Hosed

[Sheriff Jon]

I wasn't sure whether to put this in here or the Funniest story forum, but since this did happen to me, and to me it was a Nightmare, in here it goes.

Our first motor home was a 1976 Dodge Dreamliner Bunkhouse that we got so we could go to my parents 50th anniversary at my sisters house in Idaho. They have 40 acres that back up to National forest and plenty of room in their driveway for 4-5 RV's but they don't have a sewer dump.

This was our very first trip in the coach, and I had only dumped the tank one time before as we had used park facilities whenever we could on the way up, so my tanks were FULL to the brim. Luckily there is a campground at the bottom of the hill at the Silverwood amusement park, so I drove down there. I asked the Office if there was somewhere for me to dump my tanks and the very nice lady told me to just go use site #3 as their communal Dump was being serviced at the time.

It was late in the afternoon and as I drove in I noticed many of the campers were sitting around a newly lit campfire and enjoying cocktail hour. I pulled in to #3 and positioned myself over the sewer, as if I was an old pro. The plumbing design was kind of crappy (pun intended) and I literally had to crawl under the coach to hook up the sewer line. I was on my back as I removed the cap, and apparently I had forgotten to close the valve the last time I dumped because the full force of a topped off tank came rushing out of the open valve and all over me. I took at least 2-3 gallons of BLUE GOO right in the face before I could find and close the valve.

As if that wasn't bad enough I could hear the howells of laughter from the campers in the background watching the dummy 'trying' to dump his tanks. After I got the hose attached and was actually dumping the tank into the sewer and not onto my mug, I stood up, covered in YUCK and turned to my adoring crowd. I was extremely embarrassed, as I think were they for me. I gave them a sheepish shrug of my shoulders, and they gave me a sympathetic thumbs up. The good thing is.....I gave them a great story to tell around future campfires.

[Ricky Summers]

I cannot tell you how many times I've seen that happen. Even me, after having and owning 13 Motorhomes have done similar. I have been traveling on the road, very hot day and after miles of sloshing in the half full tank have gone to dump at the campground and with all the pressure from the "gas" in the black tank with hose attached even, have still managed to get covered from the build up of pressure (here being in Denver some mile above sea level). Even to this day though, I now take extreme caution when dumping and the process can take no longer than a good 5mins without tank flush. My point is, no matter how experienced we are we are all subject to "our turn" getting "dumped" on and it seems like every single time, someone somewhere is watching.

[Pete Peterson]

Sorry, I just couldn't help laughing...sounds like some of the luck that I have had over the years.  Now that I have read your story, my "crappy stories" seem insignificant.  We pulled into a RV park in Idaho several years ago  (I guess we could return now) and were told that someone had knocked out the power and they couldn't rent us a spot.  No problem, we didn't really need anything except a place to park...well, let me check with my husband, he may be able to get the power fixed later said the lady at the counter.  He told me that it would be a couple of hours or so but he was pretty sure he could fix the problem but no promises.  I ended up paying full price for the space without any utilities.  A few hours later he explained we now had power and water but too many big rigs had filled his sewer system so we couldn't dump our tank.  Now, I didn't have much in the black tank anyway....but,  well I thought, it's been at least eight hours since we had the conversation and I felt kind of bad about paying full price and the only thing we used was our tv set, no cable no nothing.  I finally decide I may as well empty the tank, it's only a little and we may be awhile before we dump again.  Not such a good idea it seems.  I hooked up the hose, pulled the gate handle and about two minutes later it happened....kind of like a cross between an oil strike and a lava flow.  Oh yeah, I said the same thing that you probably said:  OH, Sh--!  I shut it off and trying to cut my losses yanked the hose from the hole and held it up in the air.  Armed with our trash can and a couple of trips to empty them and the hose was at least empty.  Fortunately the water was back on and I could at least spread the evidence around and thin it out.  Like my wife always remind me...we just aren't suited for a life of crime. You don't suppose it's a problem with the Idaho pan handle?  We were in Coeur d' Alene.  the Drive-By Tourists

[Helen Waddell]

Yeah, I definitely like the funny stuff better.  Helen

[Helen Waddell]

You handled it so well I'd have to say it's more funny than horror.  Helen

[Chris Reed]

You are more of a man than me. I would have told that story in a "third person" perspective and never admitting that it happened to me....LOL! Not laughing at you, but with you.....I don't want karma to bite me in the a** next time I'm dumping my tanks.