Cousin Davey

And his wife Peggy are two of our favorite people. And we got to see them again, after all. See how good this vacation is going?

Once it became clear that the repair on Big Blue would stretch into next week (done by Tuesday, we hope), we decided to pack up the critters and head west to Ottawa and spend the weekend with David and Peggy. They have a large, accommodating home, and a great backyard for the dogs. And the bonus? Jay's cousin Ian (who we had just enjoyed dinner and bonfire at his cottage back in Nova Scotia) was here too! Ian's son Jack has spent the summer at Dave and Peggy's working for the summer and Ian came to pick up Jack. Ian also brought Jack's brother Logan who is going to attend basketball camp here this week too. Got that all straight?

Well, it was a DuCharme holiday of sorts (that's the maiden name of Jay's Mom, and the connection between these cousins). One thing is certain: The DuCharme clan is a nice one, and a fun one. DOOOCH- ARM!!!!

Jay and Michelle did enjoy their foray's into Montreal. We saw Vieux Montreal (Old Montreal), as well as the site of the 67 Expo (See? Jay got to go, eventually.....). We had a nice dinner at a restaurant called L'appartment. Very trendy and great food. Here is a glimpse of Michelle's Scallops:

Tasted as good as it looked.

We went into the Notre Dame Basilica, which is an extraordinarily beautiful Catholic Church. How's this for an alter?

There is so much detail going on in this church, you are nearly

paralyzed as you try to comprehend it.

Of course, every church needs to have an organ in the rear, with 7000 individual pipes, right?

Yikes. This place was simply gorgeous.

And here is a look at one of their historic buildings:

We suppose that we should throw in the obligatory street scene from the retail areas...

We don't know any of these people. Not one.

And so concludes our Sunday update. We will enjoy the rest of our day and evening with Dave, Peggy, Ian, Jack and Logan and drive back to Montreal tomorrow to get the rig ready (we hope) for an early Wednesday departure. If the calendar complies, we will have dinner with Jay's Uncle Tony and Aunt Shirley in Kitchener on Wednesday night and then head to Michigan on Thursday. We hope for a two-day visit with Jay's Mom and siblings, and then a bustin' @ss haul out to California.

Wish us luck with the mechanics! And a quartering wind to help with mpg!!

The Scars Are Healing

When Jay was 8, Montreal held the World Expo. It was a grand moment for Montreal and for all of Canada. His Grandfather took his parents and three oldest siblings to Montreal to experience this historic event.

Jay and his twin stayed behind in Stratford, Ontario with their Aunt Ril.

The scars are just now healing.

Now, staying with Aunt Ril was usually cause for celebration, given any other circumstances, but knowing that you were missing one of the worlds greatest cultural and technological events produced a deep and lasting wound.

But it's o.k. now. He knew he would see Montreal someday. And he is now.

One of the first insights that we gained about Montreal are the frenzied and vicarious personalities of their freeways. We were warned about them, and it's true. People in Montreal drive as if they have all attended the New York Taxi Cab School of Driving. Better yet, just imagine what driving these freeways, that twist and turn throughout the city, is like in 5:45pm rush hour traffic... when you are driving Big Blue, and you are a total of 72 feet long.

New scars are forming.

Ok, and what of Montreal?

We're not kidding when we say that we have never encountered a city that has more concurrent road construction underway than this beautiful city. We believe that this must be road-cone mating season, as they are out in abundance everywhere you look. And while it does deserve to be described as beautiful, it is at the same time very urban with area of blight and the typical graffiti.

While Blue is in the shop, Jay and Michelle are making lemonade out of lemons, and playing tourist. And having the Jeep really makes a difference. It's a fun and versatile vehicle that is perfect for tight city driving.

We drove downtown a few days ago and discovered St. Catherine's Street, which is a long (12 blocks or so?) street of retail stores. The amount of people on the streets at 4:30pm was staggering - it brought up images of Hong Kong. We didn't park and walk the street but perhaps we will do that today.

Spending any time in the province of Quebec impresses upon you how dang French the folks here are. Everyone we have met in Montreal speaks French. Everyone. The good news is that everyone has also spoken English. And they have been very gracious about it. No snobbery. Just sort of "Ok, let's speak English". However, it is clear that French is their first language, as their English is typically spoken with a heavy accent and they are much less confident in speaking it.

Getting directions over the phone can be a real adventure. They say things like "turn left at Saint Zhuh. Ask for Tim LeBluh.

Zhuh? LeBluh? How do you spell that.

Saint Jean. Tim LeBlanc.

Oh.....

