A good nights sleep and a little breakfast was just what we needed. We were sure that we could drive on all the way to Idaho without another stop. The land yatch had a little snow on it after spending the night in the parking lot of the motel but was ready to head south. All we needed was to fuel up and get on the road again.
[attachment 10498 BritishColumbiamotel.jpg]
Across the road from out motel was a Shell station so we pulled in for fuel. We were greeted by a "Nice morning Eh" from the gas station attendant. I told him to fill the tanks nice and full, we had a long way to go. I went inside to see if we could get a map of British Columbia to help us find out way. When I came out Vernon was pointing to the trailer. We had a bad flat tire. It had not been flat when we walked the rig before leaving the motel.
[attachment 10502 vernonwithflat.jpg]
I shuddered to think what it could have been like of the thing would have gone flat on our fun little drive the night before. Well at least we were on flat ground and the sun was up. I asked Vernon where the spare and jack were. "I don't have a spare or a jack." Was his reply. "I paid extra for the free flat repair guarantee." I did not know until that time that we would have been in a lot of trouble if we had a flat in the middle of nowhere.
The fuel dude was going back an forth between our two fuel tanks putting about an ounce of diesel in each tank at a time trying to fill us up real full. Vernon asked him if there was a U-haul store in town. "I don't think so. but I've only been in town a couple days Eh. I just moved here to get to a warmer place." he said while dropping one drop at time into each tank. I wondered where in the heck he had come from if this was a warmer place. He said I should go into the service station part of the store and see if the mechanics would fix our tire.
I went on in to the service area and sitting on chairs with their feet up were the two mechanics. They were drinking coffee and reading magazines. One had a "Eh boy, The Frozen Babes of B.C." edition and the other was reading "Better Homes and Snowdrifts" A copy of "The Canadian Riflelessman" was on the barrel they were using for a table. I could not help but notice that there were no cars, trucks, snowmobiles or anything else in the service bays.
"You guys have time to fix a flat for us?" I asked. One of them looked over his magazine and said "No way we could get to it for a couple days. We have a lot on our plate eh Jeanne Paul?" His buddy replied "Yah. we are swamped today. Better try somewhere else Eh."
I then thought of looking in the phone book for a U-haul dealer just in case ole drop-o-diesel was wrong. Let's see it would be under "U". right there on page 2 of the phone book, there was one! We called them and they said they had a tire store in town that fixed flats and honored the free flat warranty. They said they would send a guide to lead us to the tire store. It would appear that we had had a flat in the only place within 500 miles that could help us. Man that was close.
The guide showed up and we had to drive on the flat all the way to the other end of town, about 200 yards. Vernon waited patiently for the guys to get around to us.
[attachment 10503 vernonattireshop.jpg]
After waiting for an hour or so they got done drinking coffee and put a 3 1/2 ton jack under the trailer. It would not lift it. The then tried a 8 ton jack. Nothing. The guy looked up at me and said."What ya got in that thing eh?" I told him we were smuggling gold bars. He looked at me funny and got the serious jack. Two new tires later we were on our way south. The whole flat tire thing cost us about 2 1/2 hours. I sure am glad we had a flat in the off season.
Back on the road south again. Stay tuned for the next chapter
"British Colombia, a visitors guide to road-kill."
HH DC
[attachment 10498 BritishColumbiamotel.jpg]
Across the road from out motel was a Shell station so we pulled in for fuel. We were greeted by a "Nice morning Eh" from the gas station attendant. I told him to fill the tanks nice and full, we had a long way to go. I went inside to see if we could get a map of British Columbia to help us find out way. When I came out Vernon was pointing to the trailer. We had a bad flat tire. It had not been flat when we walked the rig before leaving the motel.
[attachment 10502 vernonwithflat.jpg]
I shuddered to think what it could have been like of the thing would have gone flat on our fun little drive the night before. Well at least we were on flat ground and the sun was up. I asked Vernon where the spare and jack were. "I don't have a spare or a jack." Was his reply. "I paid extra for the free flat repair guarantee." I did not know until that time that we would have been in a lot of trouble if we had a flat in the middle of nowhere.
The fuel dude was going back an forth between our two fuel tanks putting about an ounce of diesel in each tank at a time trying to fill us up real full. Vernon asked him if there was a U-haul store in town. "I don't think so. but I've only been in town a couple days Eh. I just moved here to get to a warmer place." he said while dropping one drop at time into each tank. I wondered where in the heck he had come from if this was a warmer place. He said I should go into the service station part of the store and see if the mechanics would fix our tire.
I went on in to the service area and sitting on chairs with their feet up were the two mechanics. They were drinking coffee and reading magazines. One had a "Eh boy, The Frozen Babes of B.C." edition and the other was reading "Better Homes and Snowdrifts" A copy of "The Canadian Riflelessman" was on the barrel they were using for a table. I could not help but notice that there were no cars, trucks, snowmobiles or anything else in the service bays.
"You guys have time to fix a flat for us?" I asked. One of them looked over his magazine and said "No way we could get to it for a couple days. We have a lot on our plate eh Jeanne Paul?" His buddy replied "Yah. we are swamped today. Better try somewhere else Eh."
I then thought of looking in the phone book for a U-haul dealer just in case ole drop-o-diesel was wrong. Let's see it would be under "U". right there on page 2 of the phone book, there was one! We called them and they said they had a tire store in town that fixed flats and honored the free flat warranty. They said they would send a guide to lead us to the tire store. It would appear that we had had a flat in the only place within 500 miles that could help us. Man that was close.
The guide showed up and we had to drive on the flat all the way to the other end of town, about 200 yards. Vernon waited patiently for the guys to get around to us.
[attachment 10503 vernonattireshop.jpg]
After waiting for an hour or so they got done drinking coffee and put a 3 1/2 ton jack under the trailer. It would not lift it. The then tried a 8 ton jack. Nothing. The guy looked up at me and said."What ya got in that thing eh?" I told him we were smuggling gold bars. He looked at me funny and got the serious jack. Two new tires later we were on our way south. The whole flat tire thing cost us about 2 1/2 hours. I sure am glad we had a flat in the off season.
Back on the road south again. Stay tuned for the next chapter
"British Colombia, a visitors guide to road-kill."
HH DC