We’ve been at this full-time camping gig for about two and a half years now, and you’d think we’d had enough experience to avoid making any mistakes. Well, you would have to think again, as I’ll explain with embarassment.
When we left our campsite in Gaylord, MI, we emptied our black tank but couldn’t flush it and didn’t fill it with two and a half minutes worth of fresh water (as is our normal routine). By doing this, the water sloshes around and helps clean the tank as we drive to our next site. Unfortunately, the fresh water hose at the Gaylord park’s sewer dump site didn’t have a fitting to which we could attach our black water fill hose. No problem we thought. Once we arrive at our next park, we’ll simply fill and flush out the black tank before setting up at our new camp spot.
The dump site at the new park had a spectacular double-dump station with four fresh water pedestals. Each pedestal had a hose coming out of a large mechanical spring, which allowed the hose to be easily maneuvered in any direction. MFI skillfully positioned Arthur next to one dump inlet, and I hooked up a pedestal hose to our water inlet to the black water tank. I filled the tank for our standard 8 minutes and flushed it; then filled it for two and a half minutes in order to keep it wet and dissolve the sanitizing/deoderizing tablet we add. Let’s just say, somewhere in the process I became distracted.
We had no idea there was a problem until we pulled away and heard a distinct snap and clang. “What the hell was that?” The answer dawned on me as soon as I posed the question. I got out of Sid knowing exactly what had happened. There, still threaded onto the end of the pedestal hose was our inlet fitting, broken off cleanly from where it normally enters the side of Arthur. I felt like such an idiot. We try and maintain a follow-the-checklist mentality when performing the various set-up and tear-down processes, and this is exactly what happens when important steps are overlooked.
If we ever wanted to flush our black water tank again, then we had to get this fixed, and fast. We were only planning to stay for three days, so time was not on our side. We immediately went to the nearest Marine supply store and mechanical shop hoping such a fitting could be purchased off the shelf. No luck! Then we got smart and googled the nearest RV repair shop and got lucky. There was a repair facility just an 8-minute drive to the southwest. Bingo!
We drove over to Sault RV & Trailer Sales and Service and met their parts manager, Katie. She grabbed her catalog and located the part we needed, then jumped on her computer and searched where she could not only get it, but get it quickly. Of course, she couldn’t guarantee the part would come on time, but she clearly did everything possible to make it happen. We approved the cost of over-night mail service.
We went off and played tourist, while hoping we’d have the part in time for our departure. We broke down our camp and prepared Arthur for the next leg of our trip. Katie had called and let us know the part was scheduled to be delivered in the afternoon. The RV park agreed to let us leave later than normal. We drove to the repair shop on our way out of town, and the part had indeed arrived. We fixed it in their parking lot. Only took us several minutes, and we were whole again.
Katie turned out to be an incredibly caring and persistent employee. Had she not taken the time and committed herself to getting this part on time, we would have had to stay longer and get a new short-notice RV site reservation. Not all that difficult, but just an added level of stress we hoped to avoid. Thanks to Katie, we were on the road again. She was just terrific.