T Minus 2 Days

Today has been (and still is) another rainy and sometimes blustery, day. This is day #5, with the forecast now putting us in these conditions until after our departure on Thursday.

Today (Monday) is Dave’s birthday and, while we aren’t doing cards or presents this year, I did get him an impromptu gift the other day at Harris Teeter. This morning he had HP Sauce with his breakfast for the first time in . . . well, a long time. There have been occasions when I’ve actually been looking for some and have been unable to locate any, so this was a totally cool surprise. Yes, it’s for Dave’s birthday but . . . well . . . he generously shares his “stash.” Yummy! 

Despite the rain, I accomplished quite a lot today. My first stop was the AT&T store; Dave now has a new phone. The second stop was Walmart, where I picked up a few items, including new jeans for yours truly.

One pair of jeans had to be discarded last week due to being just plain worn out through in a couple of places. Another pair I have just don’t fit now after my weight loss of 25 pounds over the past year. Not that I’m complaining, mind you! After searching through every single pair on the rack of the type that works for me (sort of a jean/legging combo), I was able to find 2 pair that fit. Went ahead and got both of them; they were not expensive (it’s Walmart, after all) and I’ve learned that when finding something that fits and is comfortable it’s not a bad idea to get more than one.

On my way home, I stopped by the local Pilot to fuel up the truck. Diesel was $2.149 with our RVPlus Card discount. Nice! Sure is less painful on the bank account to fill the tank at that rate.

I did manage to dump 2 of our 3 tanks today in between rain showers.  Instead of the usual gravity dump hook-up, we have to use a macerator at this location due to lack of proper ground sewer outlet.  This is a much more time-consuming process:

1. Unlock and open outside battery compartment.
2. Unlock and open outside basement door of the control center housing tank valve pulls.
3. Connect lead ends of macerator to battery.
4. Open tank valve.
5. Turn on macerator.
6. Run macerator 10 minutes.
7. Turn off macerator.
8. Close tank valve.
9. Disconnect macerator from battery.
10. Allow macerator housing and the inline fuse to cool down for 10 minutes.
11. Repeat steps 3. through 10. for draining another tank or continuing draining of same tank.

Due to the amount of time this takes, I don’t let any of our 3 tanks (2 gray and 1 black) become anywhere near completely full.

When hooked up to using the typical dumping system using gravity, i.e. sewer hose connected to ground sewer connection, this is the process:

1. Unlock and open outside basement door of the control center housing tank valve pulls.
2. Open tank valve.
3. Wait for tank to empty (less than 5 minutes even when full).
4. Close tank valve when tank is empty.
5. Repeat steps 2. and 3. for additional tanks.

Call me overly cautious, but I am reluctant to be out there connecting and disconnecting the macerator from the battery when it’s raining. Hence, trying to get this done in between spells of rain today. I did have to stop before I wanted due to rain coming on again.

Needless to say, I’m really looking forward to having a regular sewer hook-up again.

I started this post Monday night and now it’s early Tuesday morning. Dave woke up a bit early and has taken over the watch, so I think I’ll start heading to bed.

Not an exciting day, but a productive one.

Thanks for stopping by!