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Thursday, December 22, 2011

Constipation

So here we are, Moochdocking in son Ryan's driveway.  Having a ball with the girls, doing all kinds of things.  Taylor and Kierra love to hangout with us in the Journey, they make a bed on the floor  and watch their favorite TV shows and Disney movies.  The shows are much more enjoyable in "Mimi's" camper.


Mimi brought all kinds of crafts and projects and the girls have enjoyed both making things and spending time with Mimi.


It shows on their faces how happy they are to have us here.



Astoria has a great indoor pool complex, we took the girls swimming there.  For a little town, the pool is quite impressive.


One wall has painted murals with scenes from life in Astoria.


Looking through the windows on the other side of the building you see this.


It's actually a retired Columbia River Bar Pilot boat, the most recent addition the the excellent Maritime Museum right across the street.


With all the swimming and fun,



even the girls joined Marti for a little down time.


We realized that Moochdocking in a driveway for an extended time has its own benefits (free) and problems (Oops!  No sewer hookup).

Normally, we can go almost two weeks if we're very careful of our water usage.  Using the bathroom and showers in Ryan's house should have extended our black and grey tank capacity.  But with the girls spending so much time with us, the bathroom got a lot of usage and the black tank filled up pretty quickly, the grey tank was nearing full, too.

Option one was to take down all the Christmas decorations, jack down the Journey and go to the free dump station two miles down the road.  Dump, they return, re-jack and re-level the Journey and re-apply all the Christmas decorations to their previous locations.  Not a good idea.

Option two was get a blue boy portable sewer tote and offload the tanks a little bit at a time, load the blue boy in the back of the Element and run down to the free dump station.  Looking at blue boys at the local RV supply store, the biggest they carried was 15 gallons.  Doing a little math, 15 gallons, liquid weighing about 8 lbs a gallon and two 50 gallons waste tanks, that would be a lot of weight to lift into the back of the Element and require many, many trips to the dump station.  Even worse idea.



Then the light bulb went off.  I called a sewer service and they sent over a truck to pump out the tanks.


It took all of two minutes to suck the tanks empty.  Then it took 40 minutes of polite "Uh Huhs" and head nods as the driver told me his life's story and every bit of sewer gossip in the whole greater Astoria area.  He should have paid me for listening...

The truck drove off but he didn't get far.


I did say the tanks were really full.  ;c)

Anyway, the Journey's tanks are empty, we'll be a little more careful monitoring the bathroom usage and hope we can last another ten days.  Then  the Christmas decorations will only have to come down once. (Phew!)

Thanks for visiting and feel free to leave a comment.


31 comments:

  1. moochdocking is great..until the tanks are full..but I am sure you are very glad the lightbulb came on!!!..love the shot of Marti and the girls!..says it all..and sure makes that long journey so worth it!!!

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  2. Awwwww -- that picture of Marti and the girls is just as precious as can be!!

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  3. Bright idea!! Don't know that we would have thought of that, but as we said before, "You have a unique brain!!" I just hate those blueboys ;o((

    Love the photo of Marti and the girls. It looks like one BIG hug!!

    Lots of wonderful memories being made everyday:o))

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  4. Whew..wasn't sure I wanted to read about your bathroom problems..lol. Good idea about the septic service though!

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  5. love the pics and you sure are having a great time building memories with those beautiful girlies...good idea on the dumping of the tanks not sure I would have thought of that...

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  6. Good plan- I tried that blue boy thing and it is not fun.

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  7. Great looking pool. It sure looks like everyone is enjoying their time together.
    Syl

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  8. Love the photos ~ the girls are so cute... GREAT idea about the sewer problem. Much easier!
    Have fun & Happy Holidays
    Donna

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  9. We stopped in Astoria on a cruise. Would love to go back. Interesting town. We ate at the restaurant that later burned. It was on the waterfront. Sure hope they rebuilt it.

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  10. Glad to see you and Marty are having a great time with the family. Your light bulb always seems to work pretty good. I have learned a lot from reading your posts. Wishing you both a Merry Christmas.

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  11. Cute blog.

    Oh no! I hope you were far enough away when the truck had a spill that the fumes didn't suffocate you.

    We have a blueboy that was given us. We haven't used it yet but we're hauling it back to "Q" when we leave. Do you think we'd make a fortune renting it out?

    When we "moochdock" at our son's place, we hook up to his sewer outlet. We could plant ourselves a very long time using their electricity, their water, their washer and their sewer. I guess that is called mooching.

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  12. I always wondered about the sewer part of "moochdocking". You are the first person I've read who has mentioned it. I would never have thought a town would have a honey wagon. But duh, who empties septic systems. Well done. Your light bulb is brighter than mine for sure. :-)

    Did he really crash? Doesn't look like his red tank in the crash pictures.

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  13. "Moochdocking", now there's a new term for me. Thanks for sharing the pictures of Astoria, we love it there. You have a great looking family. Enjoy the Holidays.

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  14. Need to figure out how to convince the girls the bathroom in the house is much more fun to use. Good luck with that one. But such wonderful memories you're storing up. Have a wonderful Christmas.

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  15. Wow, what a great pool for some winter time fun, no wonder the litle ones and bigger one are pooped!!! Enjoy your Christmas with the family.

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  16. So happy that everyone is having a great time, even love the group nap. Nice thinking, outside the box, on how to handle the tank issue.

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  17. You had me at "constipation." I can't PASS up a good poop title.

    We did the moochdocking at my mom's house for six months (!), but since we don't poop ... okay, since we don't flush ... oh, you know, we have a composting toilet! the black tank was not an issue, and we drained gray water right onto the ground. It was a sweet set-up.

    I don't think I want to know what that truck is really a picture of. So disturbing!

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  18. Those little girls certainly look happy to have Mimi around. Good idea about calling the sewer service - I never thought of that!

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  19. butterbean carpenterDecember 29, 2011 at 7:14 PM

    Howdy Chief,
    THATZ MOOCHING!!! I wondered about the truck in the hole, because it wasn't the same color as the one at the house, so I looked it up in the Astoria news AND ITZ A FAKE!!!

    Glad you didn't have to take all of the untitled holiday decorations down & up... If your agonna mooch there very often have them put in a sewer connection or get a 'macerator' pump on your tank
    and you can dump in the sink cleanout on the house wall!!

    No one but an old CG vet would notice a river pilot boat!!

    Have a Healthy Happy New Year!!!

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