for fresh water. We are not using the fresh water tank at this time since we are sitting in a park. Instead, we are hooked up to the park's water supply. While sitting in a park, we open our shower and kitchen holding tanks most of the time. However, there comes a time when the dreaded black water tank (think about what black water is) has to be emptied or dumped. When we know we are going to dump the black water, about two days ahead of that we close the shower and kitchen tank valves so we will have relatively clean water to flush the sewer line after dumping the black water tank. Whenever I am dumping the black water tank, I always wear surgical gloves because there is the chance that the hose will leak or fall off the outlet pipe. That means you have to grab the hose and try to put it back on, and it would not be nice to have black water (have you figured out what black water is yet?) running all over your hands. And it has happened. Yuck!!!!

Once the black water stops running out, I hook up a water hose to a connector under the RV and turn the water on to flush the black water tank clean. Then, the kitchen and shower tank valves are both opened to flush the sewer line clean. The whole evolution takes about 10 minutes, and we do this about every 10-14 days, all dependent on our use of the bathroom.

That's probably more than anyone wants to know about one of my tasks (yes, it is my job, although Carolyn can do if she needs to). Once you get used to it, the job is not that bad, unless a sewer hose comes off or a hose leaks.

Moving on to the rest of the day: We delivered a truckload of stuff to the Salvation Army as a donation. Then we had a couple other little chores to do in town before we could go out to Terri's house and get started on our work for the day. My big job for the day was to pressure wash the eaves and soffits on as much of the house as possible. I was unable to get to a small portion of the house because it was so high in the air, even with a tall ladder. In addition, I was unable to do the back side of the house because a bird is nesting back there. Since we are nature lovers, we will wait until she hatches her eggs and raises her young. Carolyn continued in the kitchen with the job she started yesterday. Progress is being made, but it seems slow.

More later, be safe.

Today's Town -Hot Springs Village, Arkansas: The Right Choice

Not all who wander are lost.