Ready To Run

I used to be a hurricane and weather correspondent in far flung ports. Matter of fact, I've been through hurricanes overseas and ran from a few in America.

Now Joaquin is on the loose, it's pronounced wah-keen but JOKIN' sounds more fun, as in you gotta be jokin' me! Wah-keen reminds me I have to go out wah-keen with the dog...

Typically I keep my motorhome ready for disaster. And I've had plenty of disasters...

But all jokin' aside, I knew my water tank was empty and I wanted to fill it. You just never know when the campground will have a water issue and there you sit with an empty tank and no water. Tsk tsk, no fun. No jokin'!

Besides having a full water tank is very convenient if I drive somewhere, I can flush the toilet, wash my hands, bathe the dog, make lunch, all while traveling. Well, I don't really bathe the dog while driving, but when he was a puppy, I was going to see friends. in Ohio. I wanted them to like my puppy, so I pulled over at a truck stop. With my tank of water, I tossed puppy in the sink for a bath, then put him up front in the passenger seat. I turned the fan on that blows through the vents and my puppy blow dried on the way to my friend's house. I arrived with a fluffy dry puppy that smelled clean.

So yesterday I stumbled across Hurricane Joaquin and even though she, oops he,  is not predicted to hit me on the Georgia coast, I still want to be prepared. He could take a turn and head this way. I would like to run like the wind with my full tank of gas and water as a head start. Yepper, I try to keep the gas tank topped up before I camp. That way if I flee in a hurry, I can go 400-500 miles on that tank.

Also my generator uses the same gas tank. If the current campground has a power failure on a miserably hot humid day, I can fire up the generator to crank on that good old comfortable air conditioning.

So yesteday, I drove the motorhome and forgot to fill up the gas tank, even though I thought about it, talked about it, planned on it then OOPSY it slipped my addled brain. Shoot.

Yesterday was the FIRST time I have driven my motorhome since busting up my wrist in July. Well, actually, I drove it about a mile the day after I broke my wrist. I didn't know my wrist was broken, I just knew I woke up with teeth marks on it, ready to finish chewing it off, it hurt like an injured paw caught in a bear trap.

My friend who was traveling with me at the time, well we both thought I was a big wimpy baby. We left the campground in search of pain pills which about 30 miles later landed us in an emergency room in a small town that didn't appear to have a walk-in clinic.

But before all that happened, I had to attend to something super important and I wanted to drive the mile required to accomplish my task. Once my labor of love was completed, I told my friend, I couldn't drive another mile. He took over and such is the long boring odyssey of the shattered wrist, subsequent surgery and all sorts of madness. It seems to be taking FOREVER to heal.

Yesterday my friend had to be dropped off 7 miles from the campground. So he drove my motorhome there, and I drove it back. It was hot and humid and I was a tad cranky from the pain. I was too scared to take anything for the pain, being that I had to drive.

Driving turned out to be not so bad, but putting on the seatbelt, rolling down the window, closing the door, was a huge painful nightmare that had me muttering unprintable things under my breath. I forgot to top up the gas tank, but I think it's still at about 85% full, so maybe I be OK.

I can't wear the arm brace and drive. Actually I am mostly just using the brace at night. If I wear it all day too, I get nothing done. It aggravates me too. Grrr...

Every day I am doing loads of finger and wrist exercises but the pain is just awful. It makes me not so nice sometimes, because I don't want to take the pain pills because they damage my damaged kidneys, but sometimes the pain is so great, I have to pick and choose my battles.

Oh back to the water tank. I filled it up and well like I sometimes do when distracted, I overfilled it. Oh fun. Typically it just spits back out the overfill which is there to let air out while water goes in and to let water out if too much water goes in.

That's when I noticed the electrical compartment where the 30 amp cord is attached was leaking water too. Very strange!

An investigation revealed that my water tank was broken on top. Oh brother. Now in case you are wondering, I didn't break the tank by overfilling it. I think it's a 40 gallon tank and that means about 320 pounds of water when it is full, so these water tanks are built super tough. But mine is from circa 1994. It's been bouncing that the highways off and on for over 20 something years through hot and cold weather.

Luckily I had some MarineTex which is nontoxic and perfect for repairing water tanks. Just a big dang hassle to complete the chore. I had to drain about a fourth of the tank back out again, so it wouldn't strain the repair. I am familiar with MarineTex from patching up my sailboat I lived on in the Caribbean for 10 something years.

Marine-TexHandles like putty, hardens like steel, sands like wood. Available at Amazon with this link. 

Now I find out MarineTex has a better product, called Flex-Set. I never knew it existed until now. If you have a motorhome,  get some, it will repair all sorts of things like plumbing and roofing, to name a few.

Flex Set can be shipped to your door (or campground), click here for more info.

Marine-Tex FlexSet is a non-sagging, non-shrinking, permanently flexible epoxy adhesive.
Sandable and paintable, FlexSet resists vibration and bending failures by curing to a tough, flexible consistency that creates an air and watertight seal between mating surfaces.

Bonds to Polyethylene Starboard & Marine Lumber, PVC, Hypalon®, ceramic, rubber, polyurethane, glass, acrylic, steel, fiberglass, polycarbonate, wood, ABS, aluminum, Lexan® and dissimilar materials.

Apply above or below the waterline, in wet or dry areas.

Bonds dissimilar materials like PVC to copper. FlexSet outperforms PVC Cement! Because of the vibration and shock resistance, FlexSet is highly recommended for PVC pipe repairs. As bonded joints shrink and expand, the FlexSet moves with them. Therefore, it won't crack or break from the surface.

Now then, just so you know and before you start yelling at me... MarineTex products are not super cheap, but THEY WORK. When I sold my sailboat, there were various Marine-Tex repairs on that boat in numerous locations above and below the waterline, and 13 years later when I sold my boat, those repairs were still going strong. Not a single one had to be redone in those 13 years of sailing the high seas.

Now my water tank on my motorhome has a Marine-Tex repair. Matter of fact, I repaired some fiberglass with it awhile back too, and it's been sanded and painted over, so you can't even tell it.

My current home-sweet-home in southeast Georgia.