Passing Meetings

I was reading Paul's Blog about Life in Merida and his account of his friendship with Miguel, a local Mexican gentleman. It reminded me of a couple of people I met in Mexico. The memories are pleasant and I will pass one of them on to you.

It was in our first week or two in Mexico last year. I was walking around the Centro one day looking for photo opportunities. I passed a shoe shine stand tended by an older gentleman waiting for a customer. This is a town where kids wear running shoes and tourists wear sandals so customers were few and far between. He smiled and responded to my nod (I did not know the Buenas Dias / Buenas Tardes rules back then and did lots of nodding, the universal language).

I stopped to look at a statue at the end of the Centro. It was of a distingushed looking man holding an open book. I was trying to read the inscription when a voice beside me said, "He is a teacher". I turned and there was my nodding acquaintence, the shoe shine man. He was a very tall man and appeared to be in his late sixties. He carried himself proudly and I could see that he had been in good shape all his life. He explained to me that school teachers are very important people in Mexico and that they have a very important job. His English was excellent. I looked over at his simple stand and he said that his friend was watching it for him. We chatted for a few minutes about his village and than he went back to his work.

Unsatisfied with our brief encounter, I went back to the Centro the next day. Again, he came over to talk to me as soon as he saw me. He was a retired Government worker and loved to find people to practice his English on. He and his wife had several children who all had families of their own so it was just him and his wife. She was occupied with the grandchildren and he spent most days supplementing his pension by shining shoes in the Centro. When we parted, I reached out to shake his hand. He withdrew his hand, saying it was very dirty from his shoe shining. I took his hand anyway and gave it a firm shake. He was the kind of person you would treasure as a friend. I am sorry that I do not remember his name.

Oliver to Campbell River

Last night I boondocked outside the Okanagan Falls dealer who is doing the microwave replacement. I got up at eight, drove into their lot where a snarling guard dog will protect the motorhome until we get back there and after a quick breakfast in town I headed for Campbell River in the Honda.

It was a whirlwind trip and I covered the 700 KM in nine hours including a one and a half hour ferry ride! It was nice driving the Honda. For a twenty year old car with 250,000 KM on it it still runs well and gave me 36 miles to the Canadian gallon. I am paying attention to mileage now because I am getting the "chip" in the motorhome reprogrammed in an effort to improve the dismal mileage of 6.2 miles to the USA gallon or 7.5 miles to the Canadian gallon that I have been getting. I talked to the guy who will be doing the work and he is sure he can make an improvement. A friend of mine had his Class A Winnebago Ford V-10 done by this guy and his mileage improved from an average of 8.5 up to an average of 10.5 miles per USA gallon. That is an increase of over 20%! I would be very happy if he can do that for me.

It looks like we acted too quickly in the case of replacing the microwave. A commenter on a previous Blog entry tells me he called Apollo and they sent him a new latch assembly which he installed himself! It is too late to stuff that toothpaste back into the tube as the microwave is in shipment to Canada. Maybe I will call them and see if they can send me the part and I can sell the microwave here.

Microwave Part Dos

I took the motorhome in to a small RV repair place to have the microwave looked at. He pulled off what he could and we could see the broken pieces of the latch laying on the bottom inside of the case. There did nor seem to be any way to get at it easily and paying someone $85 per hour to work on it does not compute. My first inclination was to simply replace it with a regular microwave but after I ran this past Norma she informed me this was not a good plan. She had a convection oven and wanted it replaced with a convection oven. Period.

I passed the problem off to her after getting the name of an Apollo dealer in the States. She called them, got a number for Apollo and talked to them. She ended up ordering a direct replacement for the broken oven and it will be shipped directly to the dealer in Okanagan Falls, BC where the motorhome is now parked. With any luck the oven will arrive and will be installed by the time we get back to it in 10 or 12 days.

On Edit: It has been asked what the new microwave cost. It was a pleasant surprise when I found out. I looked for a suitable item in the stores and counter top convection microwaves are quite expensive in Canada. There was one for $699 that was nice but a little too large for where it had to go. The cost of the new one from Apollo, which includes the light and exhaust fan was $399 USA plus $109 shipping. I could have installed it myself but it is being shipped to the repair place in OK Falls and they will put it in for me. The labour will be minimal.

Microwave Packed It In!

I put a cup of coffee in the microwave and started it up. All went well and it dinged to let me know it was done. I pushed the button to open the door and nothing happened! I stuck a knife blade into the crack and pried as I pressed the button again. Still nothing. I squirted lubrication into everything and still no good. I finally took off the plastic trim and took the hinge off the door to see what was happening. The workings of the latch are all behind the plastic body and door and the latch simply does not respond to presses of the button.

I guess it is time for a new microwave! When the shelf mounted microwave went in the last MH failed I simply took the measurements, went to WalMart and found an acceptable replacement for under $100 which I screwed in place using some angle brackets. This one however hangs under the cupboard and includes the light and exhaust fan so my options are more limited. I will call the local RV repair place on Tuesday and see what they can do for me although I know that anything designed for RV's is going to be a lot more expensive.

My "lucky streak" continues....

Oliver

Yesterday was a nice day in Oliver. The temperature was in the low to mid 20's and there was no rain. The sun actually came out for quite a while.

Our group assembled and it was fewer of the old timers than usual but our friends Pete and Laura from Cranbrook brought their whole clan so there were lots of kids. Last night was the wine and cheese party. We used to bring our "home" made wine but this year I never got a chance to put my order in before we got home and have it ready in time to bottle and bring to the party. Instead I stopped at a little winery and bought a couple of bottles of the local Okanagan Merlot and Pino Noir. it was fun catching up with friends.

