I can’t believe that makes sense right now. Bear with me.
Tracy’s been working like crazy on the hitch: he shipped a big part back to Michigan, they serviced it and shipped it back to us, then they shipped new parts to us. He’s been machine-sanding old parts, painting them, assessing them. Finally, he spent two days on the ground with various wrenches and drills, and now he feels like he’s rebuilt the old hitch. Without Banjo’s help.
The plan was: Saturday finish building it, Sunday we tow the trailer locally just enough to test out the hitch, and Monday leave. Saturday night we wanted to say goodbye to friends down here, so we had them over for the evening. Fun night in the tent! Fun times talking Airstreams! I came inside real quick to pee, and I freaking broke the toilet.
Truthfully, the toilet was on its last legs. If you don’t know how RV toilets work (most of them, I believe), they have a pedal you press with your foot: stage 1 of pressing lets a little water into the bowl, press a little harder and the trapdoor at the bottom of the bowl opens to release waste into the tank below, with an increased flow of water to flush it down. Something like that. Well, in Brownsville the seal around the little trapdoor wasn’t sealing right, which we knew because you’d flush but nothing told the toilet that it was done flushing, and the bowl would fill with water and overflow into the trailer. Lucky for us, my keen ears (see how I’m taking credit here) heard water flowing out of the toilet before it flooded the trailer, but Geeze Louise that was a close call, both times it happened.
Tracy replaced the seal, but with a brand he bought on Amazon that didn’t work great, so he replaced it again (like he has nothing better to do) with the name brand, and that was at least not threatening to flood the trailer. Although you did have to press the pedal all the way and let it snap back hard in order to close the trapdoor.
Which is what wore out the pedal, so that the night before we’re to test the hitch, the pedal flies off the toilet. And by midnight Tracy’s on the internet finding a new toilet. Which he is driving to get right now. (I tell you what, if I’d known we wouldn’t have a toilet last night, I would not have enjoyed two big beers with friends.)
When Tracy comes back, the plan is to hitch up and go for a test tow. Tonight he’ll install the new toilet, I’ll finish tearing down camp outside, and we’ll still leave on Monday morning as planned. What else could go wrong, correct?
In the meantime, as I wait for Tracy to come back with the new toilet, here are the characters I knitted as a gift to our Airstreaming friend who has been the Game Master of our online D&D game. Each is from this campaign we’ve been playing with other full-time Airstreamers online since we met them at the rally.
Above is Velourish with her lute and Conehead with his battle ax.
Here’s Vanessa Rye Rye wearing her cursed amulet, and Adric the wizard.
They fit in a ring box! Now only if my gonzo knitting skills would transfer to toilet installation.
Seriously, if nothing else goes wrong, I’ll see you on the road.
I bet you’re flush with excitement to finally hit the road!
Great job with the knitting. Conehead reminds me a bit of Yukon Cornelius from “Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Yukon Cornelius with a battle ax!
I knew I could count on you for a good pun here. Thanks.
Good grief, talk about bad luck ! The threat of an overflowing toilet is enough to kept me up nights. Hope you can everything fixed and on your way as planned. And if the new toilet doesn’t fit, it’s good to know you could always knit one…
The toilet overflowing threatened only after flushing, but yes that was traumatic! And now I can’t shake the image of a knitted toilet. At least it would be soft to sit on. Thanks for the smile!
I think it is past time for you to have good luck and nothing break down. I hope that happens for you soon and you can get back down the road.