Last night, our stay at the KOA in Perrysburg Ohio was pleasant and quiet. We woke before 6 again today and decided to get an early start on our drive to northern Michigan.
It was cool (10 degrees celsius) and dark when I began my routine of disconnecting the Starlink, power and water (we didn’t have full service last night). When we left our campsite to drive to the sani station, it was pre sunrise and still quiet time in the park.
Our trailer has two grey water tanks and one black tank. I emptied the front grey water tank, disconnected the hose and asked Connie to pull the trailer ahead so I could empty the black tank followed by the second grey water tank (always drain the black tank first).
The perceptive reader may now know where story this is going.
I secured the drain hose to the trailer (at least I thought I did) and began to drain the black tank. As the liquid was flowing, I gave the hose a little tug to straighten it out, so it would drain more effectively into the pit. That little tug was all it took to dislodge the hose from the trailer and effluent began spraying all over the place. The timing was perfect as Connie stepped out of the truck to see her half blind husband trying to put the hose back onto the trailer, while yelling “oh shit!”
As I held the hose in place and tried to secure it, I glanced toward my lovely wife who had a look of horror on her face. Fortunately, I mostly avoided getting splashed…I always wear heavy rubber gloves for this job. However, the trailer tires and the ground didn’t fare so well.
When the black tank was empty, I closed the valve and made certain the hose was properly connected before draining the second grey tank. While it drained I did my best to wash the trailer tires and dilute the ground around the pit in an attempt to dilute the liquid and diminish the stink for the other campers near by.
After cleaning the drain hose and stuffing it back into the trailer bumper, I approached the truck and Connie who handed me a stack of wet wipes. After a thorough wipe down (legs, forearms and shoes) I was permitted to enter the truck.
I sincerely hoped this wasn’t going to be an indication of how the rest of the day would unfold.
We pulled out of the campground just as the sun was rising. Shortly after I stopped to take a photo of the sunrise.
It was a lovely morning as we departed Perrysburg and headed north toward Michigan.
As we drove north, the temperature began to drop, the wind picked up and it began to rain. The further north we drove the more the wind gusts increased. Every so often a cross wind would hit us and cause the trailer to fish tail. My thanks to Ford for incorporating a driver alert suggesting the driver take a coffee break. Most days it happens only once or twice but today it was a regular occurrence. I guess it didn’t like the way the truck was moving when the side winds hit us and interpreted that as me falling asleep at the wheel. At one point it beeped loudly and flashed red letters on the display “Driver take a break now!”
The rain came down sideways at times and the wind gusts continued until we arrived at our campsite in Mackinaw City around 130pm. We learned later that this kind of weather doesn’t typically come until November. The Mackinac Bridge (pronounced Mackinaw) is prone to closing when the winds are high and while it remained open today, cars and trucks were being piloted across at speeds less than 30km per hour. The winds were gusting as high as 60kms per hour and the swells on Lake Huron were reported to be as high as 9 feet. As Gordon Lightfoot said, “the gales of November came early”.
We had planned to ride our e-bikes to Mackinaw City this afternoon but given the wind and the cool temperatures (the weather app said 10 celsius and feels like 5), we decided to stay put in the trailer and map out the rest of our journey home.
The RV park where we are staying, including our site, is quite bougie…I’m hoping we will get to enjoy some of the outdoor amenities tomorrow. As I write this blog entry, it’s 833pm and the rain is literally pouring from the sky.
Tomorrow we plan to take an early ferry to Mackinac Island. The winds are expected to die down by early morning and the rain to stop by 9am. I hope that’s true because otherwise you may be singing a song of the fate of the passengers on Sheplers Ferry.
Until next time, thanks for reading.
Mal and Connie's Cross Canada Adventure 2.0 