Bad Water Almost Got Me Sick in New Mexico

Can you believe, my own gear was to blame?

Boomers in the United States often joke about drinking from the water hose in their youth. Like most Millennials from Jamaica, I did the same.

I never once thought about what might be inside a hose until the fall of 2021. I was traveling from Wyoming to Mexico and had booked a farm stay. My hose wasn’t long enough to get to the owner’s spigot, so she loaned me one of hers.

When we turned the water on, it blew out dirt, a nest, and bugs. It seems obvious, but it had never occurred to me that things might crawl in there and live—or die.

It only took one week.

But what if you leave your water hose outside for a few days or a week? Not a year or more like this farm owner had.

I usually put my hose in the bathtub on move days. I reconnect it when I arrive at camp. If there are no water connections, I leave the hose outside until it’s time to move again.

Coconino National Forest had no water connections for my RV, so I had left the hose outside and thought nothing of it. On move day, I tossed it into my RV and drove to New Mexico. I was looking forward to having running water again so that I could do laundry and wash my hair.

Boy, was I in for a rude awakening!

It smelled like death.

I tested the spigot and then connected my hose. But when the water started flowing out, it smelled. It’s hard to explain what it smelled like, but the best description is that it had a faint whiff of death.

I thought maybe the RV park just had bad water, but I couldn’t understand why my filters—rated for giardia in Mexico, no less!—could be letting anything harmful through.

I started to wonder if my hose was to blame, but I could find nothing when I felt and bent along the entire 25 feet of the hose. I ran water through it continually to clear it, but nothing came out.

Eventually, I ran out of ideas and poured bleach down the hose. I then connected it to the RV. You can’t let bleach sit in RV components, so I flushed the system.

I was still suspicious.

Anyone who knows me well can tell you I am an awful germophobe. So, despite coming up with this solution, I decided I wouldn’t be drinking from the water system in the RV. I wouldn't even use it to brush my teeth.

Could I have used my Berkey to filter the water? Yes, but I wouldn’t even do that. I drove to the nearest supermarket and bought large two-gallon water jugs to tide me over. I then ordered a new water hose online.

About a day or two later, the bleach’s effect wore off, and that smell came back stronger than before. I went outside again and tried to figure out the issue for the millionth time.

No luck.

The new hose finally arrived.

When I connected the new hose, guess what? I smelled nothing. That whiff of death that had worsened over time had definitely come from the hose. I immediately poured bleach into the new hose, connected it to my RV, and flushed the system more thoroughly than last time. It took hours to get the smell of bleach out.

For the record: I don’t recommend doing this if you don’t know what you’re doing. Bleach can damage your RV's plastic components and can upset your waste tanks' natural ecosystem. This story is a description, not a prescription.

So, what’s the update? The smell has not returned, and the RV system has passed my germophobe test. I’m back to using my system, as usual, i.e. brushing my teeth, washing fruits, cooking, etc.

I’ve had no issue. However, I’m pretty sure I would have gotten sick if I had risked drinking the death-smelling water from my RV system while the old hose was attached.

The moral of the story

Obviously, the moral is that we should all be germophobes! It can save a life! 😅

On a serious note, I still have no idea what got into my water hose. But my warning is to be careful about leaving your hose outside with the ends open.

While we’re on the topic, I’ll issue a few more warnings for the water hose. I see people use them to wash out their sewer hoses or handle the water hose with dirty hands. I don’t recommend doing this—ever. Remember that your water hose provides DRINKING water for your RV. If you contaminate that hose, you contaminate your entire water system in the RV.

Trust me when I say I’ve watched RV neighbors unpack their sewer hoses with their bare hands, connect them, and then use those same unwashed sewer hands to connect their water hoses. A day later, they tell me casually in conversation that they have diarrhea again and have no idea why.

Gee, what a mystery!

Please don’t be like them.

These are my last few days in the West. I’ve taken time off from work to start the long trek to Georgia. If you’re a paid subscriber, I’ll share details on my cross-country trip—the last one planned for Jazzie (my travel rig) before she retires to a quiet life in the suburbs. I’ll also share some updates on my plans for Spain.

“See” you next week!