Gearing up for Spring!

Now that I have a campsite and a date with real hookups I am looking forward to spring. On the weekend of April 3 (Easter) I will be in a place with full hookups and de-winterizing. I know it is a risk, but I also know how to drain my fresh water lines, quickly, if I need to, for a day or two. 

Some people around here are still insisting on a “Mid-May Freeze,” but I for one think it is worth the risk. I should be fine come April to have indoor plumbing again. 

Another challenge is that one of the people convinced that things will still freeze is the truck stop that I typically dump my tanks. While they will always let you dump your tanks, they have turned off the fresh water and won’t turn their water on until the May long weekend.  

This will leave me with the better part of two months to find some other way to get fresh water. My three little bottles of water coming from work will not cut it anymore. With showering I will go through more than that. I will ask around at other truck stops to see if some place will turn their water on sooner than that. 

I know that I could just pull up behind work and fill up here, like I did last year. I won’t do that, because I promised my boss that I would not bring Wanda on work property, as I don’t want to cause a problem for work. Even for just a little bit in the middle of the night, I won’t risk any problems for my boss or work. 

For the next while (after I de-winterize) I will top up my full water tank with the bottles of water and perhaps haul water twice a day just to keep things going. Naturally I will conserve water as much as I can, but I won’t give up my shower . . . I miss it. 

The other thing I have been doing to gear up for spring is to put my grey water down into my black water tank. This is to have some water down there to slosh about and clean the tank a bit. I will be draining soon and I will not fill it, but about ¾ full. 

They tell me that if your blackwater sensors are not reading right (mine are reading full at all times) then do this trick, fill the blackwater tank with water ¾ of the way full and drive about, stopping and starring. This should cause the water to slosh about and knock loose any ‘items’ sticking to the sides of the tank and perhaps blocking a sensor. 

I have also had fun using the inverter and Wanda’s batteries to run my laptop for hours on end. I will continue my trick of running Jenny every other day during the week, but on the weekends I am home more so I will use the laptop and thus the inverter more.