It Is Done

The transmission is rebuilt and ready to install. Renzzo is organizing a tow truck to come by Monday morning to pick up GANNET2 to take us to the shop where a pick up with a tow rope will haul us into his yard. Rusty and I will live aboard there until the installation is complete. 

There is a slight up hill from the street where we have to unload because the entrance off the street has a low arch over the entrance to the courtyard. In here we take a sharp right past the black car into his shop so this should be interesting going uphill taking a sharp right with no transmission. 

GANNET2 won’t fit under here on top of a tow truck so we unload in the street and figure how to move five tons of van without an engine:

I went over there on Saturday as I had been panicking myself by reading about how you need new bolts to install the transmission and I had visions of the gearbox falling out of the van as we drive merrily along. 

Naturally my panic was over nothing as Renzzo bought original equipment replacement parts from Mopar which includes brand new bolts…However Layne and I have made ourselves a promise to keep control of any process involving GANNET2 whether it’s when we get stuck or if something breaks, so I was determined to make sure we take no chances if I can help it. I think Renzzo is amused by my fussing. 

Then there were the Brazilians. They came in a couple of days ago and blocked me in front with their huge motorhome. 

They were parked exactly where the tow truck will park to load GANNET2, but happily they moved yesterday to a spot with a stronger WiFi signal in the campground. Rusty wasn’t impressed by their maneuvering. 

Brazil has a vibrant RV building industry and in summer half the country takes off exploring especially across Patagonia where the cold is a break from their tropical climate. Brazilians are like Americans in that they come from a huge self contained country and feel no need to learn any other languages. Portuguese is extremely difficult to understand and they make no concessions; they just shout louder if you don’t understand and no it’s nothing like Spanish or Italian when spoken rapidly. 

I’m hoping we will be roadworthy sometime Tuesday when Rusty and I will be able to test our home on the road. If all is well, that is if we get good shifting and no engine overheating, I will be ready for Layne to return from California Friday morning. Our plan is to go on a long test drive after she gets back and take a couple of days to drive the mountains to Cusco where my new passport is waiting for me at the Consulate. 

After that we are probably not going directly to Brazil. I read the comment where someone said the road across the Amazon looks iffy and I agree. I fear we may have problems taking an untested transmission first on hundreds of miles on dirt through the Amazon and where there isn’t much help.  Then we’d take  thousands more miles to and from the Guyanas which is our ultimate goal in the north. With an occasional city of dubious size every three or five hundred miles it could mean massive tow bills…and a lot of stress while driving alone in the jungle. 

So our revised plan, the sensible one if you can believe that, is to approach Brazil from the south which would give us a long run first across  civilized parts with lots of facilities to get to the country of Uruguay which borders Brazil on the Atlantic coast. Distances are vast:

We have to drive south to Santiago to get to an all weather safe crossing point through the Andes. It’s been snowing heavily over the northern passes this winter. Paso de Jama (15,900 feet) with strong winds three days ago:

June 21st in the northern hemisphere is the longest day which always seemed too early in the year to me, but down here it is the shortest day and the official start of winter which might sound confusing. That means we need to pick a lower pass across the mountains and Paso Libertador near Santiago goes through a tunnel and is kept snow free for heavy truck traffic.  

In Uruguay we want to spend some money to improve and modernize our electrical system at a German run RV shop outside Montevideo. The idea is to install a low profile 12 volt air conditioner to replace our 110 volt system that eats electricity and also to install a proper cabin heater for our return to southern latitudes and finally to put some new solar panels on the roof charging new batteries to replace our elderly first generation lithium ones. They were state of the art in 2020 but they have been well used and don’t hold a full charge anymore. 

That’s the plan but first we need to be sure the transmission is good and that we didn’t damage the engine when it briefly overheated. Then we will be ready for the winter roads and I can’t wait to get moving again. Fingers crossed. 

One More Day

I managed to scratch a lens in my glasses a couple of weeks ago. I think I was horsing around with Rusty but instead of blaming him I found an optician and for a hundred bucks I got replacements. 

They told me to expect them at the end of the month but they were ready yesterday. I used my old Key West prescription (thank you Doctor Douville) which still works well enough for me. It was easy and I am in Peru. I wish the transmission was as quick. 

A long line as usual at the national ID office. You better never change your address or take your husbands last name if you live in Peru. You’ll spend more time idling on the sidewalk than you want to think about. 

I thought I might stop by the cathedral for some pictures. That didn’t work out. It’s closed except between 5 and 6 pm. 

They are preparing for something and the only thing I could find was St Peter and Paul on the 29th, the next national holiday. The last national holiday was June 7th, flag day so they are doing pretty well on the time off. The only problem is weekends are only one day around here, you work Saturdays in Peru. 

Arequipa is nice. You should take a vacation here, but for me I feel like I’ve put down roots here. 

I hope not. 

Still Here

I liked the comment suggesting Renzzo is slowing down to keep me out of trouble on Layne’s orders. I thought it was funny but now I’m wondering how I didn’t figure it out for myself. 

No change. Tiny change. Barely perceptible progress. 

I like his patient approach taking care in his work which gives me confidence the job will be done right. However it has to get done and I’m frustrated by the lack of motion. 

