Indio was a temporary stop for us before going to the coast. With the trailer hitch getting replaced it kind of fucked up our grey water waste valve. Basically it was now sticking straight up.
We were brainstorming how to redo the valve and how to drain the grey water. This became an issue because it had filled up and was dripping out of the top breathing/air valve. We biked over to a place for lunch. Keeping the valve in mind I was googling plumbing shops. I saw one that was less than 2 miles from the restaurant we were at. I managed to coerce the guys into biking with me. I might have exaggerated a little bit and told them it was closer than it was.
After crossing some train tracks we got to a semi commercial supplier. Jacob gathered a bunch of stuff for different possible combinations. So we started heading back. Keep in mind that Indio is still the desert. Biking miles in the sun during the hottest part of the day was taking its toll on me. Matt and I ended up stopping at a gas station to buy some water. Phil and Jake thought that was a stupid idea so they biked on.
I was navigating for us and I overshot the street we should have taken. My lack of map skills turned out to be a blessing. There was an RV shop! “Oh. Shit” I thought to myself, “I bet they carry waste valves”. We went in and started chatting with the proprietress. An older lady who told us to bring our bikes in because “Indio is the bike theft capital of California”. We ended up going through all of the plumbing stuff and grabbed a grey water waste spigot. Everything clicked. I had originally wondered why the 1 and 1/2″ fittings didn’t have the camco rhinoflex type drain fittings. Grey water is supposed to be drained with a regular garden type hose if it’s an independent system! So we put back some of the plumbing stuff that we had grabbed earlier and grabbed fittings so that we could use this grey water spigot. It was also advantageous because the space had gotten much much tighter with the new hitch. We also bought a new shower head because the original one was leaking like crazy. We also grabbed some other odds and ends. A pop up waste can. Some electronic crap. And I can’t remember what else.
So, we end up back at the bus and show Jake and Phil our newly purchased spoils. I can’t remember if I started on this immediately or if I ended up taking a break. I think I ended up rearranging the trailer for travel. Or we moved the trailer so we could take the bus out to dinner and shopping (bike tubes were needed, evil desert thorns killed 4 out of our 8 tubes).
Bought some beer. Bought some ice. Ate at a Korean restaurant. Got back to the park and drank beers and watched TV shows. Next day was time to get to work on the water system and rewire the trailer hitch 4 prong connector (it had come undone from the bus hookup and dragged at one point so that the metal connections were severely scraped down from rubbing against the pavement).
From here it’s onwards into California. Desert jamming and then into LA.
(I didn’t take any pictures. Sorry. Hopefully Matt has some)