The nightmare begins.

Here I am , traveling a round trip total of 11,000km give or take, stuck in a hotel in Gallup NM, with a dead computer.  Fortunately I had my small tablet and a working cell phone.

Seems FS can replace some parts but not others.  Great... that means that another entire day would be lost. and even when they hand me the $500 some odd, paperwork I need a push across the alley to an old fashioned repair shop.


Problem after the FS repair is the damage inflicted by the broken belt has severed the auto trans to the cooler line from the tranny to the rad.

Can't go anywhere like that, can't even start the engine.

Takes several hefty dudes pushing and my "steering" to get into the jobber shop.  Good thing it was downgrade.  I suggested to the FS people that a re-enforced rubber line and a couple of hose clamps would do it, but they won't do that.

They are talking to me about dropping the tranny and replacing the broken line... a job quoted at over 10 hours labor.! After checking out Monday morning from the El Rancho, my old fashioned hands on mechanic Dave, splices in a rubber line secured with (you guessed it) hose clamps, and I'm good to go. My two day stop has cost me over a grand USD, and I'm not even in AZ yet!

I drive the FORD gingerly, worried about the repair the last few hundred miles to my home in Glendale.

That's when the real problems show up!

I'm planning on putting some Goodyear, *RWL Wranglers on at my neighborhood Wal Mart, for the trip back home in Canada.

I buy the tires, show up at 7 am, first in line, explain to the foreman who I am and what we are doing.

Three hours later, I'm called in to pay my bill and walk around to the bay, to find the  RWL are facing inwards!

 Say What?  I complain to the foreman and he says nobody "told him." him.  I am not giving in.  I bought the RWL tires and the RWL were going to be visible!  Another 2 hours goes by, before I get my truck back and in the mile and a half home... I notice my steering getting heavy.  At first I thought, "Flat tire" in my brand new tires, maybe something in the workmanship given the circumstances but then I see the needle on the coolant temperature gauge and I just make it into my parking spot before the rad blows and of course steam everywhere, coolant flowing freely and a broken down serpent belt.  Exact problem that was "repaired" in Gallup.

I find a tow service, Jose and I become friends we see each other so many times over the next few days.

I make arrangements at a nearby Firestone in Peoria where the diagnosis is... you ready... the serpentine belt has broken... I