Posted by Tom & Denise 3/11/2023
Our first multi-day stop was in Greensport Alabama. The weather was chilly but not cold and as such we never really gave any concern to the pipes freezing, even though nearly every camper in the park had a heated water line - never registered.
One morning we woke to there being no water. Not a problem, we just turned on the internal water and the coffee was on its way. A little later I decided to investigate and sure enough the shore water spicket had frozen overnight.
I disconnected our hose from the spicket and there it was, a tiny ice cube was poking out and the entire length of hose was solid. I tried to turn the spicket off but it was solid as well and I couldn't move it - I left it on. With no torch in my arsenal, I tried to thaw the pipe with a lighter - right! I decided to wait it out and see if the increase in daytime temps would thaw it for us.
With our internal water working it kind of slipped my mind and the temperature climbed to a "pipe thawing" temperature. Several hours later I notice my neighbor standing in her door with a look of horror on her face, looking at something in our site. Well she stood there for some time and then curiosity got the best of me and I decided to see what was so interesting.
I looked out our side window and saw that someone had secretly installed a fountain in the exact spot the shore water connection had been. The water was shooting many feet into the air and had been for some time. It was very pretty.
I ran out to turn it off but it was stuck and I could not move it. With no luck there we decided to call the office and let them know. We did and they said they would send someone "right down". Now you should know that Greensport Alabama may not be far enough south to keep your pipes from freezing - It is, however, far enough south for the phrase "right down" to mean a whole other thing than it did to me.
Minutes turned to hours as I watched our campsite turn into a swamp. I mean the water was inches deep. Well, the maintenance guy finally arrived walked over and turn the faucet off and with a "There ya go!" he left.
Now I am sure that many of you have heard the expression "righty tighty" and lefty loosey". Well, if your in panic and trying to avoid getting soaked by the very pretty, newly installed fountain in your site, you don't immediately remember such things and this was certainly the case with me. I had been turning the faucet on - not off. The harder I tried the tighter it got.
I debated whether to tell my wife the entire truth and instead make up some questionable story about how the ice had damaged the threads in the faucet, blah, blah. I chose to expose my silliness and we had a good laugh even though we had to contend with the flooding.