You aren't going to believe this one.

 

You're gonna need to know the back story before I tell you about Ivey's Motor Lodge.

I know it's late in the season and we've had some freezing cold nights, but I was JUST getting up to camp to close it down for good. It has mostly been wrapped up and things put away, but the water was still on and I was meeting a plumber to help shut it down and winterize it.

Well, it wasn't exactly the plumber I was meeting, it was his son - a journeyman. Found out that means basically a plumber in training. That's cool. It's just a camp shut down. It was Rick Hannigan's Plumbing and Heating. Rick was busy, his son Tyler was available. But what no one knew until I got there is that the basement was flooded. Burst pipe? Clogged drain? Didn't know - just knew there was a good 4-6 inches of water just sitting there!

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Oh oh. Tyler gets there (he's adorable and cute) and thinks it may be frozen pipes. Just not sure. He gets the water shut down, calls his dad, I call my camp neighbor and we need to try and snake that drain that's just sitting there. The plumber doesn't have a snake, since again, this was just a turn-off the water job.

I buy a $170 snake.

Ever used a snake? It's basically a GIANT wheel of metal that you unfurl and jam down a pipe. Tyler (the journeyman) is in the basement with my new giant snake. A couple of minutes later he comes upstairs (finds me making my new fancy duct tape boots) and asks, 'Do you have any paper towels?' I say, sure, and turn around and his forehead is bleeding. He then asks, 'Do you think I need stitches?' I recommend he get stitches if he doesn't want a bad scar. He was unsuccessful with his snaking. He soon after leaves.

I still have about 3 inches of water in the basement. I came to camp NOT expecting this. I was in clogs. I love my clogs. so I tried to protect them as best I could. Garbage bags and duct tape!

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Looks super cool I know...but it didn't work and I'm afraid I ruined my favorite pair of clogs...but all that bailing of water did lower the level. I was getting there!

 

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I bailed buckets upon buckets of water for about 5 hours straight and got the water line below the door. But I can barely move at this point...and I certainly can't drive 3 and a half hours home. It's nearly 1130pm when I stop. That's when Ivey's Motor Lodge came to my rescue. There was one room left and I grabbed it. I spent a lovely night in Houlton and drove the 30 minutes back to camp Saturday morning.

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That's when I saw that the water level had grown to about an inch! When I left it was a quarter of an inch. Dear God! Camp neighbor said that I had to go into the drainpipe with that fancy snake. The drainpipe was buried about five feet in with a cap on it that had holes drilled in to stop the critters from getting in but let the water go out.

It took me about an hour and a half to just find the pipe! Then another half an hour to get the cap off. Then it happened I jammed that snake up there and up there and up there and finally! I have never been so GD happy in my life!

 

I immediately ran to the basement. At first, I was super disappointed. Nothing seemed to be moving...but it was. It was just a little slow at first. So I went and watched the river of water flow from that pipe. I just imagined all the buckets I didn't have to lift! In fact, once the water was out, I took to drying that sucker out! I spent all day lifting and drying everything in that basement! Looks pretty good, doesn't it?

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I'm heading up next week. I need you all to collectively cross your fingers okay? Thanks.

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