I can’t blame him in reality. His local customers are local and they’ll  be back most likely. I hope I will never be a repeat customer so I can see his point, speedy service for people who might come back in the future. Besides there’s nothing I can do. No point making a scene. 

He asked me when Layne was coming back and I told him the truth. There’s no point in lying about it. I’m guessing at this point the transmission will be done by a week from Friday. God, I can’t wait for her to get back and not just for this. I think Rusty will be happy to see her too though he’s doing pretty well just hanging out sleeping in the grass. Maybe I should call the shaman below for a cure: 

It’s silly to get stressed about this as the plan all along was to be still right now but with my brain all I can wonder is if the repair will work. Will GANNET2 return to normal…proper reliable functioning condition? Will she feel trustworthy? 

We’ve both asked ourselves if Amazonia is the right place to go right after major van heart surgery? It’s a whole lot of nowhere if something goes wrong. Take a look at this, 400 miles of dirt with a rebuilt untested transmission: 

I’m an impatient soul and I’d like to start testing things now, going for a drive, building my confidence and it’s silly because there’s no need to be impatient. It’ll all come together in the fullness of time. 

I’ve got to learn to be zen like my dog. Actually Rusty isn’t laid back at all. He stresses just as much as I do and he gets annoyed when I leave him in the van when I go off to see the transmission or go to the stores. 

He walks around the compound morning and evening with an occasional ten minute stroll outside. He’s marking time and I can’t tell him when we’ll all be back together. 

There aren’t any surprises here, 70 sunny degrees by day, cold 50 degrees at night, surprisingly chilly when I get into bed and have to shove Rusty to his side to make room. He grumbles too. It’s a tough life. 

Bloody dog. All he does is sleep. 

I’m working on watching the Sopranos. I’m half way through season five. I think I’ll get it done, transmission or not. 

Sunday

Hoping the gearbox will be back together during the week. Meanwhile we wait and it’s not exciting especially as I think I’ve seen enough of Arequipa. 

Layne is in California for another couple of weeks so I would be here anyway, this stop was planned, but not having a working van is annoying. Renzzo is reassembling it but the pace is not rapid. 

The Swiss van stayed another day, the occupants off in town somewhere. A nice couple of Germans showed up in an elderly Russian van, a UAZ. He was surprised when I recognized it. 

Their plan was to go to Central Asia, the former Soviet Union where these machines are quite common so when the war broke out in Ukraine they scrapped that plan. 

Thus they came to South America and have got this far from Colombia but they aren’t fond of mountains. At 10,000 feet this old van barely rolls so they’re looking for lower altitudes on their way south. However they plan to go through Bolivia as their van has a gasoline engine which they think will make finding fuel easier in that unhappy country. 

Rusty is enjoying not traveling. He hasn’t been out of the campground for two days. Oddly happy. 

GANNET2 looks okay. Soon I trust,  she will drive okay too. 

Slow Progress

Progress on the gearbox is slow, painfully, glacially slow.

The good news is he is careful and patient and attends to the details. 

The bad news is there are tons of details. I knew automatic transmissions are complicated but when you see yours stripped down to the very bare essentials it’s pretty startling. He picks the pieces up and cleans them with gasoline then dries them with compressed air.

One by one they get laid out with the new pieces and reassembled. 

And it’s cold and some factory nearby was cleaning its smokestacks  or something and the neighborhood smelt like a bonfire. 

Next week I should be able to move GANNET2 and take a test drive and that feels more stressful than it should. What if it doesn’t go well? There’s so much riding on this that now that we are closing in on the repair it’s getting to me. 

There’s no point in worrying, I know that, but I want to get going when Layne gets back. Where to will be a big question, shall we proceed to the lonely jungles of Brazil? That will be a test of our confidence in the repair. 

As I was leaving the campground I crossed paths with a Swiss couple coming in. Apparently they are spending but one night and going somewhere else right away. 

I rather like having the place to myself. 

Except of course I get to share it with Rusty. Check out below his annoyed he gets when I close him in the van as I prepare to leave him and go get jobs done downtown. He turns his back on me. 

The thanks I get for looking after him. 

Count Down

Renzzo at the transmission shop says he will call me Thursday to let me know how the rebuild is going. 

There is one box of bits that hasn’t arrived but he says he’s got enough to get started. I hope he does just that. 

There’s always that worry at the back of your mind that when it goes together it won’t be right. That will be a stress but right now everything is on track. At least I’m fairly sure it is. 

The campground is empty right now and I’m okay with that. Rusty is happy being still for a while. 

I had a bag of laundry to drop off round the corner so I figured I’d try leaving the campground and not putting him into the van where he can nap and feel secure. I was hoping he might be relaxed enough to do his usual sunbathing. Not a bit of it, he was sitting staring at the gate when I got back ten minutes later and he was all over me like those were the longest ten minutes of his life. I guess that’s an experiment I won’t try again. He has to stay aboard GANNET2, his safe space when I’m in town.

Later I got him out for a little walk and this little dog popped up out of nowhere to say hello. Then he trotted off back home.

I could be taking a test drive next week. Not that I’m anxious or anything.