Friends, Fumbles, and Flying J

It’s been five days of full-time living on the road. It started with a hitch. My plan was to ‘dump’ my tanks at a campground in Defuniak Springs, Florida, and then carry on north. So, after saying goodbye to a few friends around noon on May 25, the journey began.

I found the campground easily enough and pulled in to do the dump. The owner came out to see what I needed. He was an older man with a long white beard and rough skin that was pretty worn by the sun. I asked him if he would be so kind as to assist me with the dump, as I have not done it alone. It has been done only once, with my mom helping me. He was happy to help and got started right away setting up the hose.

We both noticed that the arm of one of the two shafts that you pull to open the tanks was quite bent. After he put one end of the hose into the ground, he went to unscrew the cap on the hose opening on my RV. Immediately, an unknown combination of water waste spilled out and ONTO HIS HAND. I was horrified. This poor guy now had possible sewage on his hand. My sewage. I wanted to throw up. The bearded man? He didn’t even blink. Nope. Like nothing had happened. I got the hose to rinse off his hand with, apologizing profusely, and this guy was like “meh.” He had absolutely NO problem with it. This told me a lot about him and his history. Then he literally told me about some of his history, “a little sewage was nothing.” He has “seen worse.” Chicken farming, apparently, is much worse than sewage. I might become a vegan now.

Liquid pouring out from that hose meant that the bend in the shaft was keeping the valve on that particular tank open. It had to be fixed. Thank goodness Dixie RV was open on Memorial Day!

RVing Lesson Number One learned through Kelly’s RVing adventure: Always triple check that you have closed and locked your RV doors. Did I? Must not have, because of course, on the interstate, I see in my rear view mirror my basement door flapping open. So, I do the logical thing and I pull over on I-10. I get the door closed and locked, jump back in, and start to check my mirrors for cars coming behind me.

Lesson Number Two: Never pull over right after a hill, and on a road curving to the right. That’s right, I picked the spot with two issues. So, after creeping about a half mile on the shoulder and risking a flat tire, I finally was able to pull out onto the road again.

Dixie RV offered to dump my tanks for free as they had two weeks prior and to take a look at the bent shaft. Good news/bad news: It was fixed—good. It cost $200—bad.

Then I was on my way, at around 5:00 p.m. I left my house at noon.

No worries, it was nice to be on the road with a mission! I wanted to go for as long as my body would stay awake and that got me to Birmingham, Alabama. I parked in a Lowes parking lot for the night. They have W-Fi that extends into the parking lot, so that was a bonus, aside from it being free! I walked the dogs and hit the sack.

The next day, I still felt the urge to go as far as possible, to get to Montana. It feels sort of like I am a homing pigeon who has been set free to go where it feels is right. For me, that’s Montana, or our West, at least. I did stop in the morning to walk the dogs at a nearby park, David Crockett Park. It was large and very nice with a stream running through it. It was a good leg stretch. Then we got back on the road, heading north. I cruised through Tennessee and hit Kentucky where I made my second camp at a Flying J gas station. This is where I took my first truck-stop shower. I was a little grossed out by the concept and figured it had to be nasty; however, I was pleasantly surprised by the facilities and their cleanliness. It was likely cleaner than my shower at home! Each shower is cleaned and dried in full after each use. You get a changing area with a sink, a toilet, and the shower—which has no shower curtain. There was a fan in my room as well. They provide the towel, washcloth, and mat, which I did not know. I used them on the floor so I didn’t have to step on it (Ick).

Clean and shiny, I went back to the RV for the night and cuddled up with my babies, happy as a clam.

The next day, I decided to keep going north to Chicago to see some of my family. The drive became less exciting as beautiful Kentucky was behind me and now the farmlands were coming into view.

After Chicago, I ended up spending a week with NEW friends in Sun Prairie, WI. These are people whom I didn’t know before they read my blog. They liked what they read and we have kept in touch, and I can safely report I have now met people from the Internet! And they were UH-MAY-ZING!!! I have new friends for life! It’s funny how much this experience has blessed me with so far.

Fast-forward to day fifteen, and I am in Fargo, North Dakota, ready to hit the hay for the night. Next, I will have another ‘black tank’ story to share. This one was a doozie. (I tried to do it all by myself.)

But for now, a little more for you dog lovers:

Trixie is, well, who knows how old? The vets keep telling me she’s twelve. She is super mellow and has a real Zen personality. She doesn’t dig or bark (well, she didn’t until Gizmo came along) or do much of anything wrong or annoying. She’s just the perfect dog—except for the shedding.

Gizmo is the smallest dog that most people I know have ever seen. Weighing in at 2.4 pounds, this little critter has snuck into my heart a little deeper than Trixie has, although Trix is my baby girl. There’s something about Gizmo… and she’s so small, she’s pretty shy. She walks great on a leash and we all go for at least one walk a day. She also likes to sit on my shoulders/back of my neck when I am driving.

That’s all for now—black tank disaster story next!