There are days when it seems everything goes right, then there are those days you wished you had stayed in bed. We all have those days, most of us get through them without much hair pulling or without murdering someone. But since I have started the road to menopause, I find that those days are more and more challenging. Living in an RV makes them even more so when things don't go as they should. Of course, as a Christian, I try to have Grace and handle little problems with dignity. Sometimes though you can't help but throw a little tantrum, just to relieve some stress. That is fine if you have a house and most of your neighbors are gone to work during the stresser - when you live in an RV, your neighbor is on vacation and most likely home at the time you are trying out a new vocabulary in your "back yard".
I have recently come across a problem however that no matter how hard I try it tends to be reoccurring. The dreaded black tank. For those of you who don't know what that is, the black tank is connected to the toilet and the sewer by the sewer line. It is there holding water and basically all your crap until you dump it out. Now being a Newbie, I was under the impression that when you are parked, you could open your black tank valve and leave it open while using the facilities. No need to fill it right? I mean, you are parked and everything goes right into the park sewer while you are connected right? WRONG! Apparently this is a common misconception with new RV'ers.
I found this out the hard way. One morning when my Celiac Disease was particularly bad from eating out the previous day - I found that after relieving my body, the toilet was not flushing right. What I mean by that is that everything that is supposed to disappear down the little hole, wasn't! I filled the bowl with extra water, and tried several times to flush the offensive material down into the sewer with no avail. I glanced at the clock- 4 AM. Great. Now what? The only civilized thing to do was fill the bowl with water and wait to see if things settle down on their own. I waited about 15 minutes and attempted to flush the remaining liquid mess down the sewer. Success - sort of. It was out of the bowl, but not going completely down the sewer. As a matter of fact, if I held the toilet valve open with my foot (commonly known as the flusher), I could still see the contents of my indiscretion right there at the top of the line. Waiting, as if to say to me, "I know what you did last night"....and the smell was enough to send a grown man packing!
It was then that it occurred to me that mine was not the only little package stuck in the black tank. There was obviously more from previous deposits that was refusing to take the little journey down the sewer hole. Deciding not to deal with it at 4 AM, I went back to bed until a decent hour when I could make the trip to the RV Super Center down the road. At which point I bought some "waste eating" chemicals, and asked the knowledgeable salesman what else I could do about my situation. The first words out of his mouth were condemning, "You did keep the black tank valve closed while parked didn't you?"
Uh.....well......um......."no"
"Well then you have a solid mess on your hands that will take some time to get rid of. Use this chemical for about 4 days then try to flush again, if you can't get things to move down the line then go ahead and close the valves up, fill the tank with about 2 gallons of water or about 5 bags of ice cubes, disconnect and drive for a while. The ice cubes should break things up. Then just connect again as usual and flush the system. Once it is clear, CLOSE THE VALVE, fill the tank with another 3 gallons of water and put another dose of the chemicals in there and use as normal."
"And if that doesn't work?'
"Better get one of these tank sprayers so you can wash out the tank."
During my $50 purchase, I realized something. This was one crappy day from beginning to end.
I'll let you know how things go down.....stay tuned....
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