Saved by a Five-gallon Bucket

By Friday morning, the rain had stopped, but it was obvious that it had hard rained overnight.

Of course you remember Speedy's waste hose problem. I thought I had fixed it, at least temporarily, but it was not so. On Thursday afternoon before going out to drive the Pronghorn Loop, we decided to try and dump our black and grey-water tanks. I connected the extension hose to the shortened main hose, put it in the drain and pulled the lever. Liquid came out all over the ground. The original hose was obviously split further up in the pipe. After much cursing and clean up, it was time to call a professional. I made a Saturday appointment to bring it into Sandy's RV, which was listed in my Roadtrek POI file as a dealer but what to do about dumping the waste? Our gauges are notoriously inaccurate and I was rather concerned that the tanks were rather full.

First thing Friday morning, I cycled over to the maintenance shop to ask the maintenance guys if there was any kind of livestock catch basin where we might dump like we did in the Gila National Forest campground. There wasn't.

But Charles, one of the maintenance staff, suggested cutting down a five-gallon bucket and putting a hole in the bottom. We could then drive Speedy directly over the drain pipe in our site, put the bucket over the drain, like a funnel and gently open the valves. Sounded good to me. So he cut down a bucket to about seven inches high and cut out the center with about a two-inch opening. I rode back to Speedy, bucket swinging from my handlebars.

After our morning bird walk around Aguirre Lake (more on that later) and lunch, it was time to try out the bucket funnel. Ellen drove Speedy around to the drain and slowly maneuvered  it until we had it directly over the pipe. I put the bucket under Speedy and over the drain. It just barely fit, any taller and I would have been trimming away. I slowly opened the valves and all the liquid poured into the bucket and down the drain with no messiness. A little rinsing and Ellen backed Speedy away and back into the campsite. That should work until we get back to Tucson.

Earlier we walked around Aguirre Lake, a man-made depression just outside the campground. It is a natural drain point within the refuge. Back when the area was a ranch, the owners put in a well, pumps and a dike around an area now called Grebe Pond to keep it filled for cattle. This is no longer done, but the dike and the surrounding marshes are still there. It fills naturally if there is enough rain at the right time. When it has water, it attracts water birds. This happens only about one year out of four.

It is not one of those water years and the pond and marsh are dry. There are no waterfowl, but still a fair number of birds. Ellen and I took a walk around the lake on the lake trail. The portion we walked was mostly around the Grebe Pond (no grebes present) on the levees. There were mostly small birds, sparrows, phoebes and some Yellow-rumped Warblers. The ubiquitous ravens, harriers and hawks flew by as well.

As arranged at two PM, I called Sandy's RV to confirm our Saturday appointment. I did. It was not confirmed. They still had their current project in their shop and the earliest we could bring Speedy in was Thursday. This was a problem. I finally went online to the Roadtrek site to see if there was anywhere else. It turns out that Sandy's is not a current Roadtrek dealer. The local dealer is Freedom RV, so I gave them a call and they were able to squeeze us in for Saturday morning. Crisis averted—we hope.