You bet there is!
And I wish more people knew about it. Some RVing etiquette involves that sometimes perceptive yet elusive state called of consciousness known as "Common Sense."
We travel all over, staying at campgrounds for several weeks at a time. As you can imagine, we see people come and we see people go. We've discovered there seems to be a brain hiccup in many people that occurs when they make camp and break camp. I'll explain...
Before I continue, picture for a moment... eating and drinking out of your toilet. Pretty disgusting picture right? I'd say downright YUCK!
Yet we see more people doing the equivalent to this way more often than we see people practicing exemplary (or even decent) hygiene. Bob and I ask ourselves, are we being like Adrian Monk? Or do these people get sick with dysentery and not have a clue as to why?
We'll start at the beginning. Most people (hopefully) wash their hands after using the bathroom. Notice the key word here is "hopefully." We recently saw on TV where scientists went to an office. They swabbed door knobs, phones, keyboards... every surface they could think of. What did they find? E-coli & salmonella, and these were just the big bugs!
Now I'm not pointing any fingers here, but they found this bacteria more often in men's offices.
So where am I going with this?
Men are most often the worker bees who hook up the fresh (potable) water, electrical, and sewer connections. And when it's time to move on, men are usually the ones who unhook all of this and get the rig ready to get on the road again. And what we see, and what I'm about to tell you, may absolutely nauseate you! We see it daily and get sick to our stomachs every time.
Picture this: You're in an RV park. Parked just in front of you is another RV. It's a foreign family. (Note: Europeans are known to run around with little or no clothing at times... something Americans find strange... and it can be disgusting unless it's Fabio in a speedo or something.)
It appears he's having some trouble with his main electrical system so he has several extension cords coming out of his rig. One morning, he makes coffee outside. What's wrong with that you ask?
He's making it right next to the place where he dumps his raw sewage. Now if he did everything right and was careful what he touched and practiced good hygiene, then this would not be a big problem, except... he does not know how the people before him used all of these connections. We'll get into that more later...
Back to our European and his morning coffee. He came out of his RV in his underwear, silky, clinging boxer type underwear and he was pointing the way if you know what I mean. That in itself was more than I needed to see. But, to top it off he had rear cleavage showing. He was not wearing anything else but flip-flops. He had some scratching going on too.
So he proceeds to make his coffee outside. He touches the faucet handle to fill his coffee container. He adds the ground coffee and starts it brewing.
While his coffee is doing its thing, he pulls out his sewer hose and hooks it up to dump his tanks. Bare handed. When his coffee is done, he picks up a cup and pours some brew. With the same hands he has now handled a clean coffee cup that he'll drink from. He also picks up a bagel and begins eating it. Now I'll tell you what's wrong with this picture... other than the obvious just mentioned...
All RVers should know some basic things before they ever set up or break camp. They're common sense things as I mentioned earlier, but we are always surprised just how many people don't know or won't use these common sense practices... called good hygiene.
Let me paint you another picture.
Joe Smith pulls into his camping space. After leveling his coach, putting out slides, and hooking up electricity, it's time for the nitty-gritty stuff. Water & sewer.
He opens up a storage compartment and pulls out his sewer hose--with bare hands. Stored under his sewer hose is his potable water hose, yes, in the same compartment. Consider storing your drinking glass in your toilet and you'll understand the ramifications of this.
As nasty as this sounds, it's gets even nastier, unfortunately.
After handling the sewer and water hoses with the same bare hands, he hooks up the sewer. Which means he has to open a cap at the drain valve and hook up the hose securely so it does not leak its contents when he pulls the lever that opens the valve to dump the holding tank contents. Next he hooks up the drinking (Potable) water hose to the faucet and to his rig with those same hands. In doing all of this he has touched the most germ laden equipment with the same hands he's using to touch what should be the most ungerm laden items.
In case you're a newbie and don't know about holding tanks, RVs usually have three holding tanks. One used for dispensing fresh (potable) water for drinking, bathing, and flushing. The second tank is called the gray tank. This is where dishwater, shower water, and all "gray" water goes. Tank three is the black tank. This is what the toilet empties into. Think of it as the on-board sewage system.
