Today I became an RV Proctologist. Eh? ye may be asking. What be an RV Proctologist? And how did ye become one so fast? About three hours. Just think about it as giving a very large enema. ;-) I pulled out of my campsite at La Posa North with my trailer around 9 AM this morning. My intent was to travel the two miles to La Posa South where there are RV dump sites for black and gray tanks, and fresh drinking water available. It had been about three weeks since Id taken care of this vitally important chore associated with full time RVing. The black tank holds - well, ye know what kinda crap goes in theya - and the grey tank is for water used for washing dishes, taking showers, etc. Normally it takes me no more than an hour. But not today. Maybe because it was Monday. After pulling into the dump station I drug out my sewer hose and connected one end to the drain plug and dropped the other end into the hole leading to where the sun dont never shine. I opened the valve to my grey tank and, swoooosh. One minute later its empty. So far so good. Reaching over I opened the valve to my black tank. This is draining kinda shitty, I thought. The sensor had indicated full when I left this morning. I closed the valve and reopened it. Dribble, dribble, dribble. Well crap, I said. I closed the valve again and disconnected the hose. Grabbing a flashlight I reopened the valve and looked up the pipe being very wary of the possibility of an avalanche! I saw toilet paper far up the plumbing. Whenever I empty the black tank on my RV I then drop a cake of Porta-Pak down the toilet into the empty tank. These are used to control odor and turn waste and toilet paper into a slurry to prevent such problems as I was now experiencing. Id done exactly that a week before leaving Washington. But it had been a cold week with temps below freezing at night. Perhaps the stuff doesnt work properly under those conditions. The solution would be a dirty one.Thoroughly disgusted by this time, I grabbed the rinse hose used to clean up afterwards, a very large hose indeed, rolled up the sleeves on my shirt, and without even the courtesy of lubricant, rammed it deep within the bowels of my black tank, turned on the water and stepped back! An enema can be very effective if done properly and waste finally began to flow. 5 minutes later the water coming out was clear. Thinking this nasty job was finally done, I stepped into my trailer to check the black holding tank sensor. Still half full! What? Lifting the cover to my toilet and depressing the flush lever, I peered down with my flashlight. More toilet paper. And flushing was making it worse for the water level kept rising rather than the toilet paper going down. Plugged at this end too.The water hose was not long enough to reach into my toilet in the trailer. What to do now? Thinking a moment, I realized I had a broom with a very long handle in the closet next to me. No doubt the broom manufacturer never thought it would be used in this fashion, and no doubt I would need to buy a new broom afterwards, but need sometimes inspires ingenuity. Slowly, so as to not break the broom handle or drain pipes, I worked it downward. Amazingly it worked. I then proceeded to flush 20 gallons of water down the toilet to thoroughly clean my offending black tank, and added 2 Porta-Paks this time. And threw the broom away of course. That, my friends, is what an RV Proctologist is and does. :-) After rinsing and cleaning all my equipment, I then drove back to my campsite at La Posa North for a much needed shower and change of clothes. Full time RVing is a tremendous amount of fun but, like life, some tasks are unpleasant. In the nine years Ive owned this trailer this is the first time Ive experienced problems with the septic system, and it may be another nine before this occurs again. But Ive learned more about my trailers various systems and components in the last 4 months of full time RVing than in the previous nine years. Never a dull moment out here on the road. Now Im off to buy a new broom. ;-) HoboKen HobosAcre
Posted on: Tue, 19 Nov 2013 00:46:42 +0000
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