Do we stay or do we go?

We STAY!  Would you believe Sault St. Marie has had 24 inches of rain since Memorial Day? Geesh! We had about two inches of rain yesterday and overnight. It's extremely wet and soggy here, but the rain is supposed to move out later this afternoon. We decided we would stay one more day and wait out the high winds that are occurring today in Munising, MI. Munising is really where we would like to go next. There is a beautiful city park there, right on the shores of Lake Superior. It's first come, first served, so we will get a fairly early start Sat. morning to get over there. It should be less than a two hour drive. Although it's too cold to swim, it's still a beautiful lake shore setting. You are just a few yards from the shoreline. It's only $25.00 a night here at Aune Osborne, so it makes sense to just put in another day at this great rate and wait for the winds to subside. No sense in traveling the highway in high winds!

portable dump tanks in different sizes

We are full on our grey tank (dishwater and shower water) which shouldn't be, so that presents a problem. We apparently didn't completely dump the grey tank at Hidden Ridge, so in two days, it filled back up again. Every system is just a little bit different, and although the handles look the same, (you just pull it out to let the water drain) the way the water drains may not quite be the same. Sometimes there is a secondary rush of water as it drains into the hose--you have to wait a bit for it to happen, and Eldy thinks he didn't, so that's why we are reading "full". So we are going to rent a little portable dump tank for five dollars, drain the grey tank, then pull the little dump tank by hand over to the dumping station at the campground. (We don't have a hitch on our car) It will probably take about three or four  trips to get the RV grey tank dumped if we decide to completely empty it. It's a 60 gallon tank, so we may dump just enough to get us through one more day here at the Aune Osborne campground. There are no sewer hookups at Aune Osborne (it's too close to the river) so that's why we have to get the portable dumping tank to clear our grey tank. Ordinarily, we should be able to go at least five days before needing to dump it. We certainly don't want the grey water coming back up into our sinks and shower, the last time that happened it stunk so bad it took an hour to clear the air!

So here's how it went--First, we had difficulty with a new sewer hose that we purchased at General. One valve end is simply twisted on with Vaseline and a plastic collar (yeah, you know where this is going, don't cha?) and a "screw" cap. The screw cap doesn't screw into the portable dump tank, you just push it in, so we had to hold it on by hand. Somehow the valve cap stem came apart, and we both tried to "screw" it back on, but you are not really screwing it on, just twisting it. In the process, we got Vaseline all over our hands and all over the handle of the little dump tank. Despite wiping our hands, we managed to "grease" the handle of the portable tank. We had two hundred yards to travel, both of us grasping the slippery handle of the tank and lugging 22 gallons of water each time down to the dumping station about two hundred yards away. That sucker was EXTREMELY heavy! We had to stop three times on the way to get a better grip. Eldy was shuffling along like a little China man, and I was striding, so we kept rocking and rolling 22 gallons of water (that's the SMALL size portable tank) as we were struggling to get the tank down there. I was laughing so hard at his shuffling, that didn't help matters any. We tried to synch our steps and finally got going a little better. At the dump station, it was a real trick to up-end the dump tank, and open the dumping station ground lever with your foot at the same time. I managed to thoroughly soak my shoes and socks in the process. Thank goodness it was the grey tank and not the poop excretion express dump! Three trips later, we have an empty grey tank on the RV and we are good to go for another five days. Whew! I offered to buy Eldy brunch as our efforts to carry and dump 60 gallons of water hurt his knees and back in the process, but he said no, that was ok....what a guy! He dumped the grey tank just so I can do dishes and take a shower in the motor home...awwww, thanks, honey!