If everyone knew and used proper sanitary techniques, the guy making his morning coffee would not be in danger of becoming sick, or making his family sick, or making the people who use his campsite after him sick.
Before I explain why this morning coffee could be so potentially dangerous, I'll explain how a camp should be set up properly and taken down. Then I'll show you how all too often it is done. We see it on a daily basis and just scratch our heads in disbelief every time. And GAG!
Best practice is to all store all clean items, like your potable water hose, in a separate location from your germy sewer hose. You don't want nasty little bugs crawling from your dirty items to your clean ones.
To begin with, wash your hands. Then take disinfecting wipes and clean your hose hook up before attaching your hose. Then spray it with a disinfecting spray like Lysol, don't forget the handle. These steps are necessary because you don't know what the guy before you did when he broke camp (I'll enlighten you in a moment).
Word of caution, don't take your garden hose and use it as your potable water hose. Standard garden hoses contain lead. What you need to use is a water hose specifically made for drinking water. These are usually white with blue lines on them. Just be sure it is a POTABLE water hose. Now your ready to hook up your water hose. Be sure you don't let open ends touch the ground because the ground could be contaminated with raw sewage (you can't see) by the previous resident.
After hooking up the water hose, you can now hook up your sewer hose. First, put on rubber or latex gloves. Do not use your bare hands. We go to the drug store and buy a box of disposable latex or vinyl gloves like doctors use for exams. This way, once you hooked up the sewer hose, you can pull the gloves off turning them inside out. Then just toss them in the trash.
The reason you should use gloves is you're handling items that come into contact with raw sewage. When you touch them, then touch your clothes, door knobs, and sink handles, you are contaminating them. If you touch your mouth or pick up a bite of food you're also risking ingesting e-coli and salmonella, among other disease causing organisms.
Remember the coffee guy picking up the bagel? He was ingesting a lot more than coffee and a bagel!
The other thing to consider is what the person before you does when they break camp.
Proper procedure is to wash your hands first. Then turn off the water and unhook the potable water hose. As you coil it up to put it away, make sure the open ends do not touch the ground. Once it's all coiled, connect the male end and the female end together so there are no open ends exposed. Now put it away in a clean, sanitary location.
Second, make sure your black and gray tanks are close to full. If not, fill them. Put on clean waterproof gloves (disposable preferred). Pull the black tank lever and empty it first. When you no longer hear water running, shut the valve.
Next, open the gray tank valve. Since the gray tank is mainly bath water and dishwater, it has soap in it and will effectively flush all solid debris from the sewer hose. Once the water stops, close the gray tank valve.
Now you may carefully unhook your sewer hose. Slowly walk the hose to completely drain its contents without spilling on the ground. Did you know it is actually illegal to spill contents from this tank on the ground. In fact, in some areas, like San Antonio where you have an aquifer below, this nasty stuff can get in to the drinking water supply. So be very careful!
Stow the sewer hose in a container in an area away from the fresh water hose. Remove your gloves and toss them. Now you can wash your hands and know you've left a sanitary place for the next person to hook up... and you won't risk making them sick.
Before I end this topic I just have to tell you what I saw this morning. One of our neighbors was breaking camp. He was using a green garden hose as his potable water hose. He came out, no gloves, and disconnected the water from his coach. Then he used that same hose to rinse out the valve opening to his gray & black tanks. This water ran all over the ground by the way... ILLEGAL and unsanitary.
Next he took that same hose, stuck it down his sewer hose and flushed it out about 5 times, spilling on the ground frequently. Then he put the sewer hose away and loosely piled his water hose on top of it. He wiped his hands on his pants and he was ready to go.
Now I have to be careful where I let my dogs run in our own yard. He let a lot of yucky water drain into our yard area. Not good etiquette!
First rule of being a good RVer... leave your campsite cleaner and more sanitary than when you arrrived. If we all do this it will be more pleasant for all of us.
Till next time,
Vicky & Bob Heron (Capt. Jack & Jesse James)
How to work & live wherever and whenever you choose!
Posts