Dang. Should have taken French in high school.

The prognosis on Blue is that the transmission must be rebuilt. As this should have been determined LAST WEEK when we took it in to be repaired, the labor to remove and install it will be covered by the shop. But the rebuild is our cost. Sigh. They should know all the parts that will be needed later today, and they will confirm availability of the parts, and that exercise will determine the timeline on the repair. Our crude estimate is that we will be road worthy by Tuesday of next week. Maybe sooner. Probably not.

Thanks for checking in. We'll have some pictures and hopefully a better sense of our travel calendar on Sunday.

Au Revior!

Stranger Than Fiction

I know I said that would update the blog on Sunday, but I have plenty good reasons for not doing so.

Once again - this is not a good sign.

You might be thinking "Oh, that's just the truck getting repaired last week".

No - that is the truck this afternoon. The shop in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia did three major things:

1. They replaced the engine flywheel cover

2. They replaced the clutch

3. They removed $10,000 from our bank account.

Now, after just 500 miles of travel, we have.... the same leak again!! This is very upsetting, because in the US we pay much less for incompetence.

So good news is that we are "stuck" in Montreal. We have always wanted to visit Montreal, and now it has been thrust upon us. We will likely be here for about three days. They have to remove the transmission AGAIN to see what is causing the leak. One good thing from all this - we had the major work last week done at an Official Cummins Engine facility, and Big Blue is now in their affiliate facility in Montreal. They warranty their work, so it shows how using OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) companies can pay off. Well, of course that assume this is related. Umm - how could it not be?.... We will find out!

If it wasn't so disheartening, it would be funny.

Oh, heck, it is funny. What else can go wrong?? Oh darn, I had to ask.

Back to other news -

This is how the dogs travel in Big Blue:

So far they have been very easy to travel with. The only real issue with them is that they shed an unbelievable amount of hair - even Toby - and when you live in close quarters with them the reality of this is rather shocking.

When we realized that we were prisoners of Montreal for a few days, we had to hustle and find a campground. Michelle consulted the various campground directories we carry and found a KOA. Generally speaking, we like KOAs, as they offer some level of quality assurance. And this KOA even boasted the ability to handle big rigs. We called and they said they could take us, no problem. I explained our size. No problem.

When we arrived, the owner was out sitting on his golf cart. He nearly blew a gasket when he saw us - and not in a good way. He fussed and grumbled and agonized about whether Jay could get the rig through his campground without damaging his grass and utilities that run to each site. He drove Jay around the campground and pointed out every corner that he thought the truck couldn't make.

The owner finally consented to let us attempt the route we suggested and the rig slipped into it's berth with no problem. We could elaborate on the owner's demeanor but let's just say he might be a relative of the dear fellow we met from Quebec earlier this year in Myrtle Beach.

We are still reeling from the surprise of our mechanical issues, so we really don't know what it will mean to our itinerary for the next few weeks. If you were "on our list" to see this week, it's all going to be shifting around a bit.

Stay tuned. It is bound to stay interesting!

Heat Wave

It hit 83 degrees last weekend in Nova Scotia.

Run for shade!

Jay's cousin Paul remarked that it was a hot one. We think we should not let Paul visit Tennessee in August. It would probably scar him for life.

But Paul and Jay had a wonderful day of driving around the province on a meandering journey to drop off some old music books to a friend. Places like Cornwallis and Kentville came to life for Jay, as well as the rolling hills of the Annapolis Valley, known for it's prodigious production of apples and displaced Cajuns. Slightly beyond Kentville we made a quick drive up to a very quaint fishing village located on the Bay of Fundy. Dang if I can recall the name of it. But the key word for this area is authenticity, and this little village was no exception.

With Michelle gone for a week, Jay has been playing Florence Nightingale to the dogs. Keji, with his hyper-allergic relationship to the world popped a hot spot on his cheek.

What you don't realize is that this looks good. Let's just say it's not mucky like it first was. The incredible reality about these sores is that the dogs will scratch at them and make them spread in a horrific way, creating potentially disfiguring injuries. Jay tried to deal with it with over-the-counter stuff for a few days, and then gave in to the Veterinarian. (Thank you Michelle, for helping me spell that).

So what is this?

Yup. It's a hole all right. Where is it?

It's at the top of my house, near the power lines. A scurrilous critter, with NO REGARD for the damage to my cottage has selected it as it's abode. And, with an approximate 3.5" diameter, it appears to be a critter than needs an opening that will accommodate it's beer belly.

Ending a month of speculation, Jay and Michelle awoke this morning to the steady sound of "Tap...tap...tap...". So now we know. A woodpecker.

