Bongo’s gone and Tank’s back!
Our son, daughter-in-law and 3 grandies headed off in Bongo (name given to the caravan by our eldest grandson) on their around Australia trip – for 11 months.
We got Tank back on Friday after it had been at the mechanic’s for three weeks (he did a good job with the brakes). Tomorrow Tank goes to the auto electrician and we are due to set off on our around Australia trip on Tuesday! Yeah! I love it when a plan comes together. 😉
This last week both Jeannie & I have been tested for Covid (both negative, thankfully). We also had the two eldest grandies staying with us since last Tuesday. Then Ryan & Haidee and our youngest grandie (almost 3 months old) with us since Wednesday. It was delightful having them all stay with us – even if it was a bit chaotic sometimes. And a bit hectic. But fun.
We head to Denmark on Tuesday, where we meet up with Ryan, Haidee and grandies and our middle son, Adam and his partner, Kirsten. The Travelling Gomezs hit the road.
What! No Tank?
Tank has been conspicuous by its absence these last 2 weeks. It is at the mechanics. We are due to leave in a weeks time, for around 6 months. Yes, 6 months. After the mechanic, Tank needs to go to the auto electrician. This is going to go down to the wire! It is a real test of just where we put our hope and trust. And learning to not totally stress out in the meantime.
Why is Tank at the mechanics? I was hoping that you wouldn’t ask. It is because of a dodgy (prior) mechanic – whom I will never use again. The knocking noise started around 10 km from home, on our way back from Busselton in December. The knocking was prominent above 3000 revs and felt like it was something to do with the transmission, maybe the universal joints. The noise was particularly bad going up hills. I took it to the mechanic (a good one) who had a test drive and gave me a few suggestions as to what it might be – one of the suggestions was maybe the gearbox was going ($3,000 and a month to fix – I hoped not!). He didn’t have time to look at it properly before January. When I did take it back to him to have a good look at it, he tried a number of things. He just couldn’t find the problem after a week and a half (he was busy with a lot of other buses, trucks and coasters too). We were praying that he would find the problem and that it would not be a big deal to fix.
The mechanic had a eureka moment and found that it was the air filter that had come loose and was rattling around! The previous mechanic (let’s call him grandpa, so as not to shame him too much 😉) had changed the air filter a few months earlier. It was a 2 minute job – done badly the first time. It was a 2 minute job to fix (thank you Lord!). In the meantime, looking for the rattle, the mechanic found that the rear brakes were not working properly and is now in the process of fixing them. Am very glad he found that before we hit the road. Am very disappointed that the previous service (different mechanic again – not grandpa), 6 months earlier did not find the brakes problem.
Best case scenario, we will have Tank for about 1/2 day to finalise a few things in it, pack up and go! Worst case… well, let’s not go there now. There is faith and hope in the waiting.
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Adventures in “Tank”
We got a Toyota Coaster and asked our grandson, Marley (did I mention that he is 3 years old?), to name it – dangerous, I know. He called it Tank! How cool is that? And very appropriate too. It is built like a tank. It is for our travels with our son, daughter-in-law and grandies.
We went on our first adventure last weekend, to Busselton. Our son and his family were going down there and asked us if we’d like to come – would we ever?! So with a little bit of trepidation, we packed up what we thought we needed and headed off in our mobile home (a bit like a tiny house). We are newbies at this.
It bucketed down with rain on the way down and it was a good test of both driving in the driving rain and seeing if Tank leaked. Fortunately, passed both those tests. I did realise on the way there that we should have packed an extension lead for connection to power. Rookie mistake.
We arrived safely. Connecting up Tank to water, I discovered the second rookie mistake. We did not have the keys to open up to our water tanks in Tank! Doh! Oh well. We could at least borrow an electrical extension lead from the place we were staying at, to give us power.
Well, it is an adventure. Mistakes will be made along the way. The weather was not kind to us. We had lots of rain but also some fine spells. But we did have a great time with our son, lovely daughter-in-law and our gorgeous grandies. So good.
Travelling Gomezs 