Today’s a work-from-home day for us. But we’re not at the stix & bricks in Vienna; we’re at Candy Hill Campground, in Winchester, Virginia, about 80 miles (128 km) away. Ain’t it great to be able to telecommute :-)
An easy drive puts us in Winchester, near the Virginia / West Virginia / Maryland state lines.
We left the house around 1:15p yesterday. An hour later, the toad hitched up, we were on the road in the Phaeton. Google Maps’ driving time estimate was spot-on. With the traffic flowing smoothly, we made good time, arriving at Candy Hill Campground shortly after 4:00p. Even the weather cooperated — sort of — and the rain that accompanied us part of the way fizzled into a light drizzle, allowing us to set up in relative comfort.
This is our first time here. It’s a nice enough campground, with plenty of trees and lots of grass, but the sites are packed close together and share water/electric pedestals. Cozy is the word that comes to mind. This is not the place to come if you’re looking for privacy. Since we don’t plan to “stay home” Saturday — our one day to play during this trip — we’re not bothered by the close proximity of neighbors. Not that anyone seems to be out and about anyway. Besides, with sites in our section of the campground alternating back-to-front, we have some semblance of privacy where we are.
We’re in F9 (circled in blue on the left); the office-lounge-arcade building is
actually across from us and not offset as shown on the map.
[map courtesy of the campground website]
We were initially assigned site B9 (the one in red in the lower right portion of the map), but asked to be switched after seeing its proximity to Route 37. Instead, we were given F9, another 50-amp, full hook-up, premium site. At $50/night (plus 10% Good Sam discount), this campground is not inexpensive, but we’re used to that in this part of the US. Cable is included (26 channels); Tengo-provided wi-fi is available for a price. Our Millenicom aircard works just fine, so we won’t be availing ourselves of that service.
Settled into site f9.
We’re butt-to-butt with the sites to our left and right, so there’s a bit more privacy here.
By 5:00p, we were parked, jacks down, slides out, hook-ups complete. While Mui dumped the black and grey tanks from our Bull Run stay, I vacuumed and Swiffered the floors before unrolling the rug to make our home nice and cozy. Then it was time to explore the campground.
We’d just returned from our walk and were talking about getting dinner on the table when a really loud BANG startled us. What on earth???
At first we thought our neighbor must have accidentally dropped open the door to their toy hauler. To be safe, we stepped out to investigate. Oh, oh! There was water flowing out from under the coach. My first thought was that our fresh water tank had somehow ruptured and I envisioned a disaster on our hands. It turns out that it was just the water filter. The bottom had split off from the rest of the canister and water was gushing out all over the place. Shutting the spigot at the source immediately stemmed the flow. BUT we now had no water coming into the Phaeton.
OK; no big deal. We have every RVers best friend — duct tape. Mui dries the canister and tapes it up real well. It doesn’t look pretty, but as long as it holds, who cares! He screws the unit back in place and turns on the water. Problem solved, right? Nope; water gushes out like a geyser, though a smaller one now.
OK; no big deal. Camping World is just down the road a bit. But wait; it’s closed for the day. No problemo. Wal-Mart, Lowe’s, and Home Depot are all a short drive away. They’re bound to have what we need. Right? WRONG! None of them have a canister to match ours. There are other brands, but it’s already dark, and it’s cold, and Mui’s not in the mood to install a new system.
OK; no big deal. Waterproof epoxy should work to temporarily secure the bottom of the canister. “Sure, that will do the trick; I used it for my truck’s fuel pump,” says the helpful young man in the orange apron. $5 nets us a tube of PC-Plumbing. Back home, Mui starts kneading the Play-Doh like stuff until it’s a uniform color. Soon, the bottom of the cartridge is attached with a ring of epoxy around it. It doesn’t look pretty, but as long as it works, who cares! While the epoxy sets (60 minutes the instructions say), we have dinner and watch a show on TV. Then Mui goes out to install the filter. “BANG,” I hear, but assume it’s the basement door being closed. Nope; the filter has blown it’s bottom again. Nothing to do until morning; a couple of buckets of water from the spigot outside and we’re good to go for the night.
Plan A and Plan B don’t work.
And thus we brought yesterday to a close. Mui headed out to Camping World first thing this morning and picked up a replacement. Our plumbing is operational again. We have no idea why the filter canister blew like it did. Perhaps there was a hairline crack that finally gave under pressure. At least it happened while we were at home.
Plan C successfully restores water to the Phaeton.
After such an eventful evening, a quiet day at Candy Hill was in order today. We spent most of the
Shortly after 3:00p, our work-day having drawn to a close, we drove into Winchester for a look-see around Old Town. At least the sun came out briefly and there were patches of blue sky while we were out having some fun. But that’s a story for another post. Dinner is over, the dishes are loaded into the dishwasher, and Mui’s got the second disk of John Adams (HBO mini series) cued up and ready to go — time to enjoy a quiet evening at home.
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