Search

Adventures in the Villa

Open Search
Category

Chevrolet

2017-09-05 Westbound; Stranded in Thunder Bay, Day 5…

Stranded, Day 5:

2017-09-01 GMC 03

Tuesday; Labor Day is over and the world resumes its normal activities.  The happy merry workers at Dominion Motors GMC return to work and we get to sit in their waiting room, drink their coffee, watch their TV, use their internet, and use their restrooms (washrooms here in Canada…).

There is no word on the truck.  They have run their diagnostics and sent the data to technical support in Detroit.  Maybe they will hear back today or tomorrow; for now it looks like a blown engine; the normal fix for this is a complete engine replacement.  We might be here for awhile…

So we did some sight-seeing and checked out the local artisans; first, we went to Thunder Oak Cheese Farm:

2017-09-05 Cheese 01

The Thunder Oak Cheese Farm specializes in Gouda cheese, and all things Dutch:

2017-09-05 Cheese 02

We tasted their cheeses and even cheese curds; Lynda wanted some Komijne Kaas, and they have it!  Also some dropjes…

Around mid-day we visited The Persian Man; “he” or “it” is located within Bennett’s Bakery.  Apparently Persians are a “Thunder Bay Specialty”.  But I’m all, “What’s a Persian?”

A Persian is an oval-shaped, cinnamon-bun-like sweet roll with a sweet, pink icing made of either raspberries or strawberries.  It is credited to have originated at Bennett’s Bakery in, and remains particular to, Thunder Bay.  It is sometimes confused with a Pershing or a Persian bun which are regional items in parts of the United States but are a completely different baked good made with doughnut batter as opposed to being a sweet roll.  So there!

2017-09-05 Persian Man

It happens that we are “camped” right around the corner from Bennett’s Bakery; also, Syd, an employee of the GMC dealer where we are camped, stopped by on Saturday and gave us a gift certificate to have Persians at The Persian Man at Bennett’s Bakery. Around the corner.

So we  walked around the corner to The Persian Man at Bennett’s Bakery, and had coffee and Persians.  It was interesting…

2017-09-05 Persian 01

Later in the afternoon we walked around the corner to Dawson Trail Craft Brewery. We tasted 4 very nice craft beers and chatted with the owner about what it’s like to be a craft brewery in Thunder Bay.  While it is a small town (108,000), there is only one other brewery, no distilleries, and there are no wineries or wine tasting rooms… So while this sort of craft/artisanal business hasn’t really caught on here on the north shore, it is an up and coming thing, and they are optimistic…

2017-09-05 Dawson Trail

Since we still haven’t heard anything about the truck’s prognosis, and since our time here is seemingly endless, we did two things:

  1. We planned to go to Wisconsin in our rental car to see the Frank Lloyd Wright buildings that had always been on our itinerary for this week…
  2. We went to dinner at our favorite Thunder Bay restaurant, Bistro One. The fact that we have a favorite restaurant tells us we have already been here way too long; we have a standing reservation for every Tuesday night…

2017-09-05 Bistro One

After dinner we turned in early; tomorrow is a 10 hour drive across the border and through Minnesota, into Wisconsin, down to the town of Spring Green.

And a not too awful time was had by all.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

0

2017-09-02 Westbound; Stranded in Thunder Bay, Day 2…

It rained all night.  Sometime in the early morning I awoke and noticed that the power had gone out.  (Most things in the Villa run on batteries, but we still need shore power if we are staying for an extended period of time…)

I dressed and went out in the rain. I found that the outlet we were plugged into is a GFI, which is extremely sensitive to water. Obviously the outlet had gotten wet, and had shut itself off.  I detached everything and decided to wait until morning to see if this could be resolved.  I went back to bed…

In the morning I surveyed the situation again. I dried off everything, reset the GFI, and plugged in again. All good. Then I arranged a plastic bag over the outlet to keep rain off. I added a little Gorilla tape to keep it all from blowing away, and we were good.

