RETIREMENT KNOWLEDGE, INC.
12900 N IMAGE CANOE - PORTLAND, OREGON 97217
503 283-8521 - FAX 503 289-6369
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: July 6, 2004
Contact: Serina Zavala
Telephone: 503 283-8521
Fax: 503 283-8935
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HOLDING TANK HORROR STORY CONTEST WINNERS
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Tampa Florida, this years' winners of the "Holding Tank Horror Stories," YARA North America's (Formerly Hydro Agri of North America,) manufacturer of ODORLOS a natural product that is biodegradable environmentally friendly which effectively prevents unpleasant odors found in holding tanks, are: 

FIRST PLACE WINNER OF $100.00
Robert Ross 

My wife and I worked at Camping World one winter in Tucson AZ. She was a cashier and I worked the floor helping customers. One day a customer came in and needed help with his holding tank. He explained to me that when he opened his valve nothing would come out, he said that when he looked down his toilet it was full. He said he didn't use any chemicals in his tank but when it wouldn't come out of the sewer hose he bought some and started adding them to his tank, He said that he had waited about a week and the tank would not empty, "what should I do?"

I asked him if he had a pretty straight line from his valve to his tank? He answered that yes, he did. I then told him to get a long stick, wire or something he could slide up the line to the tank and try and free it. I then told him to change clothes because when he breaks the blockage the sewer debris will rush out very fast and he 'WI LL GET WET'!

I really stressed this to him and he told me that he would try that and left. About 2 days later he came back and told me he got it open and he took a sewer bath. He said that when he stuck the stick up the line to the tank and broke the sewage loose it rushed out and just covered him. He said he couldn't shut the valve off fast enough with the stick up the line, so he pulled the stick out could shut the valve off and hook the sewer hose back up and finish empting the tank.
This is where I started laughing so hard that I was in tears. He than said that he walked around to the door where his wife met him and told him to stay there, she would get him a change of clothes and some soap. She told him to go to the clubhouse and shower because he wasn't coming in their motorhome full of sewage. He said that he had to walk across the park covered in sewer, with people looking at him and smelling him, as they were wondering what in the world had happened to him.
He said he took a very long shower, threw his cloths in the trash and went back to his coach. He told me that I was right that he DID GET WET! I than sold him some ODORLOS and told him to use it, as it costs a lot less use than taking a sewer bath.

Second place winner (tie), of a one-year Supply of ODORLOS are:

Kathy Bathurst

A FAMILY VISIT
We found Kathy's last name to be appropriate, (Bath urst)

This is one of those things one only does once! It was a nice winter day in Tucson, Arizona. It was 1996 but I still vividly remember the day.
Our situation is not the usual wife does the inside and husband does the outside stuff around the motorhome so therefore I was in charge of emptying the black water tank. Our son was visiting us and since we were just sitting around at the dinette, I thought why not empty the tank it had been about 10 days. Notice that an important point is that our 31-year old son was there. I went outside, closed the gray water, and turned on the sprayer to clean the black water tank. Ahhh that was easy. Went back into the motorhome. As we sat around visiting I heard a creaking noise. It took awhile to figure out that it was coming from the bathroom. Hummm? Why? OR!!! OR!!! I had forgotten to open the black water valve and the plastic tank was expanding and hitting the flooring. I jumped up, ran out the door, ran around to the tank handle side and quickly pulled the handle. I have since learned that there can be TOO much pressure in a tank and it will blow the sewer hose right off the connection. Since this connection was inside the compartment the hole to the tank was facing me or should I say my face was facing what was now the hole where the sewer hose had been connected.
What a shock to be covered from head to toe but, even worse was, if there is such a thing, looking up at the dinette window in time to see my husband and son laughing, really laughing. No knights in shining armor were they. In fact as I went in to clean up they went out.

I really do use ODORLOS now, but would not want to have that one time experience again. Ever since whenever I empty a tank, I remain firmly standing right at the handles and do not visit with
anyone.

Tied for Second place ,who will also receive a one-year Supply of ODORLOS

Tim Horvath
Here is his story:

VACATION

My wife and I were in an Indiana State Park on vacation last summer. It just so happened that there was a group of RV'ers standing around talking with us and I decided to fill my fresh water tank. While talking to them (and not paying attention to what I was doing) I connected the hose to the black water flushing system instead. I kept waiting and waiting for the fresh water to fill and after about 20 minutes I went inside to check the fresh water level and" it had not gone up. By then it occurred to me what I had done. I went into the bathroom, flushed the toilet and black water, sewer water, came gushing up into my face because the black water tank was full. BOY, WAS MY FACE BROWN! I went outside, quietly, called my wife from the group and asked if she would please help me clean up the mess? If I had been using ODORLOS this still would have happened, but it may have been a little more pleasant!

Honorable Mentions will receive A- 40oz. of ODORLOS.