Well, if that little pecker-head isn't on the extinct list yet, it will be soon.

So how was our morning in Nova Scotia?

Soft lapping waves, high thin clouds and a mild 67 degrees. For all you folks sweating it out in the states, we can only say.....

Nanner Nanner Nanner!

Alas, we have our tribulations. Big Blue is still at the doctor, and the list of repairs keeps creeping forward. Is it the fact that it is a used truck, at mid-life mileage? Is it the fact that it sat for a year, unused, while the bed was being built? Could it just be unfortunate luck?

Or is it the fact that we are in Canada, with Tennessee plates?

Oh, we don't want to suggest that. But dang! Let's git r' dun!

While there is a chance that the repair will be done by Friday, it is increasingly looking like it will be done around Monday. And then we will head west.

Thanks for checking in! We'll update again on Sunday.....

Ok, Earl, this here is FUNNY.

I think that's what the rednecks would say.

Big Blue has been in four shops in as many days.  Shop #1 said:  You blew the head gasket and your transmission is also leaking.  We can't even get to this for a week, and it will probably take a week to do it.  You might be better off taking it to the city, to the Cummins shop.  That will be $130 bucks.  Thank you.

Cummins shop (#4, actually) said: We don't do transmissions; we recommend Detroit Diesel.  We will schedule your truck in for Thursday (today), but see if you can get a diagnosis (at least) on the tranny before hand.

We called Detroit Diesel, shop #2.  We told them it had a Meritor Freedomline auto transmission.  Ok, they said... we can work on it. After one day, they called back and said "That's a ZED EFF transmission!  You have to take it to Freightliner!"  (Canadians pronounce "Z" (zee) as "zed").  So their point was the transmission is a Meritor/ZF transmission (ZF to them) and they don't work on those.  So we took it to Freightliner.  $278 bucks, thank you.  (Seriously).

Freightliner, shop #3, looked at it.  Cleaned it up.  Drove it.  Then called and said "It's not the head gasket.  Its the flywheel housing.  And your transmission is not leaking".  Take it to Cummins.  And that will be $160 bucks, thank you.

So today we moved the truck to Cummins.  Shop #4.  Lord knows what they will conclude.   But four shops in four days.... over $500 in fees, and not one wrench has been turned.  It's not a Zed EFF transmission.  It's a MF....

This big truck thing is big in a lot of ways.

But other than that, Michelle zipped home to Tennessee for some quartet commitments so Jay is "home" alone.  Boy, a whole lot will get done this week!  Jay plans to work on that dent in the couch cushion.  It's not deep enough yet.


Both dogs have been a bit mucked up.  Poor Toby seemed to pick up a bug, didn't eat for two days and he was so despondent that Jay took him to the vet.  The vet confirmed that Toby had a temperature and prescribed various potions to fix what ailed him.  Two days into the recovery it seems to be working, but he is honestly still not up to full par.  We can't recall having a dog get the "flu" before.

And the Keji - Mr. Pillowhead himself developed yet another "hot spot" (a section of skin that seems to abscess and rot) on his face.  Jay's cousin Janet luckily had a "cone" that you put around his head to keep him from digging at it (and making it MUCH WORSE), and Jay is trying basic over the counter treatments for it.  We'll see if it improves.  But you can appreciate that it feels like we are back into the infant business with all these dog issues!

We still hope to have wheels rolling out of here by next Friday, the 22nd.  But it will entirely depend on the status of Big Blue.  So hold on to your skirts, girls!  We'll update you soon...

Blue's Blue and Other Random Musings

The first review of Big Blue indicates that the head gasket blew on her, and that is a fairly hefty repair that may influence a more substantial investment in a full top-end repair which may influence an even more substantial investment into a full in-frame rebuild of the engine.  Stay tuned; we should know more by the end of next week.  But this is certain to impact our travel schedule, and certainly means that we will be spending more time at our cottage than we anticipated.

Well.... That's o.k. too.

If all goes well, we should be on the road by July 22nd, and we will have to figure out what things get "truncated" and eliminated from the itinerary.

It has now been about 10 weeks since Jay left his job and we embarked on this grand summer of travel.  Here are some of the insights that he has gained:

1.  Instead of receiving over 100 emails a day about pesky work details, he now receives about three per day.  And they are now just from family and friends, and he looks forward to getting them. Email has been transformed from a nuisance to something enjoyable.  Amazing.
2.  The saying "If you need something done, ask a busy person" now makes complete sense.  Jay has no responsibilities, and they seem to keep him fully occupied.   Who has time to do things???  Not him!
3.  Living in the cottage, without a departure deadline has been simply divine.  It has been an extraordinarily relaxing experience, and everything we had hoped for.
4.  Finally, just maybe a little bit, there is a small rumbling in his head that he needs to get back into something "productive".  But it is coming in very small rumbles... not to be hurried... and the his future plans for some quick lube businesses in Nashville should be a good fit for that urge.

