An Unplanned Stop

We spent a couple of days in Brandon, Manitoba getting our lives together. We caught up on work, did our laundry at a laundromat, and Corbin spent an entire afternoon removing and reinstalling the in-line fuel pump to its permanent position. Although, not the most exciting couple of days, we felt much more put together and ready for our next adventure on the road.

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It was back to the city for us, as we were on our way to Winnipeg. In fact, we would even be there just in time to celebrate Canada Day, which we were stoked about. The drive to Winnipeg was thankfully uneventful with the van, and everything seemed to be running smoothly again. On our way, we spotted a U-Pick strawberry sign and couldn’t resist. So we took a break from the road and headed to the nearby farm and picked enough fresh strawberries to fill a box that would last us days. They were delicious and we munched on them for the rest of our drive to the city.

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We arrived in Winnipeg and had plans to stay with another Boondocker couple with room for us to park our van in their driveway and they even provided an electrical hookup. They were awesome people, and we laughed about how our van looked miniscule and a bit comical parked in front of their huge, new trailer. They thought our van was great though, and loved what we were doing. They shared their own travel stories and how they hadn’t always traveled in big trailers and had their own memories in vehicles like ours and a fair share of tent camping as well.

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We asked the couple if they knew of any local welders in town, because we had been watching the weld on our back bumper slowly split further and further apart. If this weld were to snap, some of our most valuable belongings (scooter, generator, spare tire) would be gone forever and could cause some major chaos on the roadway. Not to mention, the unsupported bumper weld was causing the scooter rack to drag extra low so whenever there was the tiniest of bumps on the roadway we bottomed out. It’s not exactly a relaxing drive when you scrap every few seconds driving around town, and we could do without the added attention from nearby bystanders.

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We were in luck! Turns out, our hosts had a grandson who had just finished a welding class and he would be happy to help us out. Together the grandson and his grandfather closed up the gap as best they could and rewelded the seam. It looked like it was holding, and we were good to go! While we knew their grandson was still learning and it was probably more of a temporary fix, we were so grateful for his help and delighted to be able to drive down the road with a lot less anxiety again.

That evening, we relaxed and prepared for tomorrow’s big Canada Day celebration. I decided to use up a good portion of our freshly picked strawberries before the heat got to them and made strawberry cream cheese turnovers. Our van smelled heavenly for the rest of the night and we were cozy and comfortable in our little home on wheels.