Home again, home again jiggety-jig.......

Only there were more "jogs" than "jigs"......... On Tuesday we went to our appointment for the truck in Trois Rivieres (transmission specialist) and $550 later we left with new drive shaft parts, drove less than a mile and "the truck poltergeist noise" was baaaaaaaaaack!!! We stopped at the mechanic in Charrette on our way back to Bellerives and told him we still had the noise and asked if he thought it was safe to drive home to Michigan - he still thinks it's in the drive shaft....... Tuesday nite last dinner with out "Quebec Family" at the house. Up Wednesday and left at 8:30am - drove to the east side of Toronto and started feeling like there was something else wrong with the truck besides the "poltergeist noise" (that happened every time we decelerated - which believe me happens more often than you would think going down the expressway!!!!!!!!) After stopping several times and Randy checking the tires he felt the right rear hub and it was hot - soooooo we pull off on the next exit, stop at a gas station, Randy asks for a mechanic location, he comes back to me and says "you have to go talk to her", I go in and the young woman is a recent Indian immigrant and speaks halting English......and here we were feeling relieved to be back in a place where people spoke English!!! We were sent to a garage (by now it's 4p) and he says he will work on it in the morning. So we spend the nite in the truck in the garage parking lot, kind of quiet except for the train tracks 5o ft away..
8am and the guy pulls the truck up and takes the dual wheels off......unbelievably half of the hub of the wheel is gone.....like some metal-eating cookie monster took a bite out of it!!! No wonder the hub was hot - so he has to call around looking for a new wheel for a truck as old as ours,finds one, puts it on and we take it for a test drive thinking the "poltergeist noise" should be gone......nope!!!!!! We had the mechanic ride with us he he believes (by obviously process of elimination) it the transfer gears rubbing against each other every time there is no pressure with acceleration.......so $450 more and still the noise!!!!!! We leave there and the truck acts like it's not getting gas.....Randy stops on the side of the road and replaces the fuel filter and it seems to help. We travel to the west side of Toronto without too much traffic trouble, all of a sudden the truck is acting like it's not getting gas again......We pull off on the next exit, come to a stop lite on a hill, and the truck kills.......and won't start without opening the "doghouse" over the engine in the inside of the truck and me pouring gas in the carburetor, with traffic being held up on all sides of us!!! Finally we get the truck started and go downhill to a gas station - Randy fills up thinking maybe one of the tanks has bad gas, changes the tank filter and it still won't run. We ask around for a mechanic (Randy is getting really good at this....) and on the 3rd try we go to a Canadian Tire store with a garage. They check things out and find out the fuel pump is not working!!!! So we spend the nite in the Canadian Tire parking lot in the middle of a mall!!! (the only good thing was that there was a great dollar store!!!) We feed the dogs and have several people stop to visit and ask questions .....one guy even wants to sell us a sled he inherited! All of a sudden a police car pulls up and tells Randy he wants to see his paperwork and wants to know if we are planning to stay there all nite!!?? Yeah....we're broke down!! Randy gives him his rabies certificates for all the dogs, he wants to see Randy's driver's license.....and then our passports!!! Another cop shows up and he starts asking questions, also establishes somehow that Randy was in the Navy in during Viet Nam and that he had buddies in Iraq and tells the other cop he should quit harassing Randy!!! Apparently someone saw us putting the dogs back in their boxes after feeding and said we were "stuffing" dogs into boxes.......yes some of them need help so I actually lift them up and help move their legs to make it easier!!!! So that's really why the policed were there!

By now we are on Friday..........they told us they opened at 8 so we get up and drop dogs at 7:30 so we are ready for them.......however the part doesn't get there until 11:30!!! They put the new pump on and it doesn't seem to help - they put it back in the shop and one guy notices that 1/2 of the carb is not getting gas, he blows it out with air and thankfully, it runs good. We leave there, no problems getting to the border..........1 hour wait for all the people wanting to go to Michigan - looked in our trailer and asked about the dogs and WE ARE IN MICHIGAN!!!!

Get 1/2 way to Flint and the truck starts acting up again (mind you we still have the "poltergeist noise" going on and off during all of this time!!) We stop and feed dogs and Randy decides to change spark plugs and wires so we do that and take off and it seems to be running pretty good.....for awhile! We stop 2 other times and find out the wires (which were not exactly the right kind for the engine) had pushed off going down the road..........all of this hassle and we finally make it home at 2:30am!!!! My Lord what a trip!!!

Slept in Sat. and got groceries and mail from Jess' house and wanting to relax, turned on the TV to find out that, even with the HD converter box, we get only one station....channel 13....now!!
And we used more propane keeping the house from freezing this year so the propane tank is on 0%!!! (good thing I took a shower/hot water already!!)

Randy put all the dogs out into the kennel and they were soooooo happy to be going there they knocked him down twice! The weather was beautiful, only a lite jacket daffodils coming up in my garden and this morning we wake up to 2 inches of snow!!!! I think Randy has "jet lag" and is napping today so probably no training today for the 20 young dogs we have to expose to dogsledding and the grandkids are in Maryland and Idaho so nobody here to try the new "little people sled"!!!! even with the snow!

Despite the truck problems we had a great winter and as Randy says, "are Blessed and thankful to be able to have lived the Musher's Dream!!!!!"

PS the pictures on the top are of the river looking at the location of the the previous picture of the church, the lobby of the hotel, and Randy at the awards ceremony with the Wendat Indian tribe Chief