Took a hike to Lahey garage where I found the Defender (a.k.a, Denis) still on the lot where it was unloaded from the tow truck yesterday. Hopefully, they will get to it today. John, my mechanic back home, believes it is something simple. Let's hope. Twice this past year the Defender stalled and wouldn't restart, but started again soon after, so I wrote it off to pilot error, i.e. flooding. In retrospect, I should have either replaced everything in the ignition line or brought those parts along, all but the engine that is. I do have a container full of belts, hoses, spark plug wires, distributor, fuses, coils, and other various and sundry things that I hope someone else knows how to put them because I do not.
I am at camp site 78A here at Riviere du Loup without electricity or water. That would not be a problem except that I have no vehicle to put Donner into while I leave for just a few minutes and I cannot leave him alone in the camp site. Taking him with me is problematic since there are many dogs here and he knows precisely where they are, although sometimes he is wrong when a camper with a dog has moved on and is replaced by someone who has none. The good news is that I am discovering what his problem is. It seems to be with small dogs. When one comes near him, he actually trembles. I have no idea what torment this magnificent creature went through for four years tethered in those Los Angeles back yards. After two days here, though, I have learned that the best way to manage him here is when I take him for walks, put on his prong collar, electronic collar, and muzzle while on the camp roads. He doesn't seem to mind, perhaps because he associates those things now with an ice cream treat at the end of the road and perhaps some red salmon when we get back home in the tent. If I searched my soul for my own incentives in life, I am sure I would find some equivalent things that tickle my own dopamine transmitters.
This morning's routine took us down to the St Lawrence River, a half-block from the camp. The tide had just receded so Donner did not get to dip his paws into the cold river because the mud was too thick. Living in a tent with a dog is bad enough for tidiness as it is, and I don't need to make things worse.
The weather here yesterday and today has been awesome, even more so when I check the weather in DC and see that the temperature there is in the 90s. That alone would be enough to get me on the road, but there are at least 39 other reasons I counted once before, before I put my pen down.
My friend Mike asked me if it was getting boring in the camp, especially knowing I might be here for a week or more. The short answer is No; and so is the long answer. The chores on the road are endless, including maintaining a list of things I should have done for or before this trip to improve the next one, and the list of what to do -and what not to do- when I return.
With regard to the latter list, as I have written in past blogs, these trips, with all their difficulties and challenges, twists and turns, turn my mind into a big washing machine, to help clean out all of the soiled themes I left behind. They key is to make sure they stay that way upon return. Not all do, but if I take enough of these trips, they will. And if I repeat my new resolutions enough as I drive in solitude over 15,000 miles of often empty roads, the important ones will stick.
Lest I disappoint those who read my blog to see what new problems arose and how I solved them, here's another one just for you. Last night, Donner got his hoped-for red salmon dinner and wolfed it down voraciously, as I expected, leaving only some kibbles he licked clean of the salmon and a few of his meds I sneaked into the food. In the meantime, I feasted on a small can of V8 juice as my first course and, for my second, and last, a small cup of water-downed mushroom soup mixed with partially cooked brown rice. As I attempted to pulverize the hard rice before swallowing, I noticed that one grain seemed especially hard to pulverize and especially large, so I decided to investigate. How thrilled I was to find a small nugget of gold, and we weren't even in Dawson City Yukon yet. My thrill turned to disappointment when I realized that the shape of that precious nugget closely resembled the shape of my back lower left tooth. An email to my dentist inquiring whether it would be problematic if the crown stays off until after Election Day remains to be answered. Will Superglue be an option here? Fortunately, as a contingency, he gave me a penicillin prescription, which I filled, in the event of a dental emergency. (Dr. Tris, what do you think?)
I need to conserve battery and get back to my multitudinous camp chores as I wait to hear word from the garage on my good or bad fortune, and as Donner watches over the camp site for canine passersby, intruders and other mal-intending creatures like the chipmunks who seem to prefer our site more than others. See Donner hard at work below.
Ed on day 4 at camp on Rivière du Loup on the St Lawrence River, Quebec
ETM
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