What a Long Day...or, Was it Night?

Yesterday, we covered a lot of ground. We had basically winterized our camper, except we needed to empty our greywater and blackwater tanks. We discovered that a nearby (yeah, right....about 30 miles away!) town has an RV dump station located at their wastewater treatment plant. We decided to hitch up with the new truck and take the camper out to dump the tanks. We fiddled around a little...we needed to adjust the hitch a bit. Of course, the weather decided to really get rotten as we worked, with raindrops falling on more than our heads!

We finally were on our way! We drove to the town, and looked where we thought we were supposed to "dump". Hmmmm.....all we could find was a manhole cover located in the center of a small road. Was this the "dump station"? I thought about what I had read on the internet, and told Mark I thought it was correct. We needed to lift a manhole cover!

In the midst of this, just imagine a new factory being built, with cement trucks and dump trucks traversing this narrow little road! There was a mailbox located on the side of the road directly across from the manhole cover, so we looked inside, thinking *perhaps* we might discover a clue? And, yes, we did! We found a little metal rod to use to pull the manhole cover aside.

Ben was my faithful assistant. YIKES! We managed to pull the cover sideways, so as to "crack" the cover just a bit. What we saw below our feet was not for the faint of heart! Roaring under us was a vast river of waste....yes, SEWAGE! BLECH!!!! I quickly drained the tanks and we headed towards home again.

When Mark began to back the camper up into its little niche, he realized that doing it with the new truck was totally different. It took nearly 45 minutes to get the little camper placed in its winter home.

As soon as this was finally accomplished, we were off on a long journey to Erie, Pennsylvania. The kids had signed up to attend a night of fun at an indoor water park called Splash Lagoon!
The fun was set to begin at 11 pm. Yup, that is 11 at NIGHT! And, the activities eneded at 3 am.

We stopped and visited with my parents before going off to Erie. We visited with them until nearly 10, then left for Splash Lagoon. We arrived in Erie in good time, and the kids were so excited....especially Ben.

After making sure they were safely inside, Mark and I went inside and watched for a bit...WOW! It felt like it was about a zillion degrees in there! We watched for quite a while, then after seeing the kids (and they TOTALLY ignored us!!!) we went to the gift shop to buy some little souvenirs, and then we went to the truck. I was tired and slept from about 1-3. When the kids came out, we drove down the road a bit, and finding a safe place, we "camped out", sleeping in the truck until the daylight broke. Michelle and I slept in the back of the truck on the new Bedrug, with a sleeping bag over it, and covered with a king size down comforter. Amazing how warm and toasty we were, considering the temps were about 40 during the night! Murphy slept with us, and I awakened to a little Scottie sleeping on my back!

The kids slept a bit more as we fiddled around. Then we headed out, going back to visit my parents again. We visited, then headed home. We got home just before sunset, and it was great to be home, but the house was only about 58 inside! I made a fire in the stove, and ah, life is feeling so good about now! The bed hasn't looked so enticing in a long time, and oh my...I forgot what it is like to nearly miss an entire night of sleep!

The good news is that the kids had a ball, and it really wasn't that bad. They are beside themselves....Family Life Ministries is planning a REPEAT of this in March!