And so we continue our enjoyable summer at Notre Mer, and wait for Blue to come back from the big truck doctor.

Drop us a line.  We like email again!

Morne-ful Departure Day

It's difficult to leave such beauty behind.

Our last day of playing tourist in Gros Morne took us to the Tablelands, a unique area in the southern area of the park.  If you are a rock buff, this place will sent you all a-twitter.  It is one of the few places where the earth's mantle has pushed up and created a mountain range of rock that usually resides 100 miles below the earths surface.

After all, how else do you explain an area that goes from this:

Lots of green stuff here...

To this:

Can you say "Nevada"?

And is is all due to this:

Peridotite.  Think Iron.

The earth's mantle is made up of rocks that are very high in minerals like iron and magnesium, which is toxic to most plant life.  As a result, this stretch of mountains sit's among the lush, adjacent mountains like a red-headed step sister.  We went for a hike along the base of the Tablelands...

The last area of the hike was over a wood sidewalk,
we presume to protect the area underneath

At the end there was a place to rest and take in the beauty

Beauty?  How about these two?

And then we went into a charming little town called Woody Point and had lunch.

The Jeep is much easier to park than Big Blue.

Nothing special here, just more streetscape.

And we saw this little lighthouse on the way out of town.  

It's this sort of authenticity that make the Maritime
Provinces so special

Alas we had to put Big Blue back on the Ferry Tuesday morning for our journey back:

Big Blue in line

It takes a big boat to carry Big Blue

We played Euchre on the boat on the way home, returned to the KOA in North Sydney, and played golf at Highland  Links in Cape Breton on Tuesday.  Wednesday was a full day of driving, and despite leaking oil like the Exxon Valdez, Big Blue motored us home to our cottage safely.

It was a great trip.  We now wait for the Big Truck doctor to give us a prognosis and repair schedule for Big Blue, and we will plan our trip west accordingly.  The big date for us is California on August 9th, so we have some time to play with.  

We hope the summer is treating you well!  We haven't seen temps above 78 degrees once.

We'll update again on Sunday.  Be good!

Gros Morne

This is the boat we rode through the Fjords

It's always nice to have a place live up to it's billing.  Gros Morne is described as beautiful, and it certainly is.

A Fjord is actually supposed to be connected to
the sea, and these are a few miles inland - but
they have all the personality you could hope for!

The fog hung near the mountain tops, poking into
the splits among them

The walls of the mountains are sheer rock, with
modest vegetation grown at the bottoms

Simply beautiful

A view out the rear

Paul and Moie in front of Pissing Mare Falls.  It's a funny story,
but he is happy simply because he was "right"...
They ARE in this park.

So far, this little Moosey is the only one we have seen.
You can see his young antlers poking out.

We arrived Thursday afternoon to a KOA in the park.  After a string of great experiences with KOA's, we are a bit disappointed in this one.  We are parked in a open lot that has the personality of cow pasture, without any views to speak of.  But the good news is that beauty is all around us, just a moments drive away.

Big Blue is having a bit of trouble; it was brought to our attention that she is leaking oil pretty badly.  After emailing his mechanic in Tennessee, the leading theory is a blown rear engine seal.  Jay drove Blue an hour (each way) to the closest town that has 1) Oil and 2) A mechanic to lend a second opinion.  He concurred with the diagnosis and shared that many truckers are too cheap to fix it and just keep adding oil.  With renewed confidence that Big Blue can make it back to Nova Scotia, we will begin our trek back to "The Mainland" on Monday.  There is a certified Cummins shop near the cottage and they can tear into her belly next week.

During Jay's trip into "town" (Yikes! This place is desolate!!!) he heard two women talking.  The first one - an elderly woman - was trying to suppress her cough.  The second one said "Dear - the 'mor ya try to hold a calf, the more yer goona calf!"

Newfie accents.  Ya gotta lov'em.  Sitting here in the KOA office (for internet) the lady at the desk just told her co-worker "I saws that price was $65.24 so ya knows that it's on the river....."

We're going to look for a local pub tonight to kick-off our cocktail hour, and plan for a fun day of exploring on Sunday.

See ya!