The closer I got to tomorrow morning, the sicker I felt. I just didn’t feel like I could consider myself to be leaving safely if none of my systems were working. I also realised that if I couldn’t get the hose off the Extend-a-Stay I wouldn’t be able to use my onboard tank either AND I’d have no heat tonight! It’s only going down to minus three, but my electric space heater is on the fritz and I don’t feel comfortable leaving it on all night. So, I really couldn’t just sleep on my problems.

Emboldened by the fact that late this afternoon my pump started to pump water (air in the line, methinks) and, several hours later, I can say that it’s working normally, I decided that I just had to tackle the propane. I know from my experience with plumbing that the way to fix a leak is often to loosen a connection, not to tighten it. I decided that I had to risk damaging the Extend-a-Stay and just put some elbow grease into the problem.

Elbow grease worked wonders and I got the hose off. The E-a-S has a little brass screw cover to plug the hole where the hose connects, so I tried to screw it in but found the hole to be too big for it. I couldn’t fathom how my elbow grease could have made that much damage, so I looked at the hose more closely. I discovered that the hose screws into a protrusion that screws into the Extend-a-Stay. That’s what I’d been trying to loosen rather than the hose itself. DOH! Well, I got that back onto the Extend-a-Stay nice and tightly and screwed the cover back in. Everything looks good, but, of course, I’ll need to watch for leaks when I run propane from the on board tank.

Then, I screwed the hose back on and opened the propane a tad. I immediately heard the telling hissing sound of a leak. In this case, I thought that tightening could be the answer… and it was.

Both my hose and Extend-a-Stay seem to be none the worse for wear, I have no leaks, and, best of all, I HAVE HEAT TONIGHT. 😀

I feel so much better than I did a few hours ago and really ready to go!