This should have been the first blog post from the road, but we all decided that we would wait until the end of the trip to share this one.
The more discerning reader will notice that the first entry didn't come until day three. Strange. Also I cryptically added some strange pics to my first post. Here's the story of our first 48hrs on the road.
Everything that was shared in the first post really happened. We spent Canada Day travelling north towards Lake Superior Provincial Park where we were booked to spend the night at Agawa Bay.
We pulled into the gas station in Pancake Bay. We would look around the trading post, called 'The Canadian Crafter' and fill up with gas. It was super busy. I was new to driving Maje and the first few days, I would get into places where I had difficulty getting out. It took a bit of maneuvering to get to the pump, but I managed. This is literally the dialogue that took place in the next 3 mins.
Gas Attendant: Oh jeez, you've got a tire that is really low, I'm going to get you to swing around and we'll fill it up and see how it is.
Me: Seriously? Oh no! Ok, I'll just fill up and then try and turn around.
BANG!
Me: Did you hear that?
Everyone in the RV: ?????
Random man walking by drinking from a bottle in a paper bag: Hey! Somebody hit you! Man! Your back door is really banged in, bummer that looks like a rental.
Me: (head in hands) It's not a rental, we own it.
Random man: Well that's good I guess.
Gas Attendant: Are you going to be able to turn around so the air hose will reach?
Me: Sure, I think I was just hit by someone
Gas Attendant: Oh no, ya looks like you've got a good dent back there
Random man: The guy just took off!
Me: Whatever
Like that literally took 3 minutes. So the nice gas boy filled up the tire and it seemed like it would only hold so much air. The tire got to a certain point and we'd hear this hissing noise and then it went back down to holding only so much air. We moved so that we were out of the way. There was another RV parked near us. I phoned CAA and found out that my coverage didn't cover RV's. Awesome. Why would someone sell me a membership for an RV that won't cover an RV? I was told that I could upgrade my membership but it would take 24hrs to take affect. I could feel myself starting to simmer. I checked in with Keith and he promptly called CAA to express his displeasure. Read: He went ape. The nice man decided to upgrade my membership immediately. We waited for a CAA driver to show up on Canada Day, in a remote area where there isn't even any gas stations. Needless to say we really got to know the Canadian Crafter and Trading Post.
In a last minute decision, I had convinced my brother, who had the first week of July off to join me for a few days so that I had some moral support with driving and hooking up Maje. I wasn't alone and I wasn't overly concerned. I knew that a tire was a small issue, we would get the spare put on and be on our way. We had a pretty good attitude about the whole thing. The kids spent their Desormeaux Dollars. My brother bought me a shot glass. haha, we'd have a couple of shots later! We people watched. We laughed good naturedly about our misfortune. We started to see the crowds dwindling and the workers starting to shut down the trading post. Still no CAA man. Probably 8pm by now. Waiting about 3 hours. Still laughing, still a good attitude. Come on, it's day 2! We got this!
CAA man arrives (He looks about 16): Dude! This is huge!
Me: Yes, it's an RV, 30ft.
CAA man: I can't fix this, I can't even tow it
Me: You didn't know it was an RV?
CAA man: No Dude, I didn't know, wow that's a huge one!
Me: So you can't change a tire?
CAA man: No, Man, you're gonna need a tow. I can't even do that, it's waaaay too big.
Me (starting to really simmer): So you can't fix it, you can't tow it, so that's it? What good is that?
What to do? Phone for a tow into Sault St Marie or try CAA again? Keith tells me to sit tight and he'd get back to me.
CAA man is very apologetic but I'm done with him so I tell him to go.
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| She was really FINE! I told her to look sad! |
The Canadian Crafter was completely closed by this time. I went to the owner of the place and told him that we were probably going to be spending the night and would that be ok. He was such a great guy. He said no problem. Then we were completely alone except for one other RV in the parking lot. We assumed they were broken down as well, but we hadn't seen anyone go in or out all day.
We wait. Thankfully the kids were in heaven. They were scootering around the whole place and enjoying being there alone. They had some game going and they spent hours running, jumping and scootering. We wait.
11:30pm - The first call to CAA was at 4:30, but whatevs - A lovely, elderly man showed up in a Cal Tire truck. He was like an angel in the darkness. At pretty much the same time a heavy, misty fog started to roll into Pancake Bay. The lights of his truck were emphasized by the weather. He gets to work. This guy knows what he's doing. Tire off, rim off, valve stem replaced, valve stem tested. We are so happy.
