Month: May 2012

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Scary Mail

Jody emailed me tonight to let me know she got some mail for me from “Government of Alberta, Driver Fitness and Monitoring, Edmonton” and that it was probably my stickers for the license plate but did I want her to open up the envelope and check?

I quickly Googled Driver Fitness and Monitoring because it didn’t sound good and the results caused me to reply with, “Yes.”

It took about an hour for her to get back to me while I fretted. Did someone report me for dangerous driving? Was I ticketed for something and never informed? The best case scenario I could envision was that I needed to get my eyes tested since they didn’t do that when I got my license here (wearing glasses or contacts is a condition on my license). I kept telling myself, “Calm down. Whatever it is, you’ll deal with it. No sense working yourself up over nothing.” But you try to get a letter from a place called Driver Fitness and Monitoring without knowing the contents and not fret over it!

Jody’s next email had the subject line “Mail is OK” with a scan of the letter. I just laughed and laughed and laughed because the letter basically said what the lady from Service Alberta told me yesterday.

Here’s the letter:

The highlights:

-Your Accent has been reported unrepairable. It cannot be registered or put on the road. It can only be sold for scrap or dismantled for pairs.

-If you still have your registration and license plate, you can transfer them to a new vehicle.

-If you don’t have the registration and license plate, advise a registry office so that they can be cancelled.

I am once again thankful that Jody reminded me to go grab my license plate off the car. I am certain I would not have thought to do so myself. I am really fond of that license plate because it is just one number off from the motorhome so I only have to remember which is the 6 and which is the 7. It’s like having a matched set, which is what my rig might look like soon if the seller would only get back to me! 🙂

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Compromises

I’m so excited! I think I found my toad!!!

This morning, I subscribed to a Ford Ranger forum and got the lo down on the whole 3L versus 4L debate. It turns out that the 3L is NOT less reliable than the 4L. People say it is garbage because it is less powerful. I don’t want a truck-truck. I’m not going to be towing or hauling with this thing. The 3L is the perfect compromise between a car and a pickup and has therefore put the otherwise near perfect rig back in the running.

I just emailed someone in Canmore to ask if he would be agreeable to having Smart Auto Check do an inspection ($200) on his truck tomorrow or Monday. If that comes back positive, we just need to make a deal and I’m buying it! It’s a 1998 Ranger with just over 200,000KM and service history from 100,000KM onward. It has the topper I want with a little extra headroom at the back and, get this, it already has a platform in the back for sleeping on with room underneath for storage.

Please cross all your appendages for me! 😀

(Am I going to look silly with my 1997 white Ford motorhome if it pulls a 1998 white Ford truck?!)

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I Feel Like I’m On Another Planet

Oh, Quebec… Hated living here but I love, love, love visiting!

Being overdue for a Walmart run and having access to the car for a few precious hours, I  headed out this morning for the first time to the Quartier Dix30 (Ten30 Neighbourhood, because it’s at the intersection of autoroutes 10 and 30).  To me, this mega complex, that would rival the West Edmonton Mall if it was enclosed, is new, but it’s of course been here a while. It took a bit of navigation to find the Walmart, so new that it doesn’t even have a Walmart sign on the exterior.

I hadn’t been in there a minute that I was grinning, listening to a husband and wife have a quiet argument. Husband was ranting in English and wife was trying to calm him down in French. During my shopping I caught associates doing the same thing, one talking to another in French and getting English responses. Even though French is my first language, I make sure I’m exposed to it everywhere I live, and I spoke tons of it in Dawson City, it still sounds so exotic after not living in a French environment for almost four years.

The actual shopping experience was horrible because Quebec has a European-style culture of ‘the customer is not my bread and butter, it is a disturbance’, but I knew that going in and kept telling myself, “Réspire par le nez” (breathe through the nose), a common expression meaning, “Relax!”

They were having an amazing deal on the Omega Paw litter box, so I picked up a new one (and I even managed to score the bronze one that I have been coveting because it will blend in better with my decor). The clasps on the one I got in Campbell River are worn, so the box leaks when I roll it. There is also the matter that even with cleaning it completely once a week, a litter box retains odours. I used to buy a litter box a year, so having done a year and a half with my litter box in no way reflects on the quality of the product. My review of the Omega Paw litter box still stands; best litter box ever!

Now that it’s almost summer, I’ll be having tomato sandwiches for breakfast for the foreseeable future and I was out of tomatoes. So I made a stop at IGA to grab some. I don’t know what it is about the produce out here, but it lasts longer. Then again, Jody agrees with me that the produce in Lethbridge is terrible. I’d slice a tomato there and the next day the leftovers would be mouldy. Here, a tomato can last me for three sandwiches/days. They also taste like tomatoes here.

