Doing it in the dark

By Paul ~
I didn't mean to become familiar with the inner workings of our RV in the dark. I just didn't bring a flashlight. And I didn't think I'd be doing much in the snow. But I was wrong. I had brought a headlamp, but couldn't recall where I had put it and knew the batteries were dead anyhow. And so three days after my primer from Holly's Dad I made my first attempt to hook us up into a full service campsite in Moab, Utah.

The RV park was dark, really dark. With my impromptu $300 flashlight/iPhone in hand I connected us to power. No explosion, things were good. Next came TV service. Got that nailed down. I was avoiding what would need to happen eventually, flushing the septic. I had no gloves, though I bet Bill told me where they are. You know iPhone aren't really that bright so instead of the septic I hooked up the water. In the dark that didn't go so well. I couldn't figure out how to attach the hose to the RV. The two parts seemed to be enormously different sizes. Since the hose wouldn't screw on, I just held it there to fill the tank. Hands wet and cold I kept thinking I was doing something wrong. But things were working just fine.

Note to rookie RV drivers. There are two places to hook up your hose. One is to fill the holding tank. I had found that one. The other, which I didn't find until daylight, allows you to screw the hose right onto the RV bypassing the water pump and providing an endless supply of water. Bill had told me that. Its in my notes.

And then came the septic. A few dilemmas besides the lack of light:
1. Hose was too short. Who puts a six foot hose into a motorhome bumper ten feet wide. I improvised by stretching out the hose and placing a rock on it to keep it from springing back. I was a bit freaked out knowing that if the hose did spring back when I pulled the drain, I'd have a lot to clean.
2. What did Bill say about black water and grey water? I wrote it down, but the list was inside and I wasn't going inside. Inside were questions and requests to do stuff and noise and chaos. I'd just sit out in the dark and try to remember.
3. When I did remember the valve seemed stuck. I was NOT going to break this thing, so I just kept pulling, and pulling, and pulling. And then with a giant suummp the tank started to drain. It had been a good ten minutes since my rock had been put in place. You know how in a millisecond you can think something really bad is happening. I had that thought. But unjustifiably so. The hose stayed in the hole, the rock stayed in its place and away went the waste. I was my own personal hero! And I was cold.