We’ve been here a month now and have less than a week left. The trees are greening up, the daylight hours are longer and the temperature is rising. The overnight temps were still dipping down in the high 30’s a month ago and lately it’s been staying in the mid to high 50’s overnight. Daytime temperatures rise fast when the sun makes an appearance. I came of age in the 70’s and that’s about the perfect temperature range for me also. Love the sun…don’t necessarily love the heat. And the no humidity thing doesn’t really factor in when the temperature hits 90+…at that point it’s hard to find motivation to do anything except sit in front of a fan.
Rain
is predicted mid-week and with that a day or two of cooler temps. We’ll see...
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Last year we got an education when the toilet starting smelling funky on those 90 degree days:
There are a few reasons why odors become worse in high heat, but it mostly boils down to 2 things: Heat causes water to evaporate in your tank. Heat causes beneficial aerobic bacteria to work less effectively while odor-causing anaerobic bacteria thrive in heat. So that’s the problem and now for the solution: Believe it or not, the solutions to controlling odors in high heat are really very simple! Let’s explore how you can easily obliterate those odors caused by high heat issues.
o Use
ample amounts of water. We recommend holding down your
toilet flush pedal for 10 seconds each time you flush. We understand this can
be more difficult when dry camping. Please see this article for
more tips and tricks when dry camping.
o Use
enough water to cover the waste inside your tank. Also
be sure to keep several inches of water in your toilet bowl at all times.
o Treat
your tanks with a high-quality holding tank treatment.
This
year right from the start we assumed we were doing a good job of keeping ample
water in the tank/bowl because there was no undue odor. Until
the 90 degree temperatures hit again.
Guess we underestimated how much water could and does evaporate from the tank. We thought that draining the black water tank
and making sure plenty of water was replaced would take care of the smell that
belched up every time the toilet was flushed.
Nope, it was still an issue. Time
to get down and dirty with cleaning the tank.
Went
up to Wal-Mart in Casa Grande because they had the proper tank cleaning
equipment in stock, stood 20 minutes in the checkout line and came home ready
to make the bathroom smell better. Kim
was in the bathroom with the hose and swizzle stick and I sat outside being the
Vanna White of the operation. Whenever
he needed the drain opened he’d call on the walkie-talkie and I’d go open it,
give a report and wait for the call to close it. We did that several times
until the water was running clear then we called it good. Time will tell if that did the trick. **Update at 4 pm.: Smell is gone!**
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OMGoodness! Wal-Mart was cra-zee
busy! I have never seen checkout lines
so long…it was like waiting in bridge traffic back home. There were 20 carts lined up for the self-checkout! The lady in front of us said that it was
because people would be heading home soon and they were stocking up. Seriously?! Why would people need to stock up? There are Wal-Mart stores everywhere.” Unless maybe those stocking up are Canadians?
But carts weren’t piled high with items…there were just a lot of people. Anyway,
since I don’t normally shop at Wal-Mart, I wouldn’t know how busy the store
might be on a normal Sunday afternoon, let alone a ‘stocking up to leave town’
Sunday.
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We’re
not quick to turn on the air conditioner…give me a fan for air flow and I’m
good. And today we tried to ride it out
but there was no breeze and the portable fan wasn’t big enough to make a
difference in air flow. So at 2:30 the
air was turned on which meant shutting windows, back ramp and front door….and
for good measure the shades also. It was
like sitting in a cave which is not my favorite but it was getting cooler so I
was willing to put up with it.
When the
heat starts rising like it has been the past few days the last thing I want to
do is put long pants, knee socks and leather boots on to take a ride. I can
talk myself out of getting on the bike pretty easily. Today, though, sitting in a cool camper it
was easy to say, “I’m gonna get ready for a ride” and then carry through on
it. Glad I did.
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Checked the trail cam…had one video of a very itchy coyote. Nothing else.
Added some extra stuff to the bait to make it appeal to a wide range of
critters. It’ll be interesting to see
how the critters handle the sticky marshmallows.
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Rode the Tom Mix Loop and on Park Link Road I saw a rattlesnake on the road. Oh..my..gosh! that was a snake and it was moving…it’s not dead! I have to get a picture for Kim. Which is so unlike me because it’s a rattlesnake! Got off the bike, walked back just a bit, zoomed in and snapped a picture. It was heading for the weeds so I tried to get just a few steps closer…then it stopped, raised its head up over the grass to look at me and shook its tail. The warning worked because I turned right around and quickly walked back to the bike. I only glanced back once to make sure it wasn’t following me.
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Today’s 40 Days of Lent challenge: share a scripture on social media. *Gulp* I couldn’t bring myself to just drop a verse of scripture on my FB page…that’s not me. So I gave it context by explaining about Jeff’s cancer diagnosis and how Matthew 6:34 became my mantra. This one totally took me outside my comfort zone but this I know: We can do Hard Things.
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Bike miles today: 93
Total miles: 1170
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