Days 79-82 Salem Witches, and Septic Woes

Thursday, August 29th, and Friday 30th

When we passed through Massachusetts on the way north, we decided to make reservations for Labor Day weekend at a totally different kind of place. Much like Walmart parking lot camping, ( which we have not yet tried ) only better.  Much better, for a "parking lot ".

The view from front of RV.  Can't get much better than this!

Here at the municipal park on Winter Island, in Salem Massachusetts, the most sought after RV campsite were, of all places, in the parking lot!  But oh, this acre of asphalt was right on the water, with the welcome addition of 50 amp electrical service and water!  How lovely to sit inside or out, and watch the boats sail by. So relaxing!

Salem, a city known for it's haunted happenings and Witch trials, is very near my daughter and her husband ( I love the sound of that - "her husband") and close proximity to my hometown and old friends and relatives. There is so much I want to see and do here while we wait for my daughter's baby shower in 10 days.

View from the side window

Because we were not sure we would enjoy this type of "campground", we made reservations here only for the long weekend.  We soon wished we had booked for the week, but of course, they were now all reserved.

Such a nice setting to wrap 50 baby shower "favors"

That night we noticed that the sewer holding tank was showing full, when we had just emptied it the day before.  Norm and I looked at each other suspiciously, wondering if the other could have possibly filled 45 gallons worth of septic "stuff ".  When we assumed it was not humanly possible ( we hadn't eaten THAT much fiber )we decided not to use our lovely private bathroom, and to use  the public facilities that night. The next day we planned to go down the road to the dump station and try to figure out what is going on. Hopefully it just needs a good cleaning.


Saturday, August 30th 

This section may be of more interest to fellow RV'ers  ( or perhaps maybe not )

The first order of business was to find out why the holding tank is having "issues".  We packed up, pulled in the slides, put up the jacks, and headed down the road a short way to the public septic dumping station.

Norm did his usual duties of dumping the tank ( which he does so well ).  When we saw that it was still reading semi-full, we decided to bring a hose in through the window and rinse the tank from the top end.

We did this a couple of times, ensuring nothing would be "stuck" on the sides or the gauge. Know the expression " third time a charm?"  well, it wasn't too charming, trust me.  Norm pulled the handle to release what was now a full tank of water, and Swoosh! Something gave way and all the water ( thank God it was now clean , well, pretty clean ) came out from everywhere!  A pipe up in behind must have come loose!  Now what!???

We brought it back to the campsite and as I was making phone calls to authorized Winnebago dealers, trying to find someplace to take it.  The only place I could find whose service department was open on a long weekend was in New Hampshire.  Not so far away.  Heck, we are talking the major convenience of inside plumbing here! ( boy, have we come a long way getting spoiled ).

A very knowledgeable tech said it could be either - just a pulled pipe, which could take a day or two OR a cracked tank which would likely take a month and a half!  While I was making these calls, Norm was out with a neighboring RVer seeing if it was something a "manly man" could fix.
They deduced it was too hard to get behind there to even see what had to be done. Darn!

End of info that might just be "too much information ".

That night, we kept our plans to have my daughter and her husband, and my cousin Kathy and her husband come to dinner.  We all had a great time getting to know each other after so many years. Kathy and I vowed to see each other more often, and at occasions other than funerals.

Sunday, Sept 1st

After spending the night without a bathroom, we realized just how spoiled we have become!  We checked to see exactly where we are staying over the next couple of weeks, and how far from our campsite  the public toilets are going to be.

Wow.  Our desire to be as far away from them as possible for the sake of the lights and noise has suddenly backfired!  I get really nervous truging off in the middle of the night to find the ladies room.  You never know what sort of beast ( animal OR human ) might be lurking.  At my age and conditioning, let's face it - I won't outrun them!

Norman said he really wanted to take the RV back to Florida for repair, and the sooner the better in case it started to smell.  Can you imagine?  I personally think he didn't want to hang around Boston for another 10 days waiting for a Baby Shower being held at my ex-husband's house. That's OK, I don't blame him.

The problem was that this is the Sunday of Labor Day Weekend, and the traffic on Monday could be horrendous from Boston to DC.  He wanted to leave immediately!  

Norm heading back to Florida from Boston all by himself!  I felt so bereft staying behind!

We decided to leave me with the tow car so I would have transportation both now and when my daughter's baby is born in November. I finally got in touch with my daughter to ask if I could stay with the "newlyweds".

Once we got the OK from them, Norm was on the way within the hour. My head was spinning.

As I watched him drive down the road, I was overcome by grief.  I didn't want this adventure to end yet!  I also was really having second thoughts about leaving me with the car.  Would I really have to drive this crappy car all the way to Florida? It will take me a week!  It is much more pleasant dragging it behind the motorhome, while I sit happily killing time on the internet.   I came very close to calling him and having him pull over and wait for me!  The only trouble with that scenario, is that we would get home about Wednesday or Thursday, and I would have to fly back to Boston on Friday for the baby shower. It really didn't make a lot of sense.