If anyone has seen the comedy film RV with Robin Williams they will understand that there comes a time that the holding tanks require emptying. Now, I didn't want to bore you all with the details but some friends of ours suggested, after having the saga related to them, that we should share the experience.
It all starts back at Hogleaze really. This was the storage facility that we were using near Dorchester. When it came time to move from there to our current location it was decided to do some maintenance on the van. One of these jobs was to sanitise the fresh water tank. This entailed pouring an anti-everything agent into the tank, filling it up with fresh water and letting it stand for thirty minutes. When the time was up the water had to be flushed into the holding tanks through all the various pipes in the plumbing system. This filled up the holding tanks, of course, but we had already checked that Hogleaze had a dumping point. What we didn't realise was that the access to the dumping point is at the side of the road and higher than our vehicle. The outlet from the holding tanks is gravity fed!
Oh, well. Not to worry we would dump our tanks when we got to Huntick Farm. Except that they don't have a drive over dump point either. So we used the loo but tried not to put too much water down the sink. Doing the washing up in the toilet block on the site and showering at home. After a couple of weeks of this we decided we had to do something about dumping the tanks, especially when the black water tank suddenly looked as if it was full, so we aproached another site that we new had the facility and asked if we could use it. They said we couldn't, we offered them money, they said they would get back to us. They didn't get back to us so we had a brain wave and booked in for a night at their most basic rate. That was OK and we duly turned up and were directed to the dump point.
When we attempted to connect the hose to the junction things went a bit horrific. The dump valve for one of the tanks had leaked and when the cap was removed all this extremely smelly liquid started to run out. Luckily we had bucket! With this drained we managed to get the hose connected and commenced to drain, what I thought was the black water tank. To ensure it was all gone I asked Tricia to have a look down the loo. She immediately shouted that the tank was still full and, having put some more water in, it was now filling the pedestal. We decided it must be blocked and when I went have a look there was Tricia with the loo brush almost entirely inserted into the loo. Thank goodness for surgical gloves!
Anyway, this was not doing any good and we were in danger of losing the loo brush, so we decided to dump what I thought was the grey water tank and leave the blockage for the moment. It was amazing then, that when I opened the grey water dump valve the blockage immediately cleared. Hey, ho. That's the last time I believe the labels on the side of the van. Some extremely funny person must have switched them at some point. Having now completed the operation we returned to Huntick Farm a little wiser and a lot smellier than we left.
Friday, 30 April 2010
Saturday, 10 April 2010
It's Started!
I retired as planned on the 31st of March and we moved Harvey from storage to our first site, Huntick Farm Caravan Park, on the 1st of April. We are now living in the van but the process of moving all our belongings in is ongoing. We are also clearing the house ready for renting which will take another few weeks. Once this is done we will plan our next move and the start of our UK tour.
Tuesday, 26 January 2010
A New Year
Well here we are in 2010 and I am now almost a month into my notice period so it is real now. Retirement will happen on the 31st of March.
At the moment our plan is to move onto a touring site near to home at the end of March and get the house ready to rent. We are then going to start by doing a leisurely tour of the UK aiming to be back in the south when the MOT is due in September.
Once the RV is serviced and MOT'd we will be off across the channel and the adventure will begin in earnest.
In the meantime there are still lots of questions to be answered and lots of things to buy for the new life.
At the moment our plan is to move onto a touring site near to home at the end of March and get the house ready to rent. We are then going to start by doing a leisurely tour of the UK aiming to be back in the south when the MOT is due in September.
Once the RV is serviced and MOT'd we will be off across the channel and the adventure will begin in earnest.
In the meantime there are still lots of questions to be answered and lots of things to buy for the new life.
Sunday, 13 December 2009
The Idea
The idea was to leave these shores and take up residence somewhere in Europe where living was cheaper and we would be unencumbered by the increasingly Nanny State. Since this is a huge step and we were unsure of where we would like to live in Europe we decided to do a bit of travelling first. Explore the land, meet the people, drink the wine, etc., etc.
We thought that the best way to do this would be in a motorhome, so some research was done and a short trip was taken in a rented motorhome. All this brought us to a decision that, if we were to live comfortably for several months, we needed a large motorhome. This lead to exploring the American RV market. There are many and varied American RV's large enough to call home for several years never mind months but we decided that the criteria should be that it had a four-seater dining area and that it would have at least one slide-out. A slide-out being an area of the side of the vehicle that moves outwards when stationary thus expanding the living or sleeping area by a considerable amount.
All this was being thought about, discussed and dreams dreamed about two years ago but things took a turn towards reality when I decided that I would retire before the law changed in 2010. This meant we could start to make more definite plans and we began looking around for a suitable RV.
Tricia and I both ride motorbikes so any solution would have to include being able to tow a trailer for the bikes.
We checked out the forums, bought magazines and even a book on the subject and, despite the warnings about American RV's, we purchased a Fourwinds Hurricane. This is an almost 34' long coach that will sleep up to six people. It has a king size bed in the rear bedroom and a proper toilet with a shower. It has a gross weight of just over eight tonnes so we are going to be getting our LGV licenses in the New Year.
In the first week of December I put in my request for early retirement so my last day of work will be Wednesday the 31st of March. The plan, as it stands now, is to move into the RV and rent out the house. We will then do a tour of the UK to ensure that everything is in top working order and we haven't omitted anything essential. After that it will be off on the ferry for France.
I intend to use this blog as a means of keeping friends and family informed of our progress. There may not be much change on here before March next year since that is when the adventure starts.
We thought that the best way to do this would be in a motorhome, so some research was done and a short trip was taken in a rented motorhome. All this brought us to a decision that, if we were to live comfortably for several months, we needed a large motorhome. This lead to exploring the American RV market. There are many and varied American RV's large enough to call home for several years never mind months but we decided that the criteria should be that it had a four-seater dining area and that it would have at least one slide-out. A slide-out being an area of the side of the vehicle that moves outwards when stationary thus expanding the living or sleeping area by a considerable amount.
All this was being thought about, discussed and dreams dreamed about two years ago but things took a turn towards reality when I decided that I would retire before the law changed in 2010. This meant we could start to make more definite plans and we began looking around for a suitable RV.
Tricia and I both ride motorbikes so any solution would have to include being able to tow a trailer for the bikes.
We checked out the forums, bought magazines and even a book on the subject and, despite the warnings about American RV's, we purchased a Fourwinds Hurricane. This is an almost 34' long coach that will sleep up to six people. It has a king size bed in the rear bedroom and a proper toilet with a shower. It has a gross weight of just over eight tonnes so we are going to be getting our LGV licenses in the New Year.
In the first week of December I put in my request for early retirement so my last day of work will be Wednesday the 31st of March. The plan, as it stands now, is to move into the RV and rent out the house. We will then do a tour of the UK to ensure that everything is in top working order and we haven't omitted anything essential. After that it will be off on the ferry for France.
I intend to use this blog as a means of keeping friends and family informed of our progress. There may not be much change on here before March next year since that is when the adventure starts.
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