Every Rose Has Its Thorn

This time 8 days ago, things were shaping up quite nicely. However, as the old adage goes, "It never rains but it pours"...Or something along those lines anyway. Needless to say, this week was a bit of a tropical storm in terms of trip planning and more specifically: Van  maintenance. We had taken in Kumu for some routine maintenance to an unnamed place in Canmore. Brakes were good, engine was good, all we needed was some TLC, a new filter here, a new filter there, just to make sure everything was in tip-top shape. After a week of waiting, not hearing a peep from the garage, I decided to head down and see what the deal was. I would like to think that the owner just had a terrible day and was taking it out on me, but it was one of the worst experiences I have had in quite some time. Apparently the brakes were a disaster and we had just about started a fire trying to install our stereo. (He never bothered to ask what the wiring was like BEFORE we installed our stereo (basically a melted mess)). Long story short, I got into Kumu and discovered... Yes, indeed, the breaks WERE a disaster and certainly noticeably worse than when we took the car in. As we had great long weekend plans, I scrambled around to get someone to fix the all of a sudden ruined breaks, and thankfully Reese at Midas in Calgary was incredibly helpful and got them done in just a few hours. So big thank you to Reese.

It gets better... On the way home from the breaks  debacle, Kumu starts to get hiccoughs. Now all of a sudden, (again coincidentally close to taking it to douchebag Canmore garage) Kumu is drinking fuel like its going out of style and she's trying to be a trendsetter.
Once again, long story short we have a rather big problem of fuel consumption. Trying to make it to Argentina while filling up every 100km, is not my idea of fun, and we would have to sacrifice our bikes, clothes and food for Jerry cans.
So, before the trip has even begun our Kumu (teacher-Hawaiian) is teaching us many things. Patience probably being top of the list.
As our proposed departure date looms closer and closer, I feel like we should hire a film crew just to document this impending climax. Will they make it on time? Will they even make it at all? Stay tuned for the next dramatic stage of these epic events.

And on a much more positive note, despite being ruined by eclectic vans and somebody adamantly refusing that we head west, we managed to salvage what was left of the August long weekend.

At Takakaw Falls in Yoho

A must see attraction for all tourists to the Rockies!

Tui looking cute as we work on the van

We had to take the whole roof off to put in the new canvas! Talk about a big job!

Kumu looking fine with the new, finely installed canvas and the gravel guard paint job on the bottom. (painted by me!!!)

So the next two weeks will be filled with hectic running around and stress but I look forward to it all as part of the greatest adventure ever!

Every Rose Has Its Thorn-Poison