Friday, February 1, 2019

The sum total......

8:23 am - Friday - February 1st - Winslow, AZ - 33º F, 74% humidity, wind 1 mph out of the northeast......sunny today with a forecast high of 60º F.

The sum total of our Thursday activities was dumping our gray and black tanks.  As you know we are at the Elks Lodge in Winslow which only provides electrical hookups, so what do we do with our accumulated effluent?  This is the first time in quite a long time we have had to move from our campsite to dump our tanks, only to return to our site.  Usually when we dump we are moving onto somewhere else.  The last time this occurred was in 2013 when we were visiting Washington D.C. and staying at Greenbelt National Park.  There we had NO hookups.  There was a dump station on site, however, but it was on the other side of the park from where we were camped. 

I had done some research and determined that the local Flying 'J' Truck Stop had a dump station, but they had no water with which to flush our black tank.  There was a potable water hose bib about 30 feet away, but that would necessitate us running that amount of hose across three fuel lanes.....not feasible.  On our way home from Flagstaff Wednesday we discovered that the local Maverick Truck Stop also had a dump station, and a non-potable water hose bib right there, however, it did not appear they had potable water source.  We needed to take on fresh water so here was our plan.....drive first to the Flying 'J' (1.6 miles away), fill up our fresh water tank, then drive back 1.6 miles on I-40 to the next exit where the Maverick station is and dump our tanks.....fool proof right?  Not so much.

By 9:20 am we were rolling our wheels (sans the trailer and VW) over to Flying 'J' where we added 90 gallons of potable water to our 160 gallon fresh water tank.  Easy-peasy so far.  We then drove 1.6 miles back to the Maverick station to dump our tanks arriving there just a few minutes later.  I quickly hooked up our Rhino Flex sewer hose to the sewer connection, and then connected to the non-potable water hose bib.  I pulled the valve handle to dump the black tank, then went to turn on the water, but got NO water.....wait, what?  I sent TLE in to inquire about the malfunctioning hose bib at which time we were advised it was 'broken'.  Hmmmm....what to do....we need to flush the black tank, but the only water source I have is the 160 gallons of potable water in my fresh water tank.  If I used that we would have to drive back to the Flying 'J' to fill the tank all over again, however, TLE found out the Maverick station did have a potable water source right there at the station, so problem solved.  I used the water I had just added to the fresh water tank and flushed the tank two times.  We then moved about 50 feet over to the potable water source (located on one of the truck fuel islands) and refilled our fresh water tank for the second time Thursday.

From the Maverick it was just a 1.2 mile jaunt straight south, on the same street where the Maverick is located, to the Elks Lodge down on Route 66.  By the time we got home, and reconnected to the electrical it was after 11 am, and I was ready for a nap!  We had planned to head directly out to retrace our 'steps' to Petrified Forest National Park since the Federal government has reopened, but by the time I was finished napping it was well after 12 pm, so we decided to postpone our return the Petrified Forest until Saturday (Friday we have an appointment to have some work done on the Beetle).

TLE whipped up some amazing quesadillas for dinner to cap off a great day of relaxation, and that my friends was the sum total of our day.....thanks for stopping by!


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