The RV is at least half packed. I put away all the food, cooking equipment, entertainment, toiletries, medicines, and bedding this afternoon. Hubby packed the camping gear like flashlights, lamps, firewood, chairs etc. Little Starlet got home from school and sorted her clothes out. Deep Thought has a pile of stuff in her room waiting to go in. I reckon it should take us about an hour to get departure-ready in the morning. Of course I haven't packed any clothes for me yet; and Hubby cannot find my walking boots in the disaster that is currently our garage.
On the house reorganization front, Hubby has been putting together clothes racks from IKEA and piling his gear onto them. We are putting them in Deep Thought's room, as the one that is least likely to be disturbed while we are away. She is taking it quite patiently.
The kids are getting excited about the trip, but Hubby and I can hardly believe it's tomorrow. I've just spent half an hour Googling directions to our various campsites. I discover that my last but one leg in the trip is less than ideal - a 320 mile schlep from Calico Ghost Town to Merced, which breaks the rule I created at the end of our last RV adventure, never to go more than 250 miles in one day. Ah well, it is the Central Valley we're talking about. Places worth stopping are pretty limited.
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google. Show all posts
Friday, February 12, 2010
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Dumping Heaven
Our neighbors are having their house remodeled. Yesterday, Little Starlet and I paused to watch the man empty the workers' mobile toilet ("porta-potty"). With eyebrows in her hairline and a flamboyant toss of the head, she declared that she NEVER wanted to be that man.
So it was with mobile poo on my mind that I discovered a wonderful website designed to put all your sanitary fears to rest, www.RVdumps.com, a noble website created by something called Roundabout Publications. Yes, listed in one easy directory state by state, all the dump stations available for your "black water" tanks, complete with reviews. "This one might be a bit tight for large units" says one reviewer. "Nice people, but it's all self service," sighs another. "This one provides a clean hose and everything," enthuses a third. Gosh, I can hardly wait.
Fees for getting rid of your sewage seem to range from about $2 to $20 per dump, with most commentators feeling anything over $10 is extortion (especially if it doesn't include a free refill of the water tank or another RV specific service).
And that reminds me, must remember to put "rubber gloves" on the final shopping list for tomorrow. Little Starlet might not be planning to be the Porta-Potty Man, but I know a man who is.
So it was with mobile poo on my mind that I discovered a wonderful website designed to put all your sanitary fears to rest, www.RVdumps.com, a noble website created by something called Roundabout Publications. Yes, listed in one easy directory state by state, all the dump stations available for your "black water" tanks, complete with reviews. "This one might be a bit tight for large units" says one reviewer. "Nice people, but it's all self service," sighs another. "This one provides a clean hose and everything," enthuses a third. Gosh, I can hardly wait.
Fees for getting rid of your sewage seem to range from about $2 to $20 per dump, with most commentators feeling anything over $10 is extortion (especially if it doesn't include a free refill of the water tank or another RV specific service).
And that reminds me, must remember to put "rubber gloves" on the final shopping list for tomorrow. Little Starlet might not be planning to be the Porta-Potty Man, but I know a man who is.
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Down the Drain
I rose from my bed today with an important question to answer: Do we need to buy special toilet paper for our trip?
As a family encompassing funny insides and two smallish children, this is clearly a key issue to get right. We don't need any clogged thingies or overflowing wotsits. (I presume I'll learn the correct terminology in due course, though as I am rather planning to leave the toilet department to beloved Hubby, perhaps I'm wrong about that. Which reminds me that I need to buy him a pair of rubber gloves.)
Anyway, to cut a long story short, our friends at Google provided links to a couple of very good RV info sites. Of course there were the usual range of ideas and insights, from "Spend all you've got on special septic tank paper made by this women's collective in Ohio" to "We've been RVing for 30 years and only just moved on from dry leaves to newspaper." But leaving the outliers aside, the general conclusions were:
(1) Don't buy the expensive special RV toilet paper at Camping World etc
(2) Go for single ply over 2-ply. Scotts single ply is much recommended.
(3) Test your paper before you set out, by putting a couple of sheets in a jar of water, shaking it vigorously, waiting 15 minutes, and then seeing whether the sheets have broken down into shreds. If they have, use it. If they haven't, go back to the store.
I couldn't find a jar, but correctly judged that Hubby's capacious Gartner beer mug would do the trick. Having now undertaken a scientific comparison test of the CVS own brand and Seventh Generation recycled toilet papers, I think we'll be going with Seventh Generation, which had shredded almost completely within just a couple of minutes after the vigorous shake. Good. Another problem resolved.
As a family encompassing funny insides and two smallish children, this is clearly a key issue to get right. We don't need any clogged thingies or overflowing wotsits. (I presume I'll learn the correct terminology in due course, though as I am rather planning to leave the toilet department to beloved Hubby, perhaps I'm wrong about that. Which reminds me that I need to buy him a pair of rubber gloves.)
Anyway, to cut a long story short, our friends at Google provided links to a couple of very good RV info sites. Of course there were the usual range of ideas and insights, from "Spend all you've got on special septic tank paper made by this women's collective in Ohio" to "We've been RVing for 30 years and only just moved on from dry leaves to newspaper." But leaving the outliers aside, the general conclusions were:
(1) Don't buy the expensive special RV toilet paper at Camping World etc
(2) Go for single ply over 2-ply. Scotts single ply is much recommended.
(3) Test your paper before you set out, by putting a couple of sheets in a jar of water, shaking it vigorously, waiting 15 minutes, and then seeing whether the sheets have broken down into shreds. If they have, use it. If they haven't, go back to the store.
I couldn't find a jar, but correctly judged that Hubby's capacious Gartner beer mug would do the trick. Having now undertaken a scientific comparison test of the CVS own brand and Seventh Generation recycled toilet papers, I think we'll be going with Seventh Generation, which had shredded almost completely within just a couple of minutes after the vigorous shake. Good. Another problem resolved.
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