Month: July 2012

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A Sunday in the Eastern Townships

Sunday, I’d promised my dad’s brother that I would go visit him at his trailer in East Bolton in the Eastern Townships. I took off around 8:30 and arrived around 9:30.

Uncle K has had a trailer in that campground for about 30 years. Until a few years ago, his trailer was from the ’60s but he has since upgraded to a trailer from the ’70s. The RV spot is large and he planted all the trees on it, so he saw them grow from saplings to the mature, shade-providing, trees they are today.

The campground is on Trousers Lake, so named because the general shape of the lake is a pair of pants. It’s a lake with an inlet and an outlet, so the water is cool, but clean. Motorboats haven’t been allowed in years, so the fishing is very good (bass and pike mostly).

Uncle K took me for a brief walk to see some of the sights and then we were joined by Uncle J (dad’s late sister’s husband) and his grand-daughter (my second cousin).

We piled into Uncle J’s tiny Nissan to go check out the site of the cottage my grand-father started to build in the ’60s and never finished because of his untimely death in an accident caused by a drunk driver.

The cottage was on Lake Gilbert. Today, you could drive to the site, but in the ’60s, you had to park on shore and pack everything over by boat. From shore, it was a 20KM walk round trip to get groceries.

The next stop was the Benedict Abbey (Abbaye Saint-Benoît), known for its beautiful grounds and superb cheeses. Had I not had several hours ahead before access to a fridge, I would have bought some treats at the large monastery store! Uncle J picked up a jar of caramel spread, something that was obviously a treat he gets whenever he’s in the area.

The abbey was founded in 1910

this is the older part of the abbey

the brickwork is gorgeous!

simple stained glass

floor mosaic

the left part of the abbey is ‘new’ from the 1980s

the little chapel

We drove around the countryside a little more after this, looking for, but failing to find, our family cemetery (I should have printed off the directions, but I can always go back later this summer; it’s not far). The Eastern Townships (Cantons de l’est) is one of the most scenic regions in Canada and very popular cottage country. You can run into politicians (eg. former Prime Minister Paul Martin) and movie stars (eg. Donald and Kiefer Sutherland) here.

We grabbed some goodies from a popular bakery for lunch, ate at the campground, and headed back to the Montérégie mid-afternoon. I was glad to have my iPod because I got caught in the expected Sunday afternoon traffic jam on the 10:

It started 3KM from the exit for Chambly and it took me almost a full hour to get home from that point. I could have walked home almost three times as quickly! I just cranked up the Cowboys Fringants and had fun watching the RVers run out of their rigs to use the bathroom and fix snacks!

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Another Moving Day Circus

I am partially moving back into Miranda today, just to sleep and cook most meals. I hadn’t moved back in right away for a number of reasons, the main one being that we were going through record highs here and it didn’t make sense to move back into a space where I couldn’t run the AC continuously being on 15A power. Finally, the strong cat odour in the rig kept coming back. I wound up doing a full sweep of the rig with a black light and an enzymatic cleaner and finally got  to the source of the issue and resolved it.

Now, why am I only moving back in partially? My mother came into the motorhome at one point and said, why don’t we do this, this, this, and this, all of which was on my to-do list for the summer. So we’re going to take advantage of the rig not being fully inhabited and the cats still being in the garage to do some final mods. The cloth dresser’s days are numbered!!!

It’ll be sooooo nice to sleep in my bed tonight!

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Replacing the Tailgate Handle in my 2000 Ford Ranger

My biggest complaint with the operation of my Ranger was that the tailgate was a pain to open. Eventually, I couldn’t open it at all. This is why:

After researching the cost of a used and new tailgate handle for my 2000 Ranger, I decided to order one from eBay seller directauto. The new tailgate handle cost me peanuts and arrived today. It is not a Ford part, but it appears to be just as robust and it fits perfectly.

