The Wreck of the Stool Bus

As I sit here and go over the horrible details of the event, I can't help but wonder how much worse it could have been. As you read about "The Wreck of the Stool Bus", in the back of your mind you can silently hum "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald". Or not.

It started as any other day. There was a quad ride scheduled for 10 AM that morning. Meaning I didn't have time to do the double dump and pump during the usual time I do it. Double dump and pump means I had to dump our black and grey tanks, which is 2 trips to the Sanidump in the Stool Bus. Also to fill our 55 gallon water tank with freshwater and then transfer it to our fresh water tank in the camper. All in all it takes about 2 hours to get all of that done. So I decided to go on the quad ride first and then dump and pump after.

The ride was fun and very dusty. So before I started the nasty work I stopped by Jim and Barb's. Soon as I turned off the Ranger, he stuffed a ice cold beer in my hand. Although against my better judgement I drank it as to not offend him. I will admit that it tasted very good and washed the dust down my throat. I politely told him I had to get my chores done and thanked him from the bottom of my heart for the beer. Before I could leave and before I knew it, Barb jumped on my lap to hold me down and Jim shoved another ice cold beer into my clenched fist.

"You can't leave until you finish that!" he said to me.

"Okay sir. If you insist. But after that I really must go before it gets dark." I said sheepishly. I had one more sip  left and I was ready to go. Before I could even finish that he shoved forcefully another can of ice cold beer into my hand. What was I supposed to do. I knew it was all about the beer with him.

Case in point. He said "Let's go to Lake Havasu City. There's some breweries I want to go to. So we drive the 2 hours to Lake Havasu and go to one brewery. Mudsharks it was called.

Here Lisa and I are posing with a homeless lady we picked up. So we go in have a beer and lunch and leave. Go to the next one, Hanger 24. Have a beer and leave. Drive back the 2 hours in my truck getting 18 miles to the gallon. I could have had 2 beers at home and saved the 100 bucks for the day. One time in South Dakota, we drove 3 hours to a brewery for one beer. If we are driving that far for a beer, I want to get shit faced. 

Oops. I got off point. So I had almost finished my second beer when again he just forcefully puts another ice cold beer in my hand. Again, against my better judgement and not to offend him by refusing his hospitality I accepted it. Thankfully Jim has a small bladder and as he left to go use the bathroom, I knocked Barb off my lap and escaped to my camper to start my chores. Crisis averted.

The first dumping went without a hitch. Which is good because the first one is the black tank. I get back to our rig and dump the grey tank. I hook it up to the Ranger.

And proceed to go to the sanidump for the second load. The first sanidump was busy so I head off to the second one a mile away. There is a slight turn. Apparently I took the turn too fast (Must have been the alcohol) and it tipped right over and I drug it about 20 feet. I jump out of the Ranger expecting it to be leaking all over but I lucked out.Just some minor road rash.

I tipped it back up on its wheels and headed off to the sanidump. I am driving along and look in the rear view mirror and notice that there is a lot of dust following me. I stop again and look at the stool bus. What I see is that one of the straps has come off, wrapped itself around the wheel, completely locking up the wheel. It was dragging like that for sometime because it really chewed up the tire.

So as I was stranded by the side of the road trying to untangle the strap around the wheel, people would just drive by and look. I ended up cutting the strap away and very gingerly continued my trip to the sanidump. The stool bus just hobbled along making weird thumping noises. I dumped and then threw the stool bus into the back of the Ranger and went home. All-in-all I should blame Jim for all of that. Making me get a DWI. Dumping While Intoxicated.

So if you run the numbers and let me tell you that Lisa has done it dailly and won't let me forget it.

The cart was $36 dollars but they took off $6 because it was the floor model. So $30. One wheel was about to burst because of the rocky terrain. So I replaced it with a new one. $12 dollars. Then the other tire was showing signs of failure. So another $12. Then the wreck came. Another tire. $12 dollars again. So I have spent $66 dollars to haul our crap literally across the desert. I still have 10 more dumpings before we leave. I hope the stool bus makes it.

On a more personal note. Jim and Barb said to us. "Drive us to Yuma! It will be fun!" So we did and that day became the day I refer to as The Sushi Incident.  Or also the day I almost starved to death. You can read about it here if you haven't heard about it. Which I think everyone has.

Sushi with Dino

I am too traumatized to relate all of the gory details. We have been busy with lots of quad rides and other day trips which I will have to write about later because I feel a cramp coming on.