On Thursday we picked up and began the move to the camp-out of our Plymouth Presbyterian Church. The first hint of something unusual was a streak of water across the floor. We wiped this up and looked in all of the cupboards for leaking stores. Finding nothing amiss, we shrugged and headed for Scappoose. At lunchtime Judy rinsed some lettuce and again we spotted water puddling on the floor. Only this time there was some lettuce leaves included. Oh-oh!
Well we contained it with wet towels and continued our journey to Scamokawa, Washington. Once we got there and were safely parked we began to disassemble the kitchen cabinets as we fought our way upstream. By now Judy has visions of one of the old Dagwood comic strips. Dagwood always winds up under the kitchen cabinets with a pipe wrench around the drain pipe. Inevitably the drain pipe springs a leak that sprays all over him and the kitchen. I never did figure out why Dagwood’s drain pipes always had high pressure water in them.
As you can imagine RV’s have many things compressed into very small spaces. In addition these things have to move each time we open and close the slider. The first task is to unscrew and remove several false backs and partitions. When I reached the deepest recesses of the cabinet under the sink, I found source of our problem; The two inch flex hose had become separated from its socket in the “tee” leading to the gray water tank and its vent. I removed a couple hose clamps, cleaned and dried the fittings and slathered each piece with some 3M 5200 adhesive caulk. Next I rigged a strain relief from a long hose clamp fed around the back side of the “tee” and trapped under one of the hose clamps around the boot. Finally I wrapped everything in duct tape to prevent any chafing. Red-Green of PBS fame would be proud of my patch.
Today everything is back in place and the sink drains into the gray water tank like it is supposed to. The rest of the weekend can be spent bicycling and canoeing and catching up on life in the Plymouth Church family.
For those of you who are not here with us, Skamokawa Washington is a very small town alongside the Columbia River on state highway 4 between Cathlamet and Ilwaco. We are camped in a county park called Skamokawa Vista Park. It has a range of sites from full hookup to primitive tent sites. It has a boat launch ramp with access to the Columbia River and also to canoeing in Steamboat Slough and Brooks Slough and the Julia Butler Hansen Wildlife Refuge. Our front window looks out over the Columbia River and the big ocean going ships rumbling through our front yard. Check the photo below.
Bye now and love to all from Gary, Judy and our church family at Skamokawa Vista Park.
Gary, Judy, Gretchen, JP, John, David, Adrian, Sean, Jennifer, Ruth, Harold, Jill, Yvonne, Mikey and Hiram.