Quebec grocery stores are nothing like the grocery stores out west. There’s a lot more ‘ethnic’ stuff, especially Middle Eastern, and a lot more gourmet products. It’s so lovely to have access to not just pita bread again, but a variety of it, and stocked by a store that knows that pita bread is supposed to be soft! And let’s not get into the options for hummus. I used to be a bit of a purist, but I’m starting to like the ones with add-ins. I went with roasted red pepper today. 🙂

Another difference is that some products that are really expensive out west are cheaper in Quebec. I’m thinking specifically of grey shallots. I occasionally splurged on a mesh bag of three or four of them for about $5 in Lethbridge. Here, I bought a big box with more than 10 for about $2. Cheese and yoghurt are also cheaper. My favourite kind of yoghurt is about 50 cents cheaper here at regular price and I got some $2 cheaper on sale. Finally, when my favourite brand of frozen pizza goes on sale here, the whole brand goes on sale, not just a few flavours. Yay for a freezer full of $3 Dr. Oetker Hawaiians. 🙂

I really hope that I’ll be able to get out and explore Quebec this summer. I think that once I have my new toad set up for camping, it’ll be really motivated to go out for three-day weekends. I’d especially like to get to Charlevoix and maybe even as far as Gaspé. But if I do that, I might as well keep going and visit the last province on my list, Newfoundland!

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Second Opinions Are Good

I emailed Ken and Donna my current truck short list and Ken was quick to reply that my top contender was the only real contender. I was advised to eliminate anything over 300,000KM and that mileage trumps age. So a 1994 with fewer than 200,000KM is better than a 1997 with more than 200,000KM. I was also advised not to get a ‘side step’ since that means a smaller bed.

So unless anything better shows up between now and Monday, I’ll start by visiting the dealership see how the top contender looks. It does have three strikes against it:

1) It’s a 4X4, which are trickier to tow, even as a manual.

2) The listed price is outrageous. Of course, if it were to come with a good warranty that would eliminate the extra expense and hoops of a super thorough inspection, I might be willing to add a couple hundred to the bill, but that’s it.

3) This truck does not have a topper, but I’ve decided that there’s no sense eliminating a good truck that doesn’t have one. I can keep my eye out for a topper on the way back and I can even buy one here, although the extra sales tax makes that a less attractive option.

I went to the Remco website and found a couple of businesses nearby that might be able to do the conversion for towing. One thing that is becoming apparent to me is that I would be best off to pick up all my parts in the US on the way back here and then have the installation done here. Another option would be to take the truck to the US from here and have the work done, but that makes me nervous because:

Repairs or modifications to your vehicle

If you intend to have repairs or modifications made to your vehicle outside Canada, check with us before you leave. Under customs law, we can no longer consider your vehicle, vessel, or aircraft to be Canadian if you increase its value, improve its condition, or modify it while abroad. As a result, you may have to pay duty on its entire value when you bring it back.

So the option that is the least likely to bankrupt me really does seem to get the parts in the States and have the work done up here.

I’m not too concerned about the cost of the towing set up parts and installation in that if it goes over the $2,200 that I was allotted, Intact will reimburse me the difference as long as I can provide supporting documentation. I am convinced that the appraiser neglected to include the tow bar itself (the male part that fits in the motorhome’s female hitch receptacle).

But the braking system is giving me pause. A ‘brake in a box’ system could set me back over $1,000, money I would much rather apply to repairs to Miranda. There is another option, the ReadyBrake, which Andy Baird describes in great detail. It is compatible with a Ford Range, the price is so much more attractive, and it looks easier to use. I just checked their list of Canadian dealers and there are only four, one of which just happens to be VR Expert, who is doing my motorhome repairs! This tells me that they could very well be capable of converting my new toad for towing, so I will ask them when I take the rig in for repairs.

But no point putting the cart before the horse. I need a new toad first!

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Scheduling the Evaluation For the Final Motorhome Repairs

I knew there was something else I had to do today besides, you know, earn a living: schedule a time for me to bring Miranda in for an evaluation of the repairs to be done. I wanted Aviva to advise me how to proceed before doing that.

This was the least frustrating part of my call with my adjuster this morning. She told me that they are not sending another evaluator out. I am to take the rig to get it evaluated. If the body shop guy has the same to-do list as the evaluator did in the US, then we’re good to go. They are not going to quibble over money.

I wanted to give myself plenty of time between the end of my Calgary trip and the evaluation, so I am going in first thing on June 15th. Closer to that date, I will call again and ask if I will be able to leave Miranda there until the repairs can be done. If so, I’ll have enough time to get my cats settled in my mother’s garage, my fridge and freezer emptied, and my office set up in the guest bedroom. Frankly, this would be easier than to pack up, go there, come back, unpack, repack, and go back again. Plus, there is a good chance that the repairs will coincide with the city redoing my mother’s entrance so I would have had to park Miranda on the street for several days anyway.

Now, I need to find a place to have the baseplate installed on the truck. Whew.