I know, I didn't blog about the first day, but it'll be in here, I promise. AND I will add photos tomorrow. I'm beat but wanted to get the update out there.
I left home around 9am Saturday with 6 hours of driving ahead of me. Had to get propane and gas, so stopped at my favorite family-owned store. Olear's
Then off on I90 I went. The drive wasn't bad at all. We made good time, everything was working, etc.
We stayed at a RV Campground called Tomorrow's Stars. Not sure if there is a famous person connection or not. I verified with them last week that the water would be running. And, it was... just not cleanly. I ran the hose for 7-8 mins without much clearing and figured, what the heck. I'm only going to chlorinate it and dump it in the morning anyway.
The water was disgusting but I didn't plan on doing anything with it.
Queue 11pm and the sounds of drip-splash. I turned on the light in the bathroom to it flooded. The flooring around the toilet and into the towel cupboard, flooded. The flooring below... flooded.
After some quick expletives I went into action. Outside I went with flashlight in hand to see if I couldn't drain all the water from the fresh tank. Frozen. More expletives. Inside I opened all the faucets and turned off the water pump. Okay, that at least slowed the dripping enough that I could put a metal bowl under it and call it a night.
Instead of going right back to sleep I headed to Youtube for help. Firstly, I needed to know what was leaking. Easy enough seeing there's only one place TO leak. The valve. Okay. Changing it out looks simple enough if you're a contortionist and right handed. I'm neither. But with good knowledge and an idea of where I can go to get a new valve I went back to sleep.
Morning dawned CRISP but sunny. Much nicer than the 9 degrees at home.
Leelu and I had our coffee and headed off to Camping World to get a new valve. Ben and I talked through the logistics but I was sure I could do it.
An hour later I had a new valve in hand and a parking spot in a large parking lot. Let's get started.
First. Remove the main water line in. Easy enough.
Then, remove the screw that hold the ensemble in place. This, folks, is the dumbest placement in all of everything. It can be removed with either a socket set or a flathead screw driver. That's peachy and all, but you can't get either back there to do the thing. Thank heavens Ben had given me a socket set before I headed out that had the bendy bits. Shut up, I'm not a tool person. :D
Once I sweated and swore a bunch I had the screw out. Yay.
Now to depress the two tabs that hold the ensemble into the toilet. I finally got a screwdriver pushing down on the top one and the wrench without a socket on it pushing up the bottom one. Phew. Got it.
Remember I said there's a clamp. Yeah. Well, this was nearly the end of the camper as we know it. I had wire cutters and screwdrivers in there prying and doing whatever I could to get the stupid thing off the hose. I made it, but dang.
With all of it apart it was time to do everything in reverse with the new valve. First, use a NEW hose clamp with a socket-able screw. Check.
Push the new valve into the toilet. Check.
Screw in the new screw. Cue all the swears. There has GOT to be an easier way. This thing is at JUST the right angle and hidden behind JUST the right amount of plastic that you can't get to it. But, I'm nothing if not persistent. By now I'm dripping sweat, Leelu is covering her delicate ears for all the vulgarity flowing across my lips. But we have one last step. Screw the water inlet back on.
Done. Done. Dun.
I was supposed to be staying at a farm, but all the shenanigans made it impossible. Instead I'm in Union Missouri at a Walmart.
Two day driving totals:
13 hours
834 miles
1 Aldi trip
Tomorrow I am going to try the water again at a Love's camping area. It should be lovely and I'll have water and electric.
Sleep well.
Mom
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