RV Life: Gifting

Living a new life in an RV has made a few gift-giving opportunities! As Pops and I celebrated our 12th Wedding Anniversary this weekend, we went the "practical yet, funny-haha hardy harhar" route! I am pretty certain that this is the appropriate type of gift for the 12th anniversary anyway. I was sweating bullets over the possibility of "china," "crystal" or "clocks." Pleased that we can stick to the appropriate gifts on the list!

As we learn to best use our new home and care for the facilities, we have found re-newed humor in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. In particular the phrase, "$h!++er's Full!" is a current favorite.

Pops is thrilled with his new gift to help him with his task of emptying all of our tanks.

"Sewer Hose Support" is what I so lovingly offered up as an anniversary gift to my beloved. I really love him just THAT much!! Pops really prefers practical gifts it seems, anyway.

So, maybe you don't live in one of these recreational style homes. Maybe you've never had the opportunity to spend a weekend in one of these beauties. Maybe you have, but never helped out with the task of emptying the tanks. So, you might be wondering what's the big deal and why wouldn a person need or want one of these things!

Well, you see - we have to dump many tanks! Our rig has 6 holding tanks. We have one tank to hold fresh water (we don't ever "dump" this one!) and our other five tanks are for waste.

1. Black 1 holds hmmmmm, sewage, toilet water from the full bathroom
2. Gray 1 holds waste water from the shower, the sink in the full bathroom and the washing machine
3. Galley holds waste water from the kitchen sink.
4. Black 2 holds the sewage from the half bathroom
5. Gray 2 holds waste water from the sink in the half bathroom and from the little sink in the outdoor kitchen.

All told, that is a LOT of waste water to dump! We really try to conserve water so that we do not have to dump all the time and so that we are good stewards of our earth. We are definitely on the front side of the learning curve, but getting better!

Anyway, most of the time, the sewer hose goes down from the trailer connection, runs across the ground and over to a sewer connection. Most times, the sewer hose has to go back up to make the connection to the sewer pipe that is in the ground. This means that the waste water will sit in the pipe instead of fully draining out.

So, with this hose ladder, the hose angles away from the rig at a gentle decline. If you do not have one of these little devices, you have to pick the sewer hose up near the trailer and gently maneuver it so that the hose empties completely. This can be tricky since the hose is expandable!

Let's just leave it at this: Pops is happy to have this chore simplified!

Happy Anniversary Pops! In case you didn't before, you know I love you NOW!

Ch!tter's Full!