Excellent first trip

[bolinski]

Got on eunder our belt!!! Short trip for us to Silver River State park in Ocala, Fl. Nice pull through site with good privacy. Stayed from Sunday to Sunday then changed sites and stayed to Monday because we did not want to leave.

The rib tires did great-had her up to 65-70 on State Road 40 and not one bit of sway. Forgot to put the tail-gate up for 1st few miles though and left the keys dangling from the stoarge compartment. DOH!!!!

Let's see what else did we learn---- galley and grey tanks fill up fast! No problem with back water tank. I did not even realize that we had a galley tank-had to call Keystone to find out where to empty the galley tank. Another DOH!!!! Guess we are going to have to buy one of those Blue Boy containers on wheels to be able to legally dump the grey and galley tanks if we are going to stay at Fl. State Parks. Cold morning on Sunday and heavy winds and rain on Saturday but the dvd player and furnace worked quite well!!! Other days were beautiful. Ended up that we had most if not all of the things we needed considering it was the first trip. Much thanks to everyone here because it is why we had nearly everything we needed. Missed the Bike Week noise by leaving the Daytona Beach area which was nice.

Question- Does anyone know where those Blue Boys can be purchased besides an RV place? They are expensive at the RV place and I did not see any at Wally World(Wal-Mart). $130+- for 22 gallon one at RV place.

[HamRad]

Jeff,

Do you have teenagers? If so the tanks will fill up much faster than with just a couple. We (just two of us) can go about 7 to 10 days with our tanks. Of course we learned that over a period of time. You learn to conserve very quickly. You might want to hold off on rushing out to buy those very expensive tanks. And if you do decide to buy them I'd suggest looking at some used ones. Many folks will buy the tanks when they first start camping and then discover they don't need or want them.

Just a suggestion. We all need to do what makes it work for us. So whatever works go for it.

Keep enjoying. It should only get better.

Dennis

[boylanag]

Sounds like you had a great trip. Dennis is right. We, too, learned quickly to conserve water. When showering, turn water off after soaping up and then turn on again to rinse off, put dish water in comode instead of into gally. This also helps keep black tank cleaner. Soon, you will have many ways to conserve and then, if you still fill them rapidly, buy your tank.

[stiles watson]

Some how we tend to operate so as to have all three tanks fill at near the same time which is four or five days. When in camp, we tend to use the camp bathrooms whenever possible.I even try to shower at camp facilities if they are well attended, especially at state parks. We get longer capacity while traveling than when we are set up for the longer stay with full hook up.

[mail2us]

Jeff we too camped at Silver River as one of our first. I believe it was site 50 which was close to the restrooms which were extra clean. We had Daughter, Son-in-law and 2 grandsons. We only used the commode during the night and showers were used at the restrooms. I'm not so sure you would need the BlueBoy but your circumstances may be different. We enjoyed the weekend! Good Luck. Dennis

[TMerrell]

We carry a "blue boy" as a back-up. We end up camping at quite a few horse arenas, which typically have water and electric, but no sewer. We keep it "just in case" we need to get rid of some grey water. Typically, the horse arenas have a remote dump station.

The black tank seems to last a long time. I had not thought of putting dish water in the toilet. I guess you could even capture shower water and do the same, in a pinch. Thanks for the idea.

[Joe-n-Doe]

Jeff,

Glad to hear your maiden voyage went well. We too stayed at Silver River State Park last month---space 50 same spot as Dennis. It was a pull through and conveniently located next to the bath house.

We arrived on a Monday and departed on a Thursday. According to the gauges, both gray tanks were full. Our galley tank seems to be the first to fill up, or so sez the gauge. Because it seems we use less water in the galley than shower this seems a bit odd.

Our last TT had 2 real small holding tanks, 15 gal each. We used it on 3 long cross-country trips and found the need for a blue boy only once. That was at a MWR camp ground in Coronado and because they didn't have sewer hookups, they provided a blue boy for the guests. Doris would use the TT's shower and I would almost always use the bath house (only because I found the shower in the TT too confining). With the exception of the 7 day stay in Coronado, the capacity of the black water tank was never an issue, nor has it been with our Monty.

If you decide to buy a blue boy, make sure you get the model that you can hook-up to your bumper hitch for towing to the dump site.

[bolinski]

Thanks for the tips. We do need to learn how to conserve our water usage. The wife probably will not go for showering anywhere else besides our own, no matter how clean the campgrounds' are so that is my burden to bear!!! Part of problem is that our kitchen sink stopper doesn't work holding the water so once I get a new one it should help. Putting some dishwater down the blank tank is a great idea.

We camped at site #8 and then moved to 57 which was a back-in site. I actually did better at the back in site becuase I pulled too close to the hookups at the pull through site.

The blue boys are expensive but the wife's disability gives us 50% off at all state parks in Florida so we anticipate capitalizing on that discount, plus we prefer locations where they don't jam you so close to each other. Probably will have to stay close to home due to her cancer. We will be getting her tests done in a couple of weeks and if they are good we still may haul off and go to N.C. or at least Charleston S.C.

If it was up to me only, I would sell the rest of our property and head out for good! You folks that are doing it already probably don't know how good ya got it. Stay safe and God bells all of you!