About a month before we came down to Cumberland Gap National Historical Park, the volunteer coordinator called us to let us know there had been a water line break. The break affected the buildings in the area where we were supposed to stay. Because of the budget cuts, they were fixing the break in the buildings that had bathrooms, but not to the RV site.
Ranger Layton gave us some options. He said we could move to the campground but then we wouldn’t have water or sewer at our site. That didn’t seem like an improvement. Or they could get us a water dolly and we could haul fresh water from headquarters or the law enforcement building. Having hauled freshwater every day two years ago, we didn’t think that was a good option either. Tom suggested a long hose that would connect to an outside faucet at one of the buildings in the area. After some back and forth, Tom and Ranger Layton agreed this would be the best option. The park ordered 300 feet of drinking water hose and we felt we would be good to go.
When we arrived at our RV spot, we picked up the hose and prepared to set up our fresh water. We found the standpipe at the law enforcement building but it was across a parking lot. We weren’t too crazy about our water line being constantly flattened by cars. When one of the law enforcement rangers came by, we talked to him about any other outside faucets. No other outside faucets. In fact, the water had not been fixed to half of the building. In addition, the standpipe we were intending to use wasn’t working.
Tom and I headed up the hill to check out other options. We found a standpipe beside headquarters that was working. We also found an outside faucet at seasonal housing. The only problem was that each of these water sources was 450 feet from the RV site. That’s a long way to run a water hose.
The next day, Tom worked on getting our water set up. We used a couple of hoses we brought with us in addition to one we bought and the hoses bought by the park. Tom went through the poison ivy, over the hill, and through the woods for a direct water line from the RV pad to the seasonal housing faucet. He had to borrow another hose from maintenance in order to get everything to reach, but he made it! 475 feet of water line so we could take a shower and have water for the toilet and dishes. It wasn’t potable because of the maintenance hose, but it would do for the time being. We have a three gallon jug that we filled up with potable water for drinking and cooking.
Once we had it working, we told Ranger Layton who passed the word on to maintenance. We don’t want them running over our water line when they mow! Then Ranger Layton ordered two more hoses so we could replace the maintenance hose and one of our hoses. The new hoses came yesterday. Tom installed them as soon as they came and we let water run through all the hoses for a while. Today we begin drinking and cooking with the water from the hoses.
The rangers here at Cumberland Gap take good care of us. Ranger Layton, in particular, makes sure we have what we need. The water line going through the woods is long, but it is working. And now that it is set up we can use it and forget about it.