Overall Picture: Hardware store in the boondocks offers everything
Overall Picture: Hardware store in the boondocks offers everything
By: Bill Mead
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Posted by editor Mon May 7, 2007 10:24:31 PDT
Viewed 322 times
0 responses 0 comments I can't pronounce the name of the guy who runs Iran these days so don't expect me to spell it but you know who I mean. I mention him because I think he's a knucklehead, not because he's stirring up unrest in the world but because he's spending tons of money on nuclear technology when he most likely could have it for a song at Gateway Hardware in the Mojave Desert town of Inyokern.
I discovered Gateway Hardware because it is just down the road from where my daughter and son-in-law live. This store should interest the Iranian nitwit because I'm pretty sure that in the midst of pellet stoves, swamp coolers and 30 million other useful items, Gateway Hardware must have a few nuclear reactors boxed up and ready to go.
Nothing makes my heart pound as much as a hardware store like Gateway, one that is full of neat stuff. I could easily spend the day there. I suspect that's exactly what a lot of people around Inyokern and Ridgecrest do because the place is always a beehive. I went there for a sack of dog food and left with all the parts for an award-winning sewer hookup. I don't think I could have done that in all the Home Depots on the west coast.
This is a great story so put down your beer and listen. My wife and I recently installed a travel trailer at Jim and Carol's place because Inyokern has an average of 355 days of sunshine a year. We will continue to live most of the time in Tehachapi but even the most avid local booster will admit it often gets cold and dismal here in the dead of winter.
In keeping with my policy of doing things right, I had a county-approved septic system put in for our trailer. But even with the septic system in place there was still a gap between the trailer and the system access. This is where it can hit the fan, so to speak. If you're an RVer, you're familiar with those cheap sewer hoses that nearly always leak after the first use and completely disintegrate after two weeks of direct sunlight. I was determined to put in a hard, leakproof connection instead, one that would make our neighborhood building inspector smile and keep our fastidious kids from throwing us off their property.
On a hunch, I asked the lady at Gateway if they had construction grade sewer components. What a dumb question! Gateway had them by the ton and my lady clerk proved to have the practical equivalent of a PhD in sewerology. I left with enough quality parts to have put the Superdome back in business following Katrina.
I want you to understand that I am not a plumber, either by training or inclination. Out of more than a hundred attempts to make plumbing repairs, I have enjoyed success only twice. The first time was at our place on Potato Slough in 1986 when I stopped a water leak under the kitchen sink. I credit that result to my having consumed four Coronas. The recent Inyokern project is my second triumph, thanks mostly to the professional guidance and bombproof components I got at Gateway.
When I tested the completed septic connection it didn't let a single drop of liquid escape, not even after I ran water through it for nearly an hour. I may have the only permanently dry RV sewer hookup in America. Watch for a forthcoming story about my achievement in Scientific American. The editors there don't know about it yet but how could they pass up a scoop like this?
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