Murphy's Law & the Black Cat

So where did we leave off? Our first night? With crisp autumn sunrise pics and farm kitties? 

Well, "day 2" did start off quite idyllically - our first morning in Rhonda.  We woke up early, took our time, made a breakfast of eggs, toast & avocado, and coffee.  And off we went, waving to Claude on his tractor as we pulled out. Then, a black cat crossed our path on the way out of town. Ba-ba-bammmmm, little did we know what the day had in store for us!

First stop was Canadian Tire in Lévi, QC - one of the bolts on the bumper adapter (the adapter allows us to put the bike rack on the back of Rhonda) has sheered off. Crazy (and dagerous!) since we just bought it at Orleans RV 10 days ago. J did did some F1-like speed-change of the busted one and we were away. We had about a 7 hour drive to our next stop in Moncton where we would catch up with some friends from my uni days.  We haven’t seen JP & Rachelle since our wedding - so we are way overdue! And we have received confirmation that my passport (containing the precious visa) will be sent to Moncton for pick-up.  Feels like all the pieces are right where they should be, and I take my turn driving.  Not going to lie, we are both a bit tired - first night in Rhonda was short and we def need to get used to our new “compact” bed - especially Rienks, who only "kind of" fits on a diagonal LOL.  

Rienks is dozing in the passenger seat, and I’ve just teed up some favorite tunes to sing along to as we cruise along the St-Lawrence river.  Not even 2 songs in, we go over a quite large seam in the highway, that sort of wakes my sleeping beauty. I look over to smile at him and “SHIT, Fuck!!” excuse my french - Rhonda’s passenger side wheel is engulfed in smoke… We slow and pull over on the side of the highway, run back to Rhonda…. Now our smoke detector is going off, yelling “FIRE, FEU, FIRE” at us, over and over, through it’s high pitched beeping.. We are throwing windows open, smoke & the smell of burnt rubber has completely taken over poor Rhonda!!! When we finally get the fire alarm off, orange cones set behind us on the shoulder, we can see that Rhonda’s passenger-side wheel is all the way back in the wheel-well.  Where the axel is attached to the frame at the front has “come undone”, metal peeling apart from metal. Not good… Call insurance, they send a tow truck…. we wait. I have to pee (surprise), but what luck - we have a bathroom! I turn on the water pump, pee, and go back to pacing around Rhonda.  We tried to somehow use a ratchet strap on the right side to pull the axel up a few inches off the wheel well so we can maybe limp to a garage to save ourselves the towing fee…. no luck.….. Well, now we notice TONS of water seeping out of the trailer seam behind the affected wheel! As if the smoke & heat engaged some secret hose & sprinkler system (maybe Rhonda is a genius LOL).  In reality, the high heats in the wheel-well had melted 2 of our plumbing hoses under the sink. When I turned on the water pump to use the toilet, all the water from our clean water tank came seeping out…. all over our dishes & tupperware - which are also covered in burnt black debris! It’s like a terrible comedy where everything that can go wrong will…Murphy’s law & that damned black cat!  This is where that Facebook photo comes in… us watching Rhonda get hoisted onto the tow truck.  I was laughing and crying all at the same time. This is just under 24hours since we pulled out of Orleans, how is this even possible?!!  

Rhonda being carted away; the damage

The guys from Atelier Carois in La Pocatière came to get us. When we arrived at the garage we were both expecting the worst: a few days layover in this quaint little french village (as it was Saturday afternoon) and hundreds of dollars in towing and welding.  Super thankful I speak french - as these guys don’t speak much english. They performed a miracle, fixing up Rhonda - in about 30 minutes!! They did a great job, even welding a bit of support on the left side as well, just to be safe. The bill was also very manageable, which was great to find out.  In the drama of it all we were so lucky - these guys don’t usually work Saturdays, just happened to be there finishing a job; Rhonda had brand new tires, so when it happened we didn’t have a blow-out that could’ve caused an accident.  So a big gratitude shout out to the universe on this one!!!

So, we jumped on the highway and decided to cautiously push through to New Brunswick that night. We made it to JP & Rachelle’s house shortly after 12:30AM. Greeted with a cold beer, and a warm bed, both of which were well deserved…… 

Next post - our time in Moncton, NB…. already playing catch up on here! Sigh!  

Sometimes you just gotta "do yoga about it"! Some breath & movement while waiting for Rhonda's repairs - beautiful farmland & sky to call our frazzled nerves!