Getting repairs made - Thursday, 18August

When we got to the rest area where we had planned to boondock on Wednesday night and found the tow bar broken, we went in to the town nearby to see if we could find someone who could weld the crosspiece of the tow bar. We stopped at an Esso station and Rob helped us by calling Larry Lavers and ensuring that he could do the welding on Thursday morning. He gave us directions to the shop but we were a little confused – he said to go to the first main cross roads in Port au Choix (port ah shwah) and turn (either left or right) and then make another left or right and Larry’s shop was a Quonset hut with trucks around it.

So… we weren’t really sure whether we were to turn on the first street, or the first crossroads, or the first “main” crossroads, and we weren’t sure if we were to turn left or right, but we knew we were looking for a Quonset hut – how hard could it be?

Well, it turns out that there are quite a number of Quonset huts in this town!

Right when we got into town, we saw the first Quonset hut:

There weren’t any trucks around it, but there was an RV park behind it… hmmmm…..

We noticed that the Garmin told us that Lavers Street (Lane?) was coming up – maybe Larry Lavers’ shop would be on Lavers Street?

We found more Quonset huts…

Right down the street from the place we ended up parking Miss Doozie was one (you may be able to see the back of Miss Doozie just past the second telephone pole) (no trucks)…

… two (one truck nearby)…

… three – a boat nearby….

Rob had also given us Larry’s phone number, so we decided that we would call in the morning – he had said that he could work on it right at 8am, so we thought we could call then.

Meanwhile, a guy came by Miss Doozie obviously looking for people – he was willing to take folks out for fishing on the next day. Since the weather forecast was for rain, and we weren’t planning to stay in Port au Choix anyway, Dwayne declined. But, he happened to ask the guy if he knew where Larry Lavers shop was – and he did. He walked Dwayne to the end of the parking lot and pointed it out.

It was right above the boats in the harbor that we took a picture of!

When we went up there on Thursday morning at 8am, it turned out that Larry had other jobs that he needed to do before he could get to us. He was able to start working on the crossbar just before lunch, and then finish it soon after lunch.

He did a really nice job and Dwayne was able to meet a few other local folks while it was being worked on.

I should have gotten a picture before Dwayne re-painted it – but it was a really good job.

We are thinking that we will get a new crossbar anyway – it could be that the dragging that happened to it many months ago (http://trekincartwrights.blogspot.com/2015/11/excitement-for-day.html) could have caused the metal to weaken.

It worked well on the drive up to Raleigh, NL – and we were on some really rough roads.

By the way, when we finally got to Larry’s shop:

It definitely had trucks, and buses, and all sorts of things around it marking it as a mechanic’s shop!

When we were talking with the rangers at the Provincial Park near Twillingate, they told us that some trucks have huge contraptions on the front to protect the truck in case of accidents with moose – we saw some examples on the trucks outside Larry’s shop.

Another moose guard – and also a bus there for repair – this one wasn’t a Bluebird, but others were!

Inside the shop, Dwayne was interested to see a lathe.

The Jeep in the shop with the tow bar getting worked on.