Thursday, May 12, 2011 - Lafayette IN

Lazy Daze Torn Apart Bathroom, May 13, 2011

Oh shit... part 5

See Monday's, Tuesday's and Wednesdays's posts for parts 1, 2, 3 and 4 of this messy story.

After cogitating overnight I decided not to drop the tank and attempt the plastic weld repair. Right now I have a tank that functions, at least in a limited way, and there is the risk that the welding will make things worse, or that something unforeseen goes awry, leaving me with no usable black tank and no easy way to get a new one out here any time soon. That's not a spot I want to find myself in.

Before leaving the campground this morning I did a thorough dump & rinse with the macerator pump to see if I could get the rest of the stuff out of the tank. As I thought there was a lot of stuff still in the tank - now the gage reads 0 as it should.

Maybe I should rethink this whole black waste management system in light of my thought coming out of the brutal hard freeze last winter in San Antonio NM that I'd like to make this RV more resilient, more easily managed in extreme conditions. Able to remain livable longer and more comfortably without power hookups. Or during a power outage.

There are several ways I might deal with human waste - here are the first that come to mind:

Use the original system with a repaired tank.
Use the original system with a new tank from Lazy Daze.
Install a composting toilet.
Install a marine toilet discharging into to a new standard size black tank with a hand pump.

Night camp

Wal-Mart Supercenter in Lafayette IN

Walmart Supercenter Store #1547, 4205 Commerce Dr, Lafayette, IN 47905 - (765) 446-0100

Good level parking
Verizon cell phone service - very good signal
Verizon EVDO service - very good signal
Locate this Walmart on my Night Camps map
Find other Wal-Marts in the area
Check the weather here

Crayfish Chimney

Late one afternoon I sat upon my camera case beside the path where it wound through the darkest part of the woods, down near the pond, and watched a crayfish building his "chimney," the land entrance to his underwater tunnel. He had just started to work above the ground when I first arrived. He came up through the moist black earth, carrying a ball of it between his two enormous fighting claws. Using the claws as hands, he spread the soil around the hole to form the base of the chimney. He then backed down the hole and after several minutes came up with another armful.

more...