Jan 9: This was supposed to be a work day, but we got up late due to a restless night with the dog, and did a laundry, which brought us almost to 3 p.m. with no work being done. On the other hand, we did learn more about using water in our RV in freezing weather.
When we started out, we put RV anti-freeze (non-toxic) in the toilet, and this was the only “wet” facility we used. If we wanted to wash our hands or some spinach for the salad we poured water out of a pitcher and into the toilet. We took our showers at the campground facilities, and also lugged our dishes there to wash.
After a couple of days of monitoring the temperature in our storage compartments, Chuck concluded that it was safe to use our “grey water” tank which stores the output from the regular drains. Even though we were still bringing water into the RV via pitchers and heating it in the kettle, it is amazing how much more convenient it is to have sinks to wash, brush our teeth and do the dishes.
There are a lot of RVs parked here for the winter and most of them have hoses connecting the RV to the water supply. Today I chatted with a more experienced camper – she uses a heated hose to connect to the water and relies on the warmed water coming into the RV to keep the other lines from freezing. (This works if you are stationary, but if you drive the RV to the next campsite, water already in the lines can still freeze.) At the same time, Chuck discovered that our fresh water tank (which is pretty big) is essentially under our bed, and hence in a heated part of the RV. Conclusion: at our next site we will fill the fresh water tank and then we will have water in the RV, which will be much more convenient. (Filling pitchers at the tap when it is 15F or coming back from the showers with wet hair is really not that much fun.)
Filling the fresh water tank for the first time is an operation in itself. The RV has been winterized, which means that all the incoming water lines are filled with RV anti-freeze. It may be non-toxic, but we do not want to drink it, so the lines need to be flushed. And who knows what has been growing in the tank while it was “empty”? So it needs to be sterilized with bleach solution before use. All this seems like a full day’s work. We will wait until we have a stretch of days above freezing before doing it all.
After 6 nights of temperatures in the teens, our propane tank which runs most of the heating is registering empty. We realized it was running low, but filling the tank means moving the RV to the filling station. And that means packing everything up so that it does not rattle around while we are driving, retracting the leveling jacks, and retracting the slide-out in. It is a big deal – especially with an inch of ice on the slide-out roof. However, the indicator is only good to the nearest 1/3 tank. It turns out that there is a better level indicator on the tank itself, and we have enough propane to keep the furnace running. We will keep the RV in the 50s tonight and refuel after packing but before leaving the campsite tomorrow.