Today, I had my first mishap with the black water tank. I shoved one end of the hose into the ground where it goes, opened the hatch and \ I connected the other end to my rig. I pulled the handle and got muck all over my hand and sleeve, my shoes and the compartment where all the exterior connections for the plumbing live. I quickly closed the lever again and rinsed everything off with the “never drink this NON-POTABLE water” spigot. Now I know why that’s there. Once rinsed, I could see what happened, only two of the four pins had engaged the neck of the hose. Lucky for me the two on the front were the ones that caught, or I’d have been rinsing my teeth!

Okay, deep breath, make sure the connection is right all the way around, and open the lever again, and immediately the nasty stuff was flowing back into Mother Earth. Circle of Life, and all that jazz. I tried to figure out how I could have made that mistake, and realized how hard it is to really see up in there--on a very bright day--and this fitting is inside a compartment, well below the strike zone, and I had felt the two pins catch—assumed I had them all. I must bring a flashlight along next time I dump. Changed my clothes and shoes, and had a hot shower in the bath house near the lake.

I had a lovely day hiking around and sitting by the lake in the rain. Just before I drove the seven miles back to my primitive campsite at The Devil’s Tombstone, I went off in search of a fresh water spigot with the threads on the outside to accept my garden hose, so I could fill my fresh water tank. After a little driving around, I found one, and hooked up my sweet shorty jumper-hose to the longer fresh water inlet hose, and began the tank fill process. This includes walking around in circles with my hands in my pockets if there’s no one around to shoot the breeze with, while I wait to hear water running under the rig out of the over flow. That’s the sound of a full tank. Good thing there was no one around because I was thinking as I walked around, and slowly turned to look at that shorty connector. I have no idea if it was fouled in my morning mishap. So, I may have just introduced E. coli, and I don’t even want to know what else into my fresh water system.

OK, so NOW I understand why the inlet for the fresh water was in such an out of the way location high up above the sewage hook ups. So, I’ll be emptying the tank and flushing some bleach through the system and hoses. Hot water heater too, I guess. Bah! When I get back to a cell signal and can do some research, I’ll find out the best approach. This is RVing 101, kids. No. Make that Inro to RVing—101 will be next semester.

PS: Later that day, after thinking about it, I completely emptied my fresh water tank, and my water heater. Drained them until the water pump began to complain. Then, I bleached my hoses, rinsed them well, rinsed them again, and refilled the fresh water. I hope that takes care of it. And nothing might have got in there anyway, just being doubly sure not to make myself or any of my guests sick.