More truck & garden changes

When Brad went to the wreckers the other day he came home with a new bumper and a new grill -both of which had been a sore point on the truck because the bumper it came with was pushed up and crunched and the silver wrapper on the grill was bubbled.

The new grill came black so Brad sprayed the Ford emblem to match.

He had also ordered wheel trims which arrived and were put on in short order.

Before attaching wheel trims, we sanded, primed and repainted the body where some rust was a concern.

Old Bumper

New Bumper

Looking good. 

When we return from the trip, the cap will be removed and a tonneau cover put on - assuming we keep the truck at that point...

New Bumper and we also have our hard earned Veteran's plates -- took a year -- !

Left to right, my peas are sprouting on the left... and some herbs on the right.

Garlic and Green onions.. no carrots (in between them) yet.

No peppers yet.

Today we took the truck to Duncan to have our taxes done at H&R, Brad has always done them but last year we had so much going on and we liked the girl so went to her again this year.

With that pleasant chore done -- obviously a return is coming, eventually-- we drove through Victoria to a UPS to ship out a faulty Amazon purchase that caused a breakdown on the side of the main road here on the island.. We had to re-order one from Ford and it was here the next day and all turned out well. 

The Amazon company authorized a return and we simply had to drop it at UPS -- not available on our island and permanently closed in Duncan... we then caught the ferry home at Swartz Bay and got home just in time for supper.

Speaking of supper, Jan & Steve called yesterday from Victoria to say they have had a change of plans and will be available to visit with us when we drive through Ontario after all. I asked if they wanted to do dinner -- so Brad & I went across to Sydney last night and met up with them for supper at a beautiful little stone building turned restaurant. Surprise bonus: they bought us dinner. Love these two LOL They are heading back to Ontario very soon so this would probably be our last time with them before seeing them in Ontario on our trip.

We were able to show off everything we have done to the truck since we bought it as they were there when we originally looked at the truck. We are proud to have accomplished all the things we wanted to accomplish before this trip, and then some. 

We stopped at Canadian Tire to return a couple of items including the pet barrier (Robbie won't cross the front center seat if it is up so we didn't need the barrier in the end), and ended up spending more than we had returned, including a backup camera for the truck - with this huge cap on it it can be hard to see just where you are and we're not used to the size of this thing yet so this backup camera just ensures we don't hit something.

Also, the other day we received the necessary permissions to do what I wanted to do with this:

So that is exciting and something to look forward to. Some detailed planning has begun with plenty more to be done yet and then we can settle on a timeframe which could be complicated with our trip causing a significant delay, no doubt...

I think that's everything I had to update you all about... probably not but its all I can think of at the moment.

So it's a good night to all and to all a good night.

Trip gadgets and dinner with friends

Some of you have no doubt heard me say that I am a gadget Queen... this post is about just that...

Today I ordered this USB multi 12V adapter for the truck. This baby will allow me to charge up to 6 of my gadgets at a time and it will show me the truck battery level while it does that. Also, should it be necessary we can even plug the CPAP into it too.

Gadget #1: Charger

I also ordered some new sticky bits for the multitude of Nite Ize magnet balls we have all over everything already so that I can move them around to where we need them now. As an example there are 2 of these balls on our RV dash but until we move the RV, we don't need them on the dash but you can't just move them this VHB tape is not meant for that, so new stickies are required. 

I have secured the space in the truck which will house the above adapter gadget and I have configured the best way to run the wiring to the gadgets without obstructing the dash in any way. Brad loves it when I fit out a vehicle for my gadgets... hahaha.

Gadget #2: iPhone

Gadget #3: Traffic camera

Gadget #4: GPS

Gadget #5: Digital camera

Gadget #6: iPad

Gadget #7: eReader

Gadget #8: Headlamp

This will be handy for breakdowns in the dark as well as if we stay in the truck for some nights (unlikely but.... undecided as yet).

Naturally, I will also be taking this laptop on which I am writing this post but it will be in the luggage not in the truck cab.

In any event the point being that the truck will be wired for sound and satellite imagery in the event we get lost driving the Trans Canada Highway.

Went out for dinner with Jan & Steve tonight as they are abandoning us, er,  I mean leaving Salt Spring for Victoria enroute to Ontario for the Spring. We hope to see them in Ontario during our trip either going or coming or both.  These two were a great gain to us during our campground managing experience and I'm sure we'll be friends for many years to come.

Jan & Steve

Campers extraordinaire

We will be particularly sad to lose Steve's warped sense of humour. However, Jan will always have the iron in the fire, I'm sure.... (private joke)

They were kind enough to take pics of us also since we've obtained only 3 or 4 in our 15 years together. This one Steve took.

Jan took this one.

Daffodil growing outside the local Inn where we had supper tonight. 

First one I've seen this season, although I've been seeing tons of flower pics on FaceBook for weeks already.

White Night, truck and trip

Here she is people, in all her glory... 

Head mechanic Robbie checks over the handy work

Decals removed - finally, but not by me.

I had pickle at 10am - Noon, then home for a short spell to putter with the truck then Brad took the truck for a spin and I prepped for my massage at 330pm. We passed each other as I was heading to the massage place and the decals stood out to me so I knew I had to get on that today, but when I got home Brad had removed the decals already. This is why I keep him around... he is my knight in shining armour... once we wash & polish the truck that will be literal - haha.

Fresh coolant done today, this is the quietest diesel truck I've ever known, at least it is since we changed all those filters the other day... it went from chug chug chug to toc toc toc. What a difference that day made!

What is left to be done on the truck before the trip?: The bypass kit, blue spring upgrade, air filter, new sleeves on the CAC tube and new module for the glow plugs. None of this 'needs' doing, we're just trying to avoid any mechanical problems while on our 17,200km journey this spring. 

Knowing our luck the tranny will fall out! Oops, I take that back.... not begging for trouble.

I will be using the label 'National tour' for posts about this trip. For the record, we are leaving from Salt Spring Island in BC late April, with stops in Saskatoon, Windsor and Ottawa before heading to hell and back again likely repeating those same stops.