We had been camping without any services for several days. We love boon docking but it does mean we have to conserve on water. After several days of camping off the side of the road we needed to empty our black(poop) and gray(shower/sink) tanks. Plus we needed to refill the fresh water tank. This is not a big deal and we do it regularly. This time was different.
We were parked at mile 244 on the Parks highway and were leaving there to head toward Fairbanks. About a 2 hour drive. Another camper we spoke with said the Fred Meyer grocery store in Fairbanks had a dump station and water. Great, we can take care of the tanks, get gas in both vehicles then head over to the Elks lodge and park. When we arrived at Fred Meyers there was no dump station. But their price on gas is always lowest around and we get a 3 cent per gallon discount. So we filled Harvey and the car. Then we went in and did some grocery shopping.
The gas station attendant said he thought the Holiday station about 1/2 mile away had a dump station. So after putting the groceries away, we drove the car over to Holiday to check it out. No dump station! Then we used an app call "Dump stations", yep, there's an app for that. It tells you all the dump stations in an area you designate. We found one and drove Harvey there only to find they had no water supply to rinse the tanks or the equipment. Of course I did not discover this until after I had emptied the black tank.
A side note here, connecting up the drain line to Harvey and the other steps needed to empty tanks is not complicated. It is difficult to write about it, but it's basically a pretty simple process. It also means that I have to remove all equipment from the utility cabinet to connect the soil line. When done I disconnect the soil line and stow all the stuff that came out of the cabinet.
When emptying tanks you always empty the black tank first. Then refill it with a fresh water source and drain the tank again. This gets the tank really empty, then empty gray allowing the gray water to flush the soil out of the line before you put it away. But with no water source to fill and rinse the black tank I had no choice but to empty gray, which I did but was not happy about the condition of the tanks and we still had not filled fresh water.
So we looked for another dump station, found one, called to be sure and headed over. The plan was to refill black, drain, fill fresh and be gone. When we got there we found the water supply by the dump station was broken. Perfect! But, the store manager was near by and said we could use the spigot coming out of the side of the building. So we pulled Harvey up to the building and filled the black tank. Since this was potable water we also filled our fresh water tank. The water supply at dump stations is never potable. Potable water source is always kept away from the dump sight. Then we pulled back to the dump station and emptied black. Each time I have had to remove and stow equipment. Finally we had the task complete and headed to the Elks. It took us more time to get the tanks taken care of than it did to drive from Denali NP to Fairbanks. Not the best day, but it could have been worse.
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