Day 21 – RV Summer Road Trip
I guess I shouldn’t have bragged about me doing such a great job being in control of the RV yesterday. First of all, let me tell you that it was so hot and humid that after we took showers and went outside, we started dripping with sweat. The one thing I don’t miss about the east coast is surely the humnidity.
After 4 loads of laundry and sweating like pigs, we were ready to hit the road. The kids couldn’t wait, it was so hot, they were miserable.
Since we pulled into the campground after hours last night, the office was closed and I just pulled into a spot. This particular spot had electric hook-up but no sewer. No biggie, I could just dump before we left.
After we were all packed up and ready to go, I drove over by the office where I would dump the tank. My sister-in-law and I were working together like a well oiled machine, we were in sync and moving quick. The hose was all hooked up on the camper and the other end was securely fastened to the tank in the ground. I pulled the handle to dump the black water first, that would be all the solid waste in the tank, and it started to flow. What happened next was UGLY.
The connection at the camper broke loose. Within seconds I plunged over to the camper to reach the handle to stop the flow but…there was already “crap” everywhere, literally. All over the ground, my legs, the side of the camper, it was a mess. The kids were all watching out the window and laughing hysterically. This mom did NOT find it very funny. They asked if they could take a picture and I screamed, “NO.” Looking back, I wish they would have taken one because you just can’t imagine what a mess it was.
My sister-in-law and I just stood there for a few seconds in shock, did this really just happen to us? No one was going to offer to help us on this one so we were forced to handle the clean-up ourselves. The darn hose at the dump station couldn’t reach underneath the camper to rinse the ground and it had absoluetly no water pressue to aid in the clean-up. Between the heat, the smell and the mess, mom was NOT a “happy camper”.
After about a half an hour, the clean-up was complete and I was a mess. I went back to the showers and stood in their with clothes and flip flops still on. I felt so disgusting, I couldn’t get the water hot enough to even feel somewhat clean. When I emerged from the shower, the clothes and shoes went right into the trash.
Back on the road, I was pretty quiet, the kids were afraid to make fun of me in fear of their life! It wasn’t until we hit the outskirts of St. Louis did I start to loosen up and joke around with them again. Of all the things that could have gone wrong with the camper, what we went through that morning had to be the worst.
Putting all the crap behind us, we made it to the arch in St. Louis.
The kids thought it was so cool how you can go up into the arch and down inside of it. We could have spent more time there but it was so hot, everyone wanted to just get back into the camper. Since the weather put such a damper on site seeing, we chose to just drive. The kids watched some TV and a few movies and we pretty much drove until 2 in the morning.
Our overnight spot for the night…a Walmart parking lot, how exciting!