Repairs

Our parts arrived in the campground in late afternoon, inner tie rods,

Which with the outer tie rods steers the front wheels on this front wheel drive van.

For our $252 we got front brake pads, complete tie rods and CV joints so our front end should be solid for a while. The suspension, our expensive aftermarket Bilsteins, is doing fine so nothing to change there. 

Reuben, the former Toyota and Hyundai service manager in Ushuaia was in his knees and I don’t doubt we’ll be watching this come together Tuesday. Then the front end will need an alignment which should put us on the road soon.

In other news I took Rusty for an evening walk and it ended up not going well. A dog appeared and the two of them eyed each other. Rusty seemed excessively friendly to me and she did indeed pounce. He folded and fell on his back as they snarled at each other and snagged each other’s fur. 

It happened just after I took this picture as we stood outside the gate. I grabbed a 4 x4 from the pile on the right and whacked the fig as she stood over Rusty worrying his fur. She ran and I grabbed Rusty and got him inside the gate. 

There was no broken skin just a lot of wet fur but my biggest fear is he will be reluctant to go out again. I enjoyed Our walks and I hope he will go out with me again. 

I got a message asking if we were okay after the Russian earthquake about which I knew nothing. Apparently there is a tsunami warning in effect but I think we are high enough up not to be in danger. 

Mind you we have no front wheels so here we are, a good bit higher than the beach. Had we been off wild camping we’d have known nothing…