1. Keith Kersey
2. Joann Bush
3. Velma Von Mosch
4. Carolyn Tramontana
5. Lynda Muir

Here is Keith Kersey's Story:

BUMP IN THE EARLY MORNING

A few years ago while RV'ing around Eastern Oregon, we thought we would work our way back home by way of State Highway 26. What beautiful country we went through. We camped near John Day, Oregon and took off the next morning early, wanting to see more of our beautiful State.
We stopped in the nice little town of "Sisters" and "spent a few hours looking in all the neat shops there. Leaving "Sisters," we had thoughts of making it home to "Florence" on the coast that day. But, as we pulled the rig up the hill over Santiam Pass we realized we would not make it home until very late, we looked for a place to stop over night. We pulled into a State campground and in the dark; we were able to find a spot. Now it was sure easy getting into that spot, and in the morning it was another thing getting out of that spot.
We awoke with the sun and wanting to get on home, because we were already gone a day longer then we planed, we got out of our 5th Wheel and jumped in the pickup and started to pull straight out when l heard something rub near the back of the rig. I got out and checked and saw that I was dragging my rear bumper on the ground. It didn't look too bad, so I jumped back in the pickup and took off again. We got back on the road and made good time going on home.
As I started to back my trailer into the yard with my wife guiding me, she yelled, "something is wrong back here". I got out and went back to see what was wrong. My whole sewer connection was hanging there, and the tanks were now empty of what had been several day's of accumulated sewage. Now, the only place it could have come loose was when I pulled out of the camping spot that morning, and I sure wasn't going all the way back there to find out.
Now learning my lesson, I am a lot more careful when finding a spot for the night, making sure that I can get out without dumping my holding tank.

Joann Bush's story:

Monaco's In Motion, Caravanning Trip To Napa Valley California

My, do it yourself, husband purchased a macerator for our new coach and installed it himself right before we started on a motorhome caravan with fourteen other coaches. Since installing it, he had used it once and was very excited about how it worked.'
As we were about to depart from a campground that had no sewer at the sites, we pulled up to the dump-station. Our coach was the tail gunner for a section of the caravan and the rest of the coaches had already dumped and were waiting for us so we could leave. My husband, being excited about using his new-toy, invited me out to see how well it worked. As we leaned over the macerator, he flipped the switch. The next thing we knew, there was a loud explosion as the hose came loose from the motor completely spraying us with pressurized macerated holding tank contents!
While the other caravan members watched, I started screaming, expletives deleted, as I ran into our coach, stripped completely, and leaving my clothing on the front steps, jumped into the shower.
In his excitement and hurrying, so we wouldn't keep the others waiting; my husband had neglected to remove the cap from the end of the hose that goes down the dump drain. When the pressure built up, the end connected to the macerator pump engine blew apart.
A lesson well earned, we no longer put the cap on the end of the hose when storing it. It has been a few years since the incident, but every time we see our friends who participated in that caravan, we get laughing reminders of that day.

Velma Von Mosch's story:

MAKING A DUMP WHERE THERE WAS NONE

FWe have been traveling many years with truck and travel trailer. Having seen (and been part of) many incidents in our campgrounds and along our highways. This I believe is our most HORROR story.
Spending a long weekend at our children's home in Northern California, where we had all the amenities but, sewer. Leaving their home with a full tank, we pulled into the service station for gas. They had no dump station, so figured we could make it to the next campground. This station was not the configuration of the usual. We entered up a hill, entered a sloping hillside to the gas pumps, not noting the pumps were on slabs of cement at the level of our trailer's holding valves. How we managed to pull the cap off and hook the pull valve took real talent!
There was much action of the owners with hoses in hand, flushing the odor filled station into a vacant lot down the hillside. We filled our gas tanks and left. They never charged us extra to dump.

Carolyn Tramontana's story:

THE GARBAGE BAG DUMP

WMany years ago when we were fairly new to the camping scene, we had taken our travel trailer to my brother's house during the Christmas school vacation. There were 10 of us and his house only had only one bathroom, so we figured the extra camper bathroom would come in handy.
When the weekend was over, we wondered what we could do with the waste in the tank. We didn't want it to freeze. When we got close to home, I suggested pulling into this rest area along Rt. 128 in Needham, MA. that had a dumpster. He carefully backed close to the dumpster. My husband took a 30 gal. trash bag, put it over the drain hole and squatted down. He realized he could only use one hand to hold the bag and the other to pull the handle. He said to himself "I can do this, but I must be fast and grab the bag with the second hand, as fast as I can."
Well, he wasn't fast enough and the waste came out so fast, it pushed the bag to the side of the hole. The waste hit him in the chest and' knocked him on his butt. I was inside the trailer and could hear him swearing like he's never done before. I immediately locked the door. The funniest part was when he came knocking on the door and I wouldn't let him in. He was covered from his neck down and even had toilet paper hanging from his jacket pocket and in his shoes. At this point, I thought he was going to ring my neck so I opened the window over the kitchen sink and removed the screen. I threw him out clean clothes, a wet soapy facecloth and towel, and another plastic bag to put his dirty clothes in. He went out behind the camper, stripped down to his undies in freezing temperatures, washed up, and changed into clean clothes. So much for putting the waste bag into the dumpster.

Lynda Muir's story:

THE GADGET MAN

My dear sweet wonderful husband has only one fault, he's a perpetual "gadget" man. So much so, that I have banned those Shop-on-TV shows from my home. I swear, he is personally responsible for Ron Popeils' wealth.
One of the latest purchases was a "nifty" piece of PVC pipe that screwed on the end of the garden hose and using it's many holes "flushed out" the black tank.
Being anxious to test his "new toy" he made sure that the tank was at least 4 days full. Standing in the restroom over the commode I followed orders to holler when I brought the hose through the window and shoved it down as far as I could. I hollered all right, and I haven't stopped, it seems he forgot one little detail, to empty the tank first. I truly wish I had ODORLOS in there, I can still to this day, smell the horror.

CONGRATULATIONS TO THIS YEAR'S WINNERS!!!

REMEMBER TO JOT DOWN YOUR STORIES FOR NEXT YEARS CONTEST!

Should you be interested in contacting ODØRLØS for any reason, please contact us by mail: sales@odorlos.com

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