Saturday - Fort Stockton

Fort Stockton RV Park

Fort Stockton, Texas

May 11, 2019

Thunderstorm last night. Real West Texas thunderbumper. Fortunately it moved through in a hurry and only rained for about an hour instead of all night like the forecast.

Woke up this morning really tired and realized I’m dealing with the stamina issue again.

Yesterday I had to dump my holding tanks. I’ve got what’s called a macerator. It’s like a garbage disposal that attaches to the outlet and pumps the waste through an inch-and-a-half hose. It’s light and easy to work with.

But the best laid plans...I hooked it up, plugged it into the power outlet, turned it on…

Nothing.

What’s going on? I used it before I left? About an hour’s troubleshooting--including verifying the socket was the culprit--required multiple trips inside, outside, and under the bed in the coach trying to find which fuse had blown.

Nothing.

I turned to the old fashioned way. This involves using a heavy collapsible hose with special fittings. I carry it for times just like this, so I pulled it out of the storage tube and prepared to hook it up.

I was missing the fitting that attaches to the campground side. A diligent search of all my storage yielded one of two results--

1. Either it was right there under my nose and I needed Andrea to find it and say, “It was right there all the time”...or,

2. I hadn’t packed it. A much more likely option.

Plus there was another problem. The intake was about 10 feet further away than my hoses would reach. (carefully censored language.)

I was facing the dreaded option...unhook the car and drive to Walmart. Unhooking the car is not the dreaded part. I’ll leave the rest to your imagination (ever seen those videos?) A call to the campground store saved me. They had a fifteen foot kit.

Walk to the store, Buy the kit. Carry it back to the coach. Spend 15 minutes hooking up and stretching out the hoses (they’re brand new and quite stiff.) One more trip around the coach. Get out my stool so I can reach under the coach. Hook the hose to the outlet.

Finally--dump the tanks. Leave hoses hooked up until tomorrow.

Put the stool away. Go back inside. Pour a Topo Chico (man, am I dehydrated.) Lie down. Look at updated weather report. Rain all night and all Saturday. Stowing hose is a mess in the rain.

Go back outside. Get out the stool. Unhook the hose. Lift it up so it completely drains. Unhook the fittings.

Did I mention the hoses are collapsible? And that they are new? Another 20 minutes of multiple tries to get them collapsed down to the original unextended size (I’ll spare tender ears the description of the thoughts that accompanied this task.) Stow them in the compartment. Go around coach. Put stool away. Go back inside.

Did I mention I was very tired after I finished? How about you after reading it? What should have been a twenty minute job--at the most--turned into an afternoon ordeal.

An hour’s rest, a good meal at the cafe, a Robert deNiro movie and I fell into bed.

Did I mention I woke up tired this morning?

Note to self. Buy a long 12 volt cord for power if this happens on a future trip.

Till then…

Thanks for yonderin’ with me