Donner and I have settled into a pleasant camp in Rivière du Loup in Québec on the St. Lawrence River for however long it takes for the Defender to get back on the road.
Our first day here was not exactly what I would call splendid. First I discovered that the new extraordinarily comfortable and easy to set up cot I just bought did not fit in my tent. The measurements showed that it would fit nicely into the footprint of my tent but I failed to accommodate for the slope of the tent. The first night I slept with part of the cot outside the tent in the vestibule, but decided last night that it was getting too chilly here to continue to do that so the cot has been relegated to ride on the roof rack for the rest of trip. However, the foam pad that makes up part of Donner's front seat in the Dd serves just as good a purpose as that cot might have.
I set up the camp in such a way to block Donner's view of the other camps where there are dogs. But as it turns out, that spot was actually dirt ground and after last night's rain it turned into a mudfield. Among my chores today is to move the tent to higher, grassy ground.
Another problem was with the tarp that I set up to protect our picnic table from the rain which fell all through the night. The tarp ended right at the entrance to the tent. Unfortunately, I have not yet remastered the art of setting up tarps, and this morning the water from last night's rain had collected in the tarp to such a great degree that when I released it, it released right onto my tent which was partially open. Fortunately no water got inside the tent, but it turn our vestibule into a pond.
Another problem came when I called AAA in Canada, known as CAA, and the young woman on the line when she discovered that I was from Washington DC, told me that I had to call for a towing service in Seattle Washington. I will not describe my inpatience with the young lady but I did tell her that it was not her fault that she was not trained properly and to put me in touch with a representative who could get my vehicle towed for me to a garage down the street, which he did, and that's where the Defender is now.
There were four garages that were strung along the highway right outside the entrance way to the camp, one less than a kilometer away, and others much farther. Yesterday I hiked with Donner the 7 miles back and forth to one of those to check out whether or not their bays were full. If they were full, then I would have to wait for my vehicle to be serviced there, so I chose the one less than kilometer away since it was closest to the camp, La Hei. They do not know when they will be will be able to get to it, but they promised they will get to it soon as they possibly can. The only saving grace, for Donner anyway, is that on the way back from there to the camp, there is an ice cream shop right next to the entrance of the camp, which pleases Donner to no end, as you will see.
Speaking of Donner, the situation with him is turning out to be more problematic than the Defender, or at least in the Defender's absence. Donner is a reactive dog, which means that every time he sees a dog he reacts, mostly whining, wanting to get to them, to do what I do not know. I have to keep him on a short leash the entire time, put a muzzle on him some of the time, and set up the camp in such a way that there is a tarp shielding his view of the road from the camp. This would not be a problem when I moving on everyday because they can't evict us if we are leaving. But since I have to stay here for however long it takes the Defender repaired, and there are many dogs in this camp and they walk on the road right outside our campsite, I have a problem. Usually, I would leave him in the Defender while I go to the restroom, do the laundry, etc. if I cannot take him with me. But have no Defender now and I cannot leave him alone in the campsite. Not a nice problem to have.
Fortunately, Donner really likes his new doghouse, also known as my tent, so he spends a lot of his time inside the tent resting for the time when he emerges and goes on the hunt for other dogs. He literally sits outside looking in every single direction for dogs.
Another problem that we are encountering here is that less than 1% of the population here speaks English. I think I recall 50 words from my two years of French in high school. Try going to a garage someday and explaining your situation of your broken vehicle when neither of you speaks the same language.
Now for the good news. I am finally getting into the stride for this trip, and the shakedown is almost complete. What that mostly means is that I and my muscles are resigned that this is the way I will have to live for however much longer this trip goes on. I think I can speak for Donner, too. His confusion has morphed into acceptance, maybe even joy, although his eating habits have turned into stubbornness. For instance, as a special dinner treat for two tough driving days, on days 2 and 3 I gave him two $8.00 cans of red salmon. Now the guy won't eat anything else, even pink salmon. He walks up to his bowl to eat, sniffs at it, picks up his toy duck, walks to his blue mesh bed, and sulks, as I eat my cold packaged soup without my usual side order (one tablespoon) of salmon that I dumped into his bowl. I save his uneaten food till the next meal, but he still doesn't eat it, so I end up throwing it out, which I hate to do. From now on, after a meal that includes red salmon for him, I will starve him for 24 hours if his menu has something else on it. This was not a problem I expected to have occur. With Erde, my previous, German shepherd, yes, but not with a dog who spent his first four years tied to a tree eating cheap kibbles every day. Those recuse dogs sure learn fast, don't they? But if you think for one minute that red salmon will be on his menu after, you figured me out right.
On my ToDo list for today is to learn the satellite phone I have with me just in case another breakdown occurs when I am not in cell phone range. After that, I will study my maps to figure out what has to go now that I lost some time. If I have lost confidence in the Defender's reliability, this trip will end, except for the drive home. I still have to wrestle with the noise from the wheels at some point. When I pick up the Defender from La Hei, I might just drive down the highway to another shop to have him check that out.
As for photographs, I can't seem to send more than one in each posting that I send by email, so I will be sending them separately to a annex for this blog that I setup and pasting the URLs to those photos on this blog. The photos for this posting are as follows:
2-Donner sulking with his toy duck after snubbing his pink salmon dinner...while he did not have his red salmon, he can at least tell his friends he had duck for dinner...
3-My iPad charging from my vehicle battery starter...without the Defender I have to use every source of electricity I can find...
4- Donner's treat after our 7 mike hike yesterday to check out a garage...
5- Our poorly set up camp at Municipal camp...
6- Donner last night getting some shut eye after a hard day of reacting to every dog who came within 50 feet of him.... http://ontheroadannex.blogspot.ca/2016/08/photo-6.html
ETM
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