July 11

July 11, 2004

DAY 24

 

 

Well, today was certainly a lot better day than yesterday. The only redeeming value in yesterday is in using it as a lesson in how to survive "one of those days".

YESTERDAY ; We left Sturgeon Falls fairly early ( for us ) and drove west on Hwy.17 heading for Sudbury. Made a stop at a native craft shop in Wahnapitae to buy me a belt I desperately needed ( don't even ask ! ). At Sudbury, we left the highway to enter the city and find a TD / Canada Trust. No problem. Deposited a personal cheque to the company account. A bit of a problem. A non-resident depositing a large personal cheque drawn on an out of town credit union, deposited to an out of town company's out of town bank account ... on a Saturday. A tad suspicious, from the bank's perspective. Understandable.

From here, things went downhill rapidly. As we pull out of this mall's parking lot, the trailer door swings open. Joanne failed to close it properly. Fortunately, before I'm even out of the parking lot, people are shouting at me about the trailer's open door. Then, as I turn out of the mall back onto the road towards the highway, Joanne is stopped by the traffic light. Since she knows I'm returning to the Petro-Canada by the highway exit to buy diesel, she doesn't bother to advise me on the 2 way radios we are using to communicate from vehicle to vehicle, that she has separated from me. Halfway back to the exit, and the Petro-Canada, I turn into the Canadian Tire to buy something, unaware that Joanne is not right behind me. When I realize she's not there, I call her on the radio, but she's out of range. I go in to buy what I need as she zooms by on her way to the Petro-Canada. Finding me not at the Petro-Canada, and unable to contact me on the radio, she executes our "separation" contingency plan. She uses a credit card at the pay phone to phone me on the cell phone, having to make a long distance call back to Ottawa to reach me on the cell phone just as I am finally pulling into the Petro-Canada, having finished my shopping at Canadian Tire. Suffice to say an argument ensues !

Now ... to begin to add insult to injury, it turns out I am unable to buy diesel at this station, as it is a station exclusively for commercial truckers, and I obviously do not have the correct commercial trucker Petro-Canada "Petro-Pass" card that activates these fuel pumps. More "argument". I storm off in the truck and trailer, headed back into the city on a quest for diesel. Joanne unwisely decided to wait at this station, and not follow me ! This causes much, much more "argument" later. I drive into and out of 3 stations, none of which have diesel, with no one to assist me in and out of tight spots with this 47 foot long rig ! ! ! I drive back to the Petro-Canada to re-unite with Joanne, and, of course, "express my displeasure" at her decision not to follow me back into the city on my search for diesel. I continue to "express my displeasure" for about the next 24 hours.

I storm off down the highway, finally finding diesel at the next little village down the road, filling the tank with over 119 litres, in a 128 litre tank ! ! !

We stop for lunch, and more "arguing", a couple of hours later, at Blind River. Shortly after leaving Blind River, the exhaust pipe blows off the exhaust manifold on the truck. I pull over to the side of the road, and check things out. Doesn't look good. With this exhaust pipe or maybe turbo-charger pipe blown off, the performance of the truck engine is poor, to say the least. And the noise ! WOW ! I limp along to the next town, Thesallon, and find the closed "one horse" GM dealer. I decide this is not likely to be the best place to try to get the truck fixed. I limp along to the next town, Bruce Mines, which has no GM dealer, but has a nice municipal campground. Joanne insists we stop here for the night, and figure out the best course of action. We get some laundry done, I fish a bit off the very nice municipal dock ( first time fishing in over 10 years ), and we figure out where the big GM dealer is in Sault Ste.Marie, and find a nice private campground near the GM dealer.

TODAY ; We leave Bruce Mines after we finally finish yesterday's "arguing", and limp along about 80 km. to Sault Ste. Marie. The private campground is very nice. We unhitch the trailer and head over to the GM dealer to drop off the truck for early Monday service, but decide instead to leave it at a nearby large Canadian Tire service dept. for servicing early tomorrow. We spend the afternoon wandering around the campground, fishing in their private, stocked lake, and lounging around their hot tub. I guess there are worse ways to wait for vehicle service.

DSK