We had a long, stressful day but everything turned out fine. We pulled chocks this morning about 0830 hrs and headed for the dump station to empty our black and grey sewage tanks before hitting the road to Sioux City. <I just deleted a whole bunch of narrative that you would not care to read...> Bottom line my indicators showed full but the tanks really were not and when I went to empty them not much came out. Crap! Literally! I suspected a plugged pipe. So we towed the coach back to our camping spot, unhooked, drove to our house, picked up my sewer "snake", went back to the campground, reconnected the coach, and headed back to the dump station. Nothing went well and of course someone else showed up to the one-hole dump station wanting to dump and head home. Ugh. Screw it.
At 1018 hrs we packed it in and headed down I-80 towards Sioux City. The problem with that is it is not advisable to travel with full tanks. The stress of the weight (52 gallons x 8 lbs/gallon per tank) and bouncing can cause braces that help to hold the tanks in to fail and that would totally suck! The rest area at Casey was supposed to have a dump station but according to the attendant some farmer stopped and dumped a load of hog manure (I doubt this) and the state closed the dump station. So I decided just to head on up to our next campground and deal with it there.
We arrived at Scenic Park Campground in South Sioux City NE at 1402 hrs after traveling 205 miles, worrying all the way along that my sewer tanks were going to drop on the interstate... As soon as we finished setting up I dove right into it, and there were things that just did not seem right.
One of my troubleshooting tools is a "borescope". It is a camera and LED light attached to a 15 meter fiber optic cable, all sealed in plastic. It displays on my iPhone. I was trying to run it up the pipe to see the blockage but was having trouble negotiating the bends. Doreen suggested I run the camera down the "old poop chute" through the toilet. Great idea! So in we go, and guess what - I can see the bottom of the tank! Not only can I see the bottom but I can see the pipe connection at the bottom! The damn thing is empty except for some sludge on the bottom. That's why nothing was coming out, not because it was plugged!
So, after flushing the tanks a few times the sensors are back like they are supposed to be, the tanks are draining like they are supposed to be and all is well! Whew!
That was surely a whole lot more about sewer tanks than you really wanted to read about, but I am glad it all came out well, so to speak! It was a crappy way to start Phase II of our trip!
Back to arriving here, so this is the official start of Phase II of our journey, which will take us west and south all the way to Las Vegas, north to Ogden UT, then back east. We will be visiting many national parks along the way, including but not limited to:
- Arches
- Canyonland
- Mesa Verde
- Monument Valley
- Grand Canyon (south rim)
- Lake Meade/Hoover Dam
- Zion
- Bryce Canyon
- Grand Canyon (north rim)
This portion will be about 3900 miles point to point and 87 nights where the first phase was 4642 miles point to point and 112 nights.
The campground here is city-owned as is the adjacent swimming pool and park, which are free for us as camper. The campground has 135 RV sites, 4 cabins, and 6 tent sites.
Tonight we relaxed a bit and grilled a huge pork chop from the Fareway Grocery Store package our kids got us for Christmas. It was awesome!
After dinner we took Liberty for a walk, and along comes the ice cream truck. Perfect timing for dessert!
During my time as State Command Chief with the Iowa Air National Guard I used to visit Sioux City every quarter, so I am not new to the area. We don't have any huge plans here except to hopefully reconnect with some military comrades, friends and a relative and of course celebrate my bride's birthday tomorrow, 6 July!!. We will also revisit the Siouxland Freedom Park and the Sergeant Floyd Museum and Monument.
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