We did a little shopping:  we need ice (remember our dead refrigerator?), and we always need milk and cream.  We needed to do some computer work, but internet in the Villa is weak; we went to Starbucks and spent a few hours catching up…

Today is Saturday.  It is the first Saturday of the College football season.  But, because the Villa is located directly next to the tall GMC building, we get no satellite TV service.  We tried Sling Box, but, as I said, our internet service in the Villa is weak.  What to do?  We headed out to a sports bar, Kelsey’s.  We enjoyed a light dinner and watched a few games.

We returned to the Villa.  I was able to get the UCLA-Texas A&M game on my iPhone via Sling Box, but it is not much fun to watch football on an iPhone, especially considering how horribly UCLA was playing.  UCLA was a lost cause, so I turned off the game shortly after half-time and went to bed…

A not-too-awful time was had by all…

 

PS:

Since we have no pictures, I will post pictures of my grandkids at the beach in Malibu:

2017-09-02 McAnoy 02 Malibu

2017-09-02 McAnoy 01 Malibu

THEY look like they are all having an enjoyable time…

 

 

0

2017-09-01 Westbound; Heading back to the USA…

We again had a leisurely morning; at about 11:00 am we checked out of the Thunder Bay KOA and headed to Minnesota.

We never made it.

2017-09-01 GMC 02

We had just entered the freeway heading south when it became clear that the truck was not running properly.  It was running rough, and losing power.

We limped into the Chevy dealer in Thunder Bay. The service manager was obviously NOT having an enjoyable time, and she told us that there was no way they could see us today.  Did I mention that it is Friday afternoon on Labor Day Weekend?

However, she was nice enough to make a call to the nearby GMC dealer, and they agreed to see us.  We found it easily, and we were greeted warmly.

We dropped the Villa on their parking lot, and they pulled the truck into the service bay. The news is not good; something to do with pistons, cylinders, and things like that.  And there is no time yet today to get to the bottom of it, to see how bad it is, and to see how long it will take to get parts, once we know what is needed.

The good news:  EVERYONE here has been extremely nice!  They assured us that whatever the issue is it will be covered under warranty; they obtained for us a rental car (part of warranty), and they showed us where we can park and stay in the Villa, and where we can hook up to power.

 

2017-09-01 GMC 01

2017-09-01 GMC 03

Since we are stuck here for the weekend we might as well make the best of it… We set up the Villa, pushed out the slide-out, and settled in for the time being.  Tonight we went to a VERY nice restaurant: Bistro One.  The food and service was top-notch, and it made our evening very pleasant. The staff at Bistro One even compiled a list of things we can see and do while we are here in Thunder Bay…

We returned to the Villa just as it started to rain.  We love the sound of rain on the aluminum roof… Not too bad of a time was had by all…

0

2017-08-23 Westbound; Back at CanAm RV for service…

We left Burning Kiln Winery at about 5:00 am; we had a lovely drive in the dark; we stopped for coffee about 6:30, and we rolled into CanAm RV about 7:30.  We pulled into “our” parking spot, and hooked up to power.

2017-08-23 CanAm 01

We had a few issues for CanAm today: They will install the new stainless steel rock guards we ordered last time we were here (see above…)  Also, they will check out, and hopefully fix, the refrigerator, they will replace the cracked and mostly missing skylight, they will look into why the electric water heater blows the circuit breaker, and they will look at the rear storage hatch frame, plus a few odds and ends. After 9,000 miles on the road, it’s time for a little fix-up.

About 8:15 Dan came by. He checked out our hitch, and everything seemed fine. He did tell me that I needed to buy grease to lubricate the hitch, one of the most awful things about the EazLift hitch…  They pulled the Villa into their service bay and we left for town.

We stopped into the local Chevy dealer and asked for an oil change and regular service; while they worked, we walked to the neighboring Costco to see if they carried my beloved Vita Rain Water.  Nope – we struck out again.  We did stop into a grocery store and bought a few minor things, and by the time we were back at the Chevy dealer the truck was not only finished, but they had washed it as well!

