Well, today I’m home, after 3 long, hard and wonderful days in the RV at the lake, for the first time since we bought the RV a year ago.
Allow me tell you one of the most wonderful things that happened during that time, as if it happened today, so I can stay within the parameters of the question:
My son and his wife brought the kids out for swimming and such and Saturday afternoon. They were there for about 4 hour we all had a sunburned blast!
My granddaughter, Anna, is about 3½. She’s been potty trained for several months, but she still has this infatuation with bathrooms. They are all so different and unique, you know? Each one is like a new adventure.
Normally we have the RV parked in the driveway, and I’ve let Anna, and her 7 year old bro, Jay, play in it. Every time Anna will come out asking to use the bathroom in there, and I have to say “No,” because no power, no water.
Well, at the lake she announced she had to go potty.
I said, “Hey! You wanna go potty in the RV?!”
Oh, she was so excited!!
So we went to the bathroom.
“Now, this is a little different than what you’re used to,” I said. I opened the toilet lid and said, “For one, there is no water, see? And that’s OK. Now, when we flush it, it’s different too. There is no handle on the side. What you do is step on this little step here (under the bowl.) It’s kind of noisy. Do you want to try flushing it? ”
Anna’s always been wary of unknown things, especially when they make noise. She shook her head and backed into the hallway (a foot away…it’s an RV) and put her hands over her ears, watching with concerned fascination.
I said, ‘Well, I’m going to flush it now, so you can hear it.”
I stepped on the step and it grumbled into life. I had to coax her into the bathroom to see what it was doing. She was reluctant, but finally peered briefly into the bowl, with her hands still over her ears.
Then we were done with the demonstration, the noise was gone, so I plunked her down on the toilet.
Then she asked for the toilet paper.
The designers had cut a slot into the little cabinet door, which was under the sink, and the toilet paper, which was attached to the inside, flowed out the slot…kinda like magic, you know?
When Anna saw the foot of toilet paper that was through the slot already, waiting to be pulled, her eyes got wide and disbelieving and she said, “That is the craziest thing I have ever seen! How cool!
I laughed and said, “Yes it is, very cool!”
She nodded enthusiastically, pulled a bit more than she needed, just to watch it flow out the slot.
Then she quickly went into the hallway while I flushed.
RV Bathroom Management 101 concluded.
The 2nd time she asked to go to the bathroom (about 15 minutes later,) I took her again. The best part was the toilet paper.
She was still wary of the flushing, though, but watched it, without her hands over her ears, and said that it was pretty cool how that flap came back over the hole when it was done. I explained that it went into a big tank that we empty when we leave.
We had to go look at the tank.
RV Bathroom Management 102 concluded.
The 3rd time, when she was done I said, “Do you know how to flush it?”
“Oh sure!” she said, with the utmost confidence.
She stepped on the lever…and nothing happened because she isn’t heavy enough.
She climbed all the way up and stood on the lever, and still nothing happened.
She jumped up and down on the lever and….still nothing happened.
So I got her down, had her put one foot on the lever, and I put a foot on the lever, and on the count of three we flushed together. She didn’t even flinch.
RV Bathroom Management 103 concluded.
The 7th time she asked to go the bathroom, Dad said, “Anna! This isn’t Walmart!”
I said I’d take her again, cuz I had to go too. When we got there I asked if I could please go first. She allowed as how I could.
And I said, “Thank you.”
And she said, “You’re quite welcome.”
Of course, she had to be in there to cheer me on. (“Did you pee? Oh! GOOD JOB, Gramma!” Clap clap.)
Then, I asked if she would hand me some toilet paper, and she did. Then she kind of looked at me out of the corner of her eye…and slowly started pulling more and more toilet paper out of the magic slot. Soon she had about a hundred yards of toilet paper pulled out and spilling all over the floor. She looked at it, biting her lip, satisfaction, awe, and concern flitting over her face.
“Well, what are we going to do now?” I asked.
She tried pushing the paper back in the slot…which didn’t work very well, of course.
I opened the cabinet door and she saw the roll on the inside and just gasped in delighted astonishment. “So that’s how that works! Who would ever even think of such a thing?!”
I said, “Brilliant minds, like yours, think of such things!”
She nodded enthusiastically, and without a word from me, began rolling the roll backward, sucking the paper back out of the slot and back on to the roll.
Awarded a BS in RV Bathroom Management, Magna Cum Loo.
It was great!