Friday, August 13, 2010 - Barrel Day

After breakfast, I headed down to the nearest town of Florence, and found a hardware store. I explained my problem, that we wanted to remove the top of the barrel (it was melted on), and she referred me to their equipment/tool rental place a block away. A very nice man on a scooter chair named Bob helped me. He whipped out a skilsaw and was soon cutting through the top like butter, then he wouldn't let me pay him (his Friday the 13th present). After thanking him profusely, I went to the Safeway next door to get Hubby the dark chocolate we had forgotten early, then back to the hardware store for drum liners (55-gallon garbage bags), then down to the car wash to wash out the barrel. Fortunately, though it looked and felt like oil, it washed down easily under high-pressure soap and water. Then I found a 76 gas station with a handy hose, lined the barrel, and proceeded to fill it to the top. My plan was to twist-tie the top to keep it from spilling, but there wasn't enough left at the top, so I bungeed the lid from the metal grain can on top, and put the top that we cut out from the plastic barrel and bungeed that as well, both fit well enough to do the job. Drove slowly back to camp, spilling very little. After filling their two big tubs about halfway up (three portable buckets apiece), we still had almost two-thirds of a barrel left, so this should be plenty for the weekend, especially since there's likely to be water on the trail. Had hoped to get a short ride in, but too much work to do, and Hubby had the need to take a nap from his exertions while I was gone, so we called it quits by 4:15, opened the bar and settled down for the night.