We drove back to CanAm and we were informed that the refrigerator is dead, with a fluid leak. A new one takes at least one week to arrive at CanAm; so my job now was to find a refrigerator and an Airstream service place along our route.  After many phone calls and internet searches, we have an appointment at the Airstream dealer in Minneapolis on September 8.  This means two more weeks of buying ice…

2017-08-23 CanAm 05

The rest of the day was uneventful. We walked around the new trailers, and re-planned our trip so that we could spend the day in Minneapolis.  At 5:30 they were done for the night, so we embarked upon Happy Hours and retired for the evening, safe inside CanAm’s gates…

2017-08-24 CanAm 06

Tomorrow we head to Boblo!

0

2017-08-14 Nor by Nor’east Caravan – Final Day on PEI; Farewell Banquet

We took this day to ready the Villa for travel on our own. Today is the last day of the caravan!

We began with a quick trip to the local Chevy dealer in Charlottetown; the “Check Engine” (emissions) light had come on the dash. After a quick check through their computers they determined that it was the result of a loose gas tank cap – operator error… We were in and out in 15 minutes… Airstream dealers could learn something about how Chevy service centers operate…

We cleaned the Villa and reorganized the back of the truck. Busy day all around. In mid-afternoon we took a break and went for ice cream at Cows, a PEI favorite:

2017-08-14 COWS

This evening is our “Farewell Banquet”.  It was at the Delta Hotel in downtown Charlottetown – it is a Marriott… We arrived early (duh!) and enjoyed some informal socializing as things got set up.  The food was spectacular!  Hats off to the Marriott for the spread they put out!

2017-08-14 Final Banquet 03

I have no idea what flamingos have to do with Airstreams, but many people think they are firmly linked…

We snapped a few pix of our group…

2017-08-14 Final Banquet 04

2017-08-14 Final Banquet 02

Our MC for the evening was Linda Belcher.  She is a real live wire and very funny person.  She goes all out to make sure she, and everyone else, is having a good time…

2017-08-14 Final Banquet 01

2017-08-14 Final Banquet 06

After the dinner we gave out some door prizes, but mostly we took part in our own home-grown “entertainment”.

2017-08-14 Final Banquet 08

2017-08-14 Final Banquet 07

Most of the “entertainment” was silly and hokey – we just enjoyed hanging out and showing off our talents, whether musical, dramatic, poetic, or silly.  (My contribution was a recitation of the age-old mairy fail of Rindercella…)

Of course, we had to make fun our Trevor and Gale Lake, our caravan leaders:

2017-08-14 Final Banquet 05

And pay they tribute, as well…

2017-08-14 Final Banquet 09

So, again, we all had a good time. Many good-byes were said. We headed back to the Villa and reflected on the end of the caravan and the beginning of our new adventure, heading west towards home…

0

2017-07-03 Hudson Valley, NY; Marchese Chevrolet, FedEx, and a Blow Dryer

The day in Croton Point dawned beautifully again. Today was another utilitarian day. We started by driving to Marchese Chevrolet in Fort Montgomory, NY, about a 1/2 hour drive.

We were finally able to get a photo of the Bear Mountain Bridge:

2017-07-03 Hudson River Bridge 02

We needed a basic 7,500 mile service, and we needed to top off the DEF.  While the happy merry workers went about their duties we walked the neighborhood. Simple and grand houses, in the woods and overlooking the Hudson Bay.  Beautiful.

The truck was done after about one hour, and we set out to drive one hour in the opposite direction, passing by Croton Point on the way. We headed inland, east of Sleepy Hollow, to the local FedEx facility. My brother, Paul, who has taken over our duties in Irvine, had sent a package of important mail to the Croton Point campgrand. Apparently, the driver couldn’t find the office to deliver it, so we simply asked that they hold it at their facility.  We found FedEx easily, but when they asked for an ID with the local New York address on it we were stumped.  They eventually gave us the package, and shortly thereafter I found an email showing our campground reservation with the address on it. Crisis averted; we drove on…

We found a local drug store; Lynda was able to purchase a small, travel-size blow dryer to replace her old one that, well, blew.  Success! We were done for the day. Back at the Villa we walked, wrote, cleaned, and had a relaxing day. Adult beverages were on the menu for the evening.  An enjoyable time was had by all.  Lynda experimented with selfies…

0

Blog at WordPress.com.

Up ↑