Talk about a cliff hanger! So we left you in the waning hours sitting in the customer lounge at the Freightliner repair center wandering if we still had a prayer of meeting our caravan. Our part arrived Friday morning and our assigned mechanic, Ron, got to work on it about 2 PM. An hour later he had disassembled all the connection points to the old bracket and was already installing the new one. We were allowed to go to his bay and see his handywork. He showed us the old bracket and the attempted weld joint which is where a bolt had been ripped out of its hole. (see pics)Ron was an experienced expert and provided a confidence level in him of which we had little over the past month. Another hour we had word that he was finishing up and would then give it a test drive. We were agonizing over our own drop dead time of 5 PM and couldn’t believe it was coming this close. At about 4:30 Ron came to talk to us about his findings and work. He said it was obvious that the welding attempt, while noble, did not suffice for a precision alignment. He then made us nervous again when he said he noticed the belt-tension arm also seemed to be off and needed to replace it. We thought, ‘Oh No’…another part we need to order. I said, ‘you mean to tell me you actually had a part in stock?’. to which he said yes and already installed. All was aligned and looking perfect. He said he’d bring the RV around in about 15 mins. At 5:15 it still wasn’t in sight. Then we worried how long it was going to take to get the billing complete and paid for. The Service Mgr came to us and said ‘you need to get on the road….we’ll figure this up and call you next week’. Really?…they’re letting us walk out of here after a week of working on it….or at least waiting on parts and having us stare at them each day.

But they did and we were on the road about 5:30 PM. We drove about 3 hrs and found an RV park for the night just about 15 miles from Canadian border. We had a great night sleep but knew we had 6-7 hr drive in morning and anouther 4 on Sunday in order to meet our caravan which was now 3 days into the scheduled trip. But we met them on schedule in Prince George BC. All our fellow caravaners were awaiting us with a cocktail reception. What a moment….was hard to hold back tears. The border crossing was as uneventful as one could imagine….about 2 minutes in total. Fortunately we knew to fill our the CanArrive form on an app which allows us to preload all information about us incl pics of passports and vaccination cards. The Agent already had our form pulled up on his computer and only asked us where we were from, where were we going, did we have any firearms, and how long would we be in Canada before crossing into Alaska? Nothing about all the liquor and wine we had…thank good ness.

So here we are on my birthday in Moricetown BC. 2 more overnights in Canada before entering into Alaska. The drive through BC has been gorgeous and the roads surprisingly good. Only a few minor incidents….a windshield nick already repaired and a small side window which broke loose from it’s attachment of the opening mechanism. A roadside repair with super glue and electrical tape and we were back on the road within 15 mins.

Our next 2-3 days will be outside of cell service so no more posts until the end of the week. We’re in good hands, in a beautiful physical place among new friends, and a good place mentally and emotionally as we continue to lick our scars and find our Chi once again. Thank you all for sending your best wishes to in a ‘Radar Love’ fashion. We got ’em! Enjoy some pics below.