d4 – 3wk shakedown

We’re choosing to take every day of this Shakedown Trip as an Adventure, and we’re learning as we go.
Today has been no different!

Bowen:

An early start as we had to have Henry at the Auto-Elec by 7am, and we needed to get Mabi walked and fed, and the bus packed up ready for travel before we could leave.

Being the good little on-time people that we are, we were there before 7, but only just!
Which was unusual for us.
15 minutes early is our standard, but there were extenuating circumstances this morning that involved the bus step ending up under the rear tyre of the bus as we were leaving…

Rookie error from the distracted driver and navigator – and a furry co-pilot who takes no notice of anything that doesn’t involve food, naps or walkies.

Suffice to say, it will more than likely not happen again – we’re pretty sure – but we do need to find a new step!

Wandering:

We dropped Henry off and then walked via the cemetery park, and past the high school to a local cafe that we had read was not only good, but that was also dog friendly.

The Tall One had actually been given $25 for her birthday to spend at this particular cafe by a work friend, and this seemed like the perfect time to use it!

Alas, when we got to the cafe there was a big ole sign on the door stating “no dogs”.

Disappointed, we walked further down the road and came across a McDonalds with a nice breezy under-cover outdoor area, so we set ourselves up at a table, gave Mabi some water, and ordered ourselves some breakfast.

Mabi was loving the cool tiled flooring, and promptly lay down, sprawled out and went soundly to sleep, while we had our food.

Uhoh…

We were just about finished breakfast and Tim – our awesome Auto-Elec – called us to say that he’d been under the bonnet and when the aircon compressor belt broke, it had damaged another belt as well, and whilst the second belt was still working despite the damage, Tim wanted to know what we wanted to do.

He had checked for a new one of the other belts, and there was only one he could find – which was in Melbourne – but he said that he should be able to get it here by Thursday if we wanted it.
We did!
We asked him to grab it as we wanted both replaced at the same time.

Tim said we could go and pick Henry back up – until the part arrived – as he hadn’t pulled anything apart yet in case we wanted to not do the repairs, so we walked back to the workshop.

We collected Henry – which they had kindly plugged in so that the fridge didn’t warm up too much – and headed off for a little tour of the town and the foreshore, then to Supercheap to get a new bus step, and then on to the grocery store to stock up on supplies for the next few days.

The Short One took Mabi to the park across the road for a walk and wee, while the Tall One did the shopping, which included getting a new kettle – as our old one had done a triple black-flip with a 7.3 degree of difficulty – out of the top cupboard and didn’t fare well on landing…

It was then back to the van-park to set up home again, and to spend a relaxing afternoon doing some writing, GoPro editing, reading, researching and a dip in the pool.

Mabi got a wash-down too, and then enjoyed lying under the bus in a dust-bath for her afternoon nap.

Later:

So – now we wait for the call to let us know that the part has turned up, and we’ll just stay around town until it does.
We definitely do not want to be stuck on the side of the road somewhere, broken down in the heat, and needing to put Henry on the back of a truck if we can possibly help it, so we’d much rather be safe than sorry…

Until next time – happy travels, and make the moments matter.

slight mishap with the old step….

watching out for the return of the Tall One who went grocery shopping, and keeping an eye on Henry while relaxing in the park.

an afternoon of reading, researching, learning, relaxing, and editing

** addit: yes, we plan to have a variety of spare belts and other parts for the bus, and it was on our ‘to do’ list – we just hadn’t got to it yet…