We awoke this morning to a beautiful sunny day and a temperature that was heading to +10C. Richard got a text from St. Stephen to say that he was on his way up from his RV park south of us in Parksville - usually about a 30 minute drive.
That hemi engine in St. Stephen’s Durango got him up here in record time! Before we knew it, St. Stephen was here!
St. Stephen working on Newman’s basement door with the new hinges we had shipped from Kentucky.
I was off to my strength training in Courtenay this morning, and Richard was St. Stephen’s able bodied assistant.
I had a great session with my trainer again today. We are moving onto a new program next week, but I’m really feeling a lot stronger as we continue to progress with more reps and heavier weights. That golf ball is going to be CRUSHED when I hit it tomorrow at Qualicum Beach Memorial Golf Club!
We are really looking forward to golfing tomorrow! Its been a few weeks where we haven’t been able to golf, so knowing that golf is back again, gives us one more thing to do outside to keep us active! And we still have a few more golf courses to try around here too before we leave!
While in Courtenay I had to visit the local Scotiabank and I was impressed that they took the time to put up some encouraging signs to read, while waiting in the customer service line up.
Nice!
I arrived home from Courtenay to find that no one was home! I had never unlocked the door to Newman before, since Richard always unlocks Newman for me! I could see that something was happening up at the front of Newman, since he was definitely in a state of disrepair!
The front of Newman slides open! Who knew?
I texted Richard to find out what was up and he said he and St. Stephen were up at Canadian Tire in Courtenay. I must have passed them on my drive back down to Fanny Bay and not seen them!
Within about 15 minutes, St. Stephen and Richard arrived back at our RV site and Richard set me up in a lawn chair, so I could sit outside and enjoy the glorious sunshine. With the temperature at 10C, and no wind, it was wonderful to enjoy the fresh air and sunshine.
Sunny day with beautiful blue skies!
A beautiful day in Fanny Bay!
Next thing I know St. Stephen is under Newman trying to figure out why our diesel generator will not start. We had the diesel generator working the entire trip out here and we’ve run it since we’ve been here, but in the last week or so when Richard tried to start it, it wouldn’t go. We need the diesel generator to work when we are not connected to a source of electric power - for example, when we are BOONDOCKING in Walmart parking lots overnight. The diesel generator provides us with the power we need to run everything that runs on electricity inside Newman. Not having the diesel generator working meant that there was no way we could leave Fanny Bay for our trip home in April.
After about 5 minutes of St. Stephen poking around under Newman, we heard this “I’ve got it! I know why the generator won’t come on!”
Corrosion! The wire that leads to the connection was corroded so badly, it had come off the connection!
This certainly doesn’t look good!
More corrosion!
St. Stephen says to Richard “Buddy, we need to go back to Canadian Tire to get the parts to fix Newman.”
And just like that they were off in a flash, back up the 20km on the Coastal Hwy to Courtenay, to go to Canadian Tire and get the parts to fix Newman.
There they go again in St. Stephen’s Dodge truck!
While they were gone, I enjoyed sitting around and reading my Kindle. I’m reading a very good book right now recommended by a friend called “A Gentleman in Moscow”. It is an interesting story, and I’m just getting into it. I don’t seem to have the time to read, since we are always gallivanting somewhere!
Finally St. Stephen and Richard came back. St. Stephen had the best line today for Richard calling him ’everybody’s favourite hillbilly’ who just needs some help to learn how to do things. Richard was certainly learning today what he needs to do to maintain 16 year old Newman!
Lots of supplies were needed for this repair today on Newman!
St. Stephen even brought a lot of his tools too to get the job done!
St. Stephen used a sawzall to cut this off and make a new connection where the corrosion had happened under Newman.
St. Stephen added the words to theses pictures he took under Newman, as there is no way I would have been able to detail what he had to do to fix the wire for the diesel generator.
And it worked! The repair got Newman’s diesel generator working again! I’ll post the video on Facebook of the diesel generator firing up.
St. Stephen also repaired Newman’s basement door with the new hinges from Kentucky and put on a gas hinge to prop the door up when it is open.
The broken gas hinge on the right and the new hinge on the left. St. Stephen and Richard had tried to buy the new gas hinge at Canadian Tire, but because they said it was off an RV and not a vehicle, Canadian Tire refused to sell them the new hinge. Luckily they went to plan ‘B’ which was to go to the RV dealer in town and St. Stephen leaned on the hinge to see what the pressure in the hinge was, and knew it would be similar to the broken one, and he replaced this hinge too. The reason the basement door fell off originally when we went through the pot holes at the front of Lighthouse RV park, was that this gas prop hinge was loose and the basement door bumped open, causing the door to drag down the gravel driveway, until St. Stephen saw what was happening, and lifted up the door, to allow us to get back into our RV site. What an ordeal it has been to get new replacement hinges from Kentucky and now to have St. Stephen come up and spend the day with us, fixing up Newman.
Thank you St. Stephen! He really is a Saint. Today we found out that when St. Stephen was a boy in his fishing village in Newfoundland called Fox Trap,that he heard people screaming because their pleasure boat had capsized a mile and half off shore, and St. Stephen rowed his way over to save the drowning people who were not wearing life jackets. As he rowed back to shore with the people in his little row boat, his hands were bleeding, but he wasn’t afraid, he just had to get these people to safety.. He received the Governor General’s Medal of Bravery for his actions!
WOW! Were we ever lucky to pull in next to St. Stephen when we arrived here in Fanny Bay last December. I definitely believe in fate and ‘if its meant to be, its meant to be‘, and it was definitely meant to be that we arrived here next to St.Stephen and Karen last year. Richard had a call into a mobile RV technicIan to come out on Wednesday if St. Stephen couldn’t get the diesel generator going again today. That would have cost us at least $500 for a service call, so we really appreciate St. Stephen and all he did for us today! THANK YOU!
Richard folding up the tarp on another great repair on Newman. The tarp has definitely come in handy for crawling under Newman!
We lit a bonfire while the repair was being completed and it looks like it has attracted our neighbours Jim and Tim to discuss today’s all the exciting news about Newman’s repairs!
Richard, Jim and Tim enjoying a cold beverage to end the day by the fire.
Tonight is our Lingcod BBQ so now I’ve got to go and get it all prepared for cooking! We are looking forward to our Panko crusted Lingcod from the fisherman tonight for dinner!
Baked potatoes as well as grilled veggies and coleslaw are also on the menu. We will definitely have a nice feast for dinner this evening!
Comments