Our RV Adventures

After turning off the shore water, I started removing the old toilet about 10:45 this morning, and by 11:45, it was disconnect, unbolted, and setting off to the side in a large garbage bag.

Then using a screwdriver bit in my drill, I removed the 6 screws holding down the 4 bolt to 2 bolt adapter and lifted it off. And as I hoped I found the original floor flange still in usable condition.

Then I brought the new toilet in from outside and looked it over. And that’s when I discovered a problem. This toilet had no hookup for the external spray hose. And Jan wants the spray hose.

The spray hose connection comes off of the vacuum breaker that plugs in the back of the toilet. And the vacuum breaker on the new toilet had no connection for the hose like the old one did.

So simple, right? Just swap vacuum breakers. But easier said than done. The hose connected the vacuum breaker with the flush pedal water valve on the side of toilet was heated and pushed onto the fitting and would not come off, so I had to cut it off. And once I did that the hose was now too short to reach.

By this time I decided to call an audible. It was obvious that I was going to have go out for new hose. And since it was now after 2pm, I decided that with the uncertain repair time, we would go out and have lunch at the Denny’s, pick up some new hose at the nearby Lowe’s, and then stash Jan in the Texas City Quality Inn for the night. One with a bathroom. So getting Jan all set up, I headed back to the rig to try and finish up. And it actually went pretty smoothly, all things considered.

I heated a mug of water in the microwave, and then used it to soften the new hose to fit over the connections, leaving me with this on the water valve.

And this on the vacuum breaker.

And now came the part that I figured I’d have problems with, but didn’t.

I was able to set the toilet right in place with the 4 bolts lined up perfectly. Then it was just a matter of connecting up the water supply, and then tighten down the 4 nuts that hold the toilet in place.

And though when I tuned on the water pump, I had a small leak, a quick turn took care of it. Then I had to install the pedestal cover and pedal cover, and by 6pm I was done.d

Then after tidying up, I headed back over to the hotel for the night.

Glad it’s done.

Thought For The Day:

When you truly don’t care what anyone thinks of you, you have reached a dangerously awesome level of freedom.

After I got caffeinated this morning, I went outside to remove the hose splitter on our water hookup. I had tried to replace it a while back with a new, high-flow model.

But I found it stuck, and was afraid to brute-force it in case I snapped off the plastic feed pipe.

But when I turned it back on after the Big Freeze, it was dripping slightly, and I couldn’t get it to stop.

So today I decided to just cut it off by using my handy-dandy Harbor Freight Cut-Off tool.

I carefully sliced a groove in the coupling trying not to cut in the faucet threads. Then once I got the cut made, I used a big screwdriver to pop it open enough to get it off.

Before I put the new one on, I coated both sets of threads with silicone grease, so hopefully I won’t have this problem again.

With Jan a little under the weather this morning, I was on my own for our errands today, so I was on the way up to the WalMart in Alvin to once again try and pick up an order I had placed online yesterday.

And this time it all worked. I pulled into Pickup #5 slot, used the app to tell them I was there, and about 10 minutes later they were putting the stuff in my car. Finally it worked.

Then it was on over to our dry cleaners on FM528 to pick up the quilt we had cleaned there. Next up I stopped off at the office to pick up an order that had come in for Jan. And before I put in a pickup order for the Jason’s Deli down in  our area. Their Broccoli-Cheese soup is Jan’s goto under-the-weather food, so I got that, and a 1/4 Turkey Muffuletta for her, and a couple of bowls of their Spicy Tortilla Soup for me.

I normally get their Southwest Chicken Chili, but it didn’t show up on the online menu, so I got the Tortilla Soup instead. However when I picked up the food, I asked and found out that they did still have the Chicken Chili, but for some reason it didn’t always show up online. So next time I’ll know.

After Jan and I had our lunch, I went outside to take a look at the new toilet that’s been still sitting in its box on the patio since it was delivered. And as soon as I lifted it out, I saw a possible problem.

The original toilet in our RV was a 4 bolt model, but the new one we replaced it with in 2010 while we were in Las Vegas, was a 2 bolt model. I kludged it together at first, but then Dometic finally came out with an adapter plate for it.

But this new one is back to being a 4 bolt model, so guess I’ll also have to remove the adapter first. I don’t think I had to permanently modify anything to install the adapter, but we’ll see.

Very funny article about a guy who decided to try RV’ing, in the middle of the winter, in Pennsylvania.

I stayed at a campground for the first time in a camper van during the off-season, and I didn’t think it was worth the price

When I first rented the van, the owner quickly walked me through the process of plugging the van into a campsite’s amp, but in practice, I couldn’t figure it out. I ignorantly figured that the amp setup was just an optional choice since the van already had solar panels, so I decided to forgo plugging in the vehicle.

Later, I learned just how wrong I was.

Thought For The Day:

I can’t believe that I’m living in a world that is reassigning the gender of a plastic potato.

Thanks, Harry