There's an unfortunate truth about the housework situation around here; if I don't do it, it doesn't get done, and I could live with that condition, except for the on undeniable fact ....I don't do it! Well, I don't do it as thoroughly, or perhaps as often as I might, but things are beginning to turn around. Yesterday I spent part of the afternoon establishing the full functionality of the RoadTrek. Up till now I'd been a little leery of using the water system; I was drinking jugged water, fetching it from either the supermarket, the Library, or, when I finally moved here to the Trailer Park, from the potable water tap provided at the main office. Up till now I dared not let water go down into the holding tank, just in case we got a freeze. Yesterday I took the fate of my plumbing into my own hands, and set everything into motion.
I had to first flush the antifreeze from the system; in the fall you put it in undiluted, and pump it throughout the system. It takes about 5 litres and you have to make sure that it displaces the water in all the lines, otherwise you lose all the little valves and connectors that make the system viable. I have a by-pass on the water heater, otherwise it takes five gallons and five litres to do a thorough job. Flushing the system is pretty simple, but, to turn off the by-pass a little stopcock must be rotated 90 degrees, and, while this is effortless, in order to get at it I have to tear the entire bed apart, and this is complicated by the fact that I was using half the bed as storage space. They say that you can't take it with you, but, in a RoadTrek you can ....if you are prepared to sleep with it!
The chairs that the owner of this van is so fond of are OK but they wipe out most of the usable storage space in the rear of the van. I now have them set up in my campsite, along with the barbecue, and subsequently am able to now store everything in the rear with the exception of my mistress; she remains in bed with me as neither her dignity, nor delicate hardware would stand up to the rough ride of the trunk. I'm looking forward to bed tonight; it gets a little unnerving waking up each morning with several old bags.
This morning I prepared myself for a modest luxury; I turned on the water heater, and steeled myself for the challenge of doing the dishes. Till now I've been stacking them in the sink, and taking them over to the office once a day to their out door dish washing sink. It's not too bad for they have hot water, but I feel sorry for the people that did them there all winter; either they really recycled their dirty plates, or their hands got badly chapped. It feels very civilized to be able to have a coffee and, when you are finished, to be able to wash the mug in warm soapy water, and put it away, abolishing the otherwise inevitable clutter.
You could argue that civilization as we know it would never have been possible without warm soapy water. I remember reading someplace a writer who enthused about the possibility of reincarnation. He claimed that if reincarnation was a valid concept, his fervent desire was that he come back as a desert spoon! It sounded implausible to my sceptical ear, but he explained his wish these terms; a desert spoon spends most of it's life in a warm, dry dark place, and only has to come out when its specialty is required. At that time it is immediately plunged into a sweet, gooey confection, then withdrawn and popped into a warm mouth where it is licked and sucked clean. Then back into the desert, and the cycle is repeated until desert is finished. At that point it receives a bath in warm soapy water, dried carefully in a clean cloth, and then restored to its warm dark place, where it can rest safely in anticipation of it's next bout with a desert. Maybe the writer had a point; it doesn't sound like a bad life when you look at it that way.
I had just finished my dishes, and was feeling pretty good about things, when I saw a red light I'd never seen lit before come on on my cabin panel. I was out of propane! I've never filled the propane tank from empty before; Julie and I used it extensively last year, for cooking, heating, (we had a few weekends where we were camping in the snow), the refrigerator, and, of course, hot water. When I filled it before coming out West I discovered that we had only burned $11 worth of propane in our adventures. I've had a lot of sub-zero days on this trip though, and wasn't really surprised. When it was filled this morning the bill came in at $17.47; I was quite impressed at the RoadTrek's frugality with propane! However, I did have to wait two hours till I could fill it, and, instead of the sausage and eggs I'd planned on, I used the microwave to heat a can of chicken soup. That's right! There really is "Chicken Soup for the Trailer Park Soul!"
It was nice and warm here for a change last night, so, about 8:00 I took my first meander through the entire park. I soon realized that where I'm located is sort of an afterthought; the majority of the park is older and more established, (not to mention having better drainage!), and I suppose that this expansion was thrown together to meet the needs of this not so transient workforce. The owners, I assume, are making a fortune! They are, unlike most RV facilities, impervious to the weather, and operate almost at capacity 12 months of the year. Their location, just two miles outside the city limits, guarantees that within a few years their acreage will be worth a fortune.
The RV's run the gamut from new and pristine, to antique and pristine, to junkers that someone has picked up to save the former owner a trip to the dump. There are even a few workers tenting her; I can't really imagine that for a life style. I was talking to a couple of genuine tourists from Holland, Chris and Miriam, who had just completed a ten day tour of the Rockies in a nice rental unit, and departed this morning to return their Class C, and catch a flight to Toronto where they are spending a week visiting relatives. They loved the Rockies and were blessed with great weather until the last couple of days. I don't know anything about the real estate prices in Holland, but they were aghast at the prices they'd seen in BC and here in Calgary.
At the far end of the park I saw a sight that made me glad that my dwindling memory had caused me to neglect to bring my camera. It was an old beat up trailer, with a set of patio doors thrown open to the setting sun. Directly behind the door was a man sprawled in a chair, looking for all the world like a corpulent wrestler sitting in his corner between rounds, with his arms splayed over the top ropes. He was wearing bikini briefs, but it was hard to tell for his distended belly was propped so solidly between his thighs that he appeared naked. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt on the 'Briefs' issue; I hop he was wearing some! I walked a little faster and neither smiled nor waved.
At the back of the camp, in what I'd describe as the only really pretty part that I'd seen, were two 40ish women tenting; I'm not sure whether they are tourists or workers as I didn't get chatting with them. I wished them a good evening which they returned and went on about their business. It did strike me as odd, though, that they were camping in about the only part of the park that isn't swamped by all the recent rain.
I'm not really sure how well I fit into my new digs; I don't have a trailer, I rarely use a park ....where does that leave me? Probably, if I just raise my standards a little, I'll be right at home. Julie is supposed to be faxing me a copy of a freshly validated ownership today, so I'd best go and check on that. I wonder, if you give the nice officer a copy of an ownership, does that mean he'd just give me a copy of a ticket? Hmmmm ....hope I don't find out. The genuine article should arrive here on Friday.
James, (the B. is for Busy with housework) Mackay
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