Tonight was the Pot Luck dinner where everyone brings five times more than necessary so we ate until we could eat no more. the lawn dart competition starts in the morning. The weather is beautiful. it was in the high 20's all day with a bit of a wind to keep thinks nice. Maybe I will wander down and have one more glass of wine!

Campbell River to Oliver, BC

I headed over to Vancouver on the 3:00 ferry yesterday. It was a two hour trip that sailed by two schools of dolphin playing in the surf. The sight of them made the fact that I had just paid $191 for a one way ticket a little easier to take!

I called the Plaza Mobile RV Park in Surrey to see if they had a spot for for the night and was told they had a no hook-up grass site for $21. This is quite cheap for the Vancouver area so I took it. I asked for a late checkout as my retirees meeting was at 11:00 and I thought it might go until 2:00. She told me there was no problem.

I fired up the generator to heat up a frozen pasta meal in the microwave and then I watched TV with the inverter until I went to sleep. The new wiring job on the inverter seems to be working well. There was a momentary alarm as I connected both the TV and the computer but it went out immediately and everything ran.

My meeting went on longer than I expected and it was almost 5:00 before I got back to the RV park so I just paid for one more night. I went to bed early and got a nice early start before 7:00 the next morning. It was a good trip but there was quite a bit of snow on the Hope - Princeton Highway!

I got to the Maple Leaf RV Park in Oliver, had a beer with Rick, the friendly owner and then visited my old friends Tom and Betty Richardson for a half hour before I did a little grocery shopping and returned to the motorhome to have something to eat and settle down for the night. My friends will start arriving tomorrow. There will not be as many of us here this year. We have had as many as fifty here for the long weekend in the past but this year it will probably be as few as ten or fifteen. Age is starting to take a toll on our group!

Eagle Sighting

As I was getting ready to leave yesterday morning I noticed four eagles in a tree beside the house. It was a nesting pair and their two young. The parents were watching out while the young ones were playing around. One would land on a branch and the other would try to land beside him. knocking both of them down to a lower branch. This went on for some time and I managed to find time to grab my camera for a couple of shots. They were very active and there were many branches to confuse the focusing.

I looked on the bank behind the house for a nest but found none. They must have been just visiting.

BTW: These photos were taken with my new Nikon 70 - 300 mm lens that I bought on eBay to replace the 70 - 210 that I lost in Palanque, MX. So far the lens is performing flawlessly and producing good shots. However I am finding I cannot hold the camera as steady as I once could and the high magnification amplifies any shake so I will have to start using my tripod more. A concession to being 64!

One of the adults:

One of the young:

On The Road Again

I am off to the mainland with the motorhome tomorrow. My Retirees organization, the BCARTW, is having it's Annual General Meeting. I have been on the Executive since it's founding but it is time for me to leave. We need some younger blood in the organization and with my traveling I am finding it hard to carry my share of the work load. In our industry the normal retirement age is 55, after which we enjoy a very good pension which we have fought to improve. We have done a very good job and I am proud of my contribution.

On Thursday I will be heading to Oliver, BC where a group of us old Union activists get together every May Long Weekend to re fight the battles and remind ourselves how neat we are. A friend on mine calls this get together the "Dissidents Picnic".

Norma is staying home for now as we are having some work done on the house and she wants to be there to tell the workers how to drywall. She usually enjoys telling me how to drive but she had to make a choice. She will be joining me after Oliver and from there we will be heading up to Edmonton where we will be burying my brother's ashes. As you may remember, Gord passed away earlier this year while we were in Mexico. He was cremated and the family will get together on the first weekend in June to bury his ashes in his wife's familys private cemetary north of Edmonton.

I have only been home a little over two weeks and am so happy to be on the road! Maybe I am turning into a vagabond like my friend Tioga George.

Computer Tuneup For The Ford V-10

A friend of mine had the chip in his Ford V-10 motorhome re-programmed and noticed on his recent trip to the Baja that his gas mileage has improved by 10 - 20%. I got the name of the person who did the job for him and called Wayne at Sunoka Custom Tune tonight. We had a long discussion about the motorhome and he is sure he can improve not only the gas mileage but also performance and response.

We are going to Edmonton in June with the motorhome and will stop in Kamloops to get this job done. Be assured I will report on it here!

Solar Panel Rewireing

This morning I fixed something that has been bothering me. I was not happy with the job Camping World did replacing the solar panels that were destroyed by the low underpass. Instead of running in all new wire from the new panel to the controller they spliced into the wiring from the old panels. This wiring was for a 6o watt panel and the new one is 125 watts. In my opinion this was a shortcut they should not have taken.

I found their splice under the rooftop fridge vent cover and removed the old light gauge wire all the way back to the controller. I then spliced in two #10 wires to the positive and negative leads from the solar panel. I would have liked to have gone right to the panel itself but the connections are underneath and it is mounted and sealed to the roof. It would have been very difficult to remove but I am happy with the splice I made. I ran the wires down the conduit I had previously placed in the fridge vent and connected them directly to the back of the controller. I then mounted the controller beside the stairs where it covers a mark I made on the wall during the original installation and which I hoped Norma would not notice. Of course she did but now it is gone and I am in her good books again.

TV Project

My only remaining project on the motorhome is to mount the new 19" LCD TV onto the bedroom wall. It has to be mounted on a bit of an angle to face the bed and it will take some ingenuity to come up with something that is as solid as I want. They sell mounts but the mount costs almost as much as the TV did and I am not too impressed with them as they are not as rigid as I would like. We have been getting along so far by remembering to take the TV off the shelf before we move but it is just a matter of time until I forget.....

I am thinking of a large "barn door" type hinge mounted on a solid standoff, maybe a 2 X 6 bolted through the wall along with some way to keep it closed while traveling. Luckily there is a bathroom cabinet on the other side of the wall to hide any bolts..... This is still an ongoing process...