Quest for Water

We are rapidly finding out that “three day water supply” really means “one day for three people.” The RV that we rented has a 120-liter water tank. I did my research and this is one of the largest water tanks in its class and that was one of the primary selling points for selecting this rig. Now keep in mind, we are being conservative in our usage. Lewis and I take “two-squirt” showers (one to wet and a second to rinse, soaping up in between), and CJ gets a bit more since she has more hair. Then, after doing dishes and making a cup or two of coffee we are running on empty. Fortunately for us, the En Zed is RV friendly.

Almost every town has water and a dump station that is free or cheap to use and we have great maps that show us where they all are at and tonight was no exception. We were running low on water and our grey water tank was full up and we were headed to a Department of Conservation campsite (i.e. free of charge and amenities). We pulled into this little town and dumped our gray water, filled our fresh, and stopped into the restroom there and that’s when it happened: we saw the sign. The water was under a boil notice due to a bacteria infection in the water. And we just filled our freshwater tank. Dislike. Thus began the quest for clean water.

We had a few options to choose from, but ultimately we needed to sterilize our water tank. We started by dumping the contaminated water (which was good in a way because it rinsed out our grey water tank which was starting to smell) and we popped over to the grocery store, hoping to find iodine or chlorine tablets but to no avail so we settled on the next best thing: bleach. A little in the tank and filled back up with non-contaminated water (at an outrageous price of $10!! Convenience store prices are no better here) and now we have a freshwater tank filled with pool water. We can’t drink it, but it works for washing dishes and will get us through until tomorrow when we get to the next town and dump it all and refill with fresh, critter-free water.