Gold.Dust.Every. Where.!

We pulled into Gaffney yesterday morning just before noon and had our pick of free customer campsites at the Freightliner Custom Chassis Repair Facility.

 We arrived in time for our Monday morning appointment.  We also had the chance to visit with Cindy who drove an hour to come over for the afternoon.  Cindy and I were in elementary and junior high and high school together so we go way back.  But we hadn't talked in 25 years.  It was good of her to track us down and check out the Roadrunner.

We had a memorable day in more ways than one.

She had just arrived about 3:00 PM.  We met Pam and we were getting out of the hot weather and seated in the coach.  I decided to turn the Passenger Side (PS) seat around and have it face back into the coach like we do when we have company or stay somewhere for a length of time.

Then the surprise...
I sat in the seat and pulled the lever to swing it around.  It had trouble going all the way around so I gave it a little shove.  Sometimes the seat belt or something gets tangled up.

Then I hear a pop and a loud SHSSSSSSSS,,,,,,shshshsh and gold powder smoke dust stuff started spewing all over.  It was coming from the floor on my left side and I quickly determined it was the fire extinguisher that was discharging!!!!

Yikes!

Don't panic came quickly to mind, but not much else.

This smoke and yellow dust was not stopping.  I put my hand down over the canister trying to find the 'OFF" button but of course there was none.  I tried covering my hand over the discharge but it still kept coming.  I jumped out of my seat and got down in the stairwell near the front door opening it but it was still filling up the coach.

Finally after what seemed to be 3 or 4 minutes (probably was closer to 30 seconds or less), I got hold of the extinguisher and removed it from its holder on the floor and tossed it outside.  By then it was mostly empty.

But our work had just started!  I tried to get the 'smoke' out side but with the door open, it just kept hovering and blowing back inside.  Pam jumped into action and shut off the air conditioner and she and Cindy opened up all the windows.

It was a mess!  We had dust everywhere!

I got a hand broom but every time I swept the gold dust (maybe the consistency of flour) it developed into a cloud and moved back into the coach.  Yuck.

I heard myself say a couple of times, "This is bizarre!! I have never heard of this happening!"  And it was a little confusing also as I am not exactly sure how it happened.  But at the moment we were getting rags and cleaning up the coach.

Little by little we made progress and I concentrated on the front while Pam and Cindy wiped down the back from the kitchen sink to the front.

I couldn't help but wonder if the discharge was toxic and maybe not too good to be inhaling.  Regardless we had a job to do and we had our heads down and were quickly getting all of the gold dust out.  Pam brought out the vacuum clean and I emptied it and cleaned the filter three times.

After our little exercise in team work and cleaning, we got 95% of it up and out of the coach! The other 5% will probably linger in nooks and crannies of the motor home for years!

 Phew!
That was bizarre, amazing, crazy, etc etc and another day in the life of a full-time RVer! How nuts was that! No one was hurt, we got cleaned up ok and got it taken care of pretty quickly.

One never knows what each day will bring in the life of the RVer.  And yesterday was no exception. We had a great visit from a friend from long ago and as she put it, "Some excitement that was a hoot!".

That's all for now on the Roadrunner Chronicles!  Thanks for joining us.