I used the following video as a guide for installation:

The only thing I can add to that video is to have a pair of pliers on hand to grab your nuts if you drop them. Otherwise, installation was just that easy. The hardest part was finding the right screwdriver bit for removing the tailgate cover screws and then for the nuts holding the handle assembly.

I can’t believe the difference a little grease, WD-40, and a new handle makes! My tailgate now opens effortlessly.

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Chez Lien Vietnamese Restaurant, Saint-Constant

It was a spur of the moment invitation from old family friends and former bosses that brought us to a Chez Lien Vietnamese Restaurant in Saint-Constant, a place my mother had been to a few times and really enjoyed. Chez Lien is a chain, but she says that they have different owners and vary in quality. The one in Saint-Constant is the cleanest.

I’ll just make a parenthesis here to say that I started working for my bosses more than 20 years ago. I can’t believe it’s been that long! I last worked for them 14 years ago. We are still close and I can’t believe their boys are all grown up and starting to have children of their own. It makes me feel about 10 years older than I am.

Anyway, back to Chez Lien. They have a basic but mostly authentic Vietnamese menu with some Thai and ‘Chinese’ items as well as a very opinionated server. My mother gets a kick out of him. Everyone else had a combination fish and seafood platter with soup. I went for one imperial roll and the lemongrass chicken sauté. I wanted rice but when the server told me he was bringing me vermicelli, I felt it best not to argue. My mother said that I would have heard about it for five minutes if I’d argued with him for wanting the wrong carb with my meal. That sounds unpleasant, but he was hilarious!

The hearty roll came with fish dipping sauce (a clear and sweet sauce made with fish but not tasting like it at all) and a nice salad with a yummy peanut dressing. My dinner was very late coming out; my companions were halfway finished with theirs when mine arrive. But it was worth the wait! I had a huge plate of perfectly sautéd veggies and nice pieces of chicken swimming in a thin and fragrant lemongrass sauce that had just a bit of kick to it. I threw the noodles in to absorb some of the yummy sauce. Mmm! I adore lemongrass!

Chez Lien serves a variety of fruits deep fried in a wonton wrapper as dessert. Only two of us opted for dessert. My mother chose banana and I chose apple. Dessert was a bit ho hum, needing a little cinnamon or nutmeg, but the sweet sesame sauce made it pretty special. The coffee was very good, albeit a little too close to tepid to really savour.

I really enjoyed our meal at Chez Lien, especially when compared to my last experience at a Vietnamese restaurant! If I were to go back there, I would most likely have the lemongrass chicken again. It was just too good to try something else!

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Dealership Estimate on the Motorhome Repair

The replacement adjuster at Aviva called me this afternoon very confused about Boisvert Ford’s estimate because there was a $600 difference with the idiots’ estimate. I told her that my adjuster told me many times that the number doesn’t matter. As long as the adjuster in the US said that A,B, and C needs to be repaired and that Boisvert says that A, B, and C needs to be repaired, then the numbers, within reason, don’t matter.

She went on to say that there were a lot of questions about the estimate. The French speaker on staff couldn’t translate half of it into something that made sense. Could I call Boisvert and figure it out?

I called and got the body shop guy immediately. He was available to discuss the estimate and once he realised that I really needed to understand each item to explain it to someone else, he took the time to walk me through the whole thing very patiently. Wow, what a difference in service!

As it turns out, his estimate is just more detailed. Instead of just saying ‘repair bumper’, he spells that that repairing the bumper means that we have to repair the side and rear exterior panels the bumper is attached to as well as the inside of the compartment. Uh, inside of the compartment? *note to self: empty the compartment* He also had the proper French terms (plancher and seuil, literally floor and threshold) for the three twisted metal pieces. Finally, he added the hitch receiver and the hitch.

So I emailed Aviva back and said that the estimate makes perfect sense to me, detailing and explaining each item, and that I can provide more pictures for clarification. I also told them that a dealership working on its own product should trump any other estimate for repair and the adjuster agreed.

I think Miranda is going to be in good hands!