In the middle of all this we looked up at one point and out of the mist we saw a strange, old man walking toward us. He was wearing leather slippers and a plaid flannel housecoat. He had a tiny dog on a leash. He leaned down face to face with Abby and said, 'Well, aren't you guys having quite the adventure?' Wide eyed Abby took a step back. This was the occupant of the RV that had been parked beside us. He continued, 'I've been asleep for 8 hours and I woke up to lights flashing in my bedroom.' For reals, I couldn't make this up! So at midnight in Pancake Bay with the rolling fog, we had quite the cast of characters. I start my inappropriate, ill-timed giggling. I had to walk away before I looked really rude.
The Cal Tire man finished up and then creepy housecoat man gets him to check his tire pressure! More inappropriate giggling.
Finally, it was cleared up and I thanked Cal Tire man profusely and we were alone (somewhat) and got ready for bed. Creepy housecoat man told us we shouldn't venture out in the fog and we reluctantly agreed.
The owner of the Trading Post showed up at 5:30am as I was brewing coffee. Once we were all caffeinated, we were on our way. What a story! We were thankful that our upset was a relatively minor one. We continued to laugh as we headed to Wawa.
I had heard the new Wawa Goose had just been unveiled in the last week. Nothing like a new roadside attraction to get us excited. We pulled into the Wawa Welcome centre about 9:30am. We did the walk around, took some pictures, we bought a sticker. As we approached the RV, we see a lady standing on the passenger side:
Lady: I'm glad I saw you, I wanted to let you know that you've got a really low tire on this side.
Me: I'm sorry,... what?
Lady: Ya, you're gonna need some assistance I think.
This is the OTHER tire, the one that WASN'T low the day before. Again, we heard the hissing noise coming from the tire.
We were in Wawa, Sunday, the day after Canada Day. What were our chances? We see a repeat of last night replaying in our heads. It's not funny now. Strangely enough I had taken note of a garage as we came into Wawa. I started with CAA. They, again, did not sound promising. They started out by telling me that they don't service RV tires. Funny, they just serviced a tire less than 12 hours ago.
Gah! So done with you. Click. I looked up the local service centre. I knew they would be closed but thought they might have an emergency guy on call. I got a number for after hours service. When I talked to a human, he told me it would be $150 just for someone to come out and have a look. I did not care AT ALL. Come, please.
So I was sitting and crying, my kids were looking at me, unsure of what to do and my brother was pacing the parking lot. No amount of shot glasses was going to cheer me up. All the nice people who walked by felt like they should tell us we had a flat. Thanks.
Then we heard a knock on our door.
Me: Tell them we KNOW we have a FLAT! (I might have growled)
Parker opens the door and relays the message.
Guy: Uh, I'm the tire guy.
Me: (perking up) Tire Guy!
This guy REALLY knew what he was doing and he didn't have the fog or creepy flannel housecoat guy to slow him down. We also observed that he was completely unaffected by the swarming black flies, while the southerners (us) were going insane. He was a black fly whisperer. He was also a tire magician. He let me know that our issue is a common occurrence with tires that sit so much of the year. He told me that I probably would make it to Vancouver Island without issue, but I would probably need to get some new tires next year. He had me at probably. I knew that before I went much further I would be buying some new tires. I was taking no chances. I thanked him profusely and asked him for a receipt so that I could get reimbursed from CAA.
And then he said to me, 'I'm not going to charge you.' Was this guy for real? He was serious. I asked him about the $150 to come out and assess and he said, 'Honestly, I was just sitting around playing video games.' My heart swelled and then I told him, if he didn't take my money I was going to jump on the back of his truck. That smartened him up. I was never so happy to part with money in my life.
About noon we were on the road again, shaking our heads and hoping our bad luck was over. We made it to Rainbow Falls that night and I checked in with my TBay angel who got me in contact with some reputable tire people. Thanks Kelly! Luckily one of the service centres she recommended was opened Monday (remember this was July 3rd and mostly everything was closed). On Monday afternoon, we were the happy owners of 2 new front tires.
So that's the whole story. I could not end this blog without giving a huge shout out to Cal Tire out of Sault St. Marie, Fountain Tire out of Wawa (ESPECIALLY the weekend/after hour guy) and finally, Fountain Tire in Thunder Bay. Just to show you how great they were, they also told me that my tires would probably last me for the trip, before I demanded that they be replaced. I deeply appreciated the honesty!
This couldn't have been the first blog entry. What a downer! We thought we would wait and not worry everyone with all our bad luck before we even left Ontario. We look back at it know and laugh. And the kids still say the night in the parking lot was one of the best memories of the whole trip. My best memory was drinking a whole bottle of wine as I watched the sunset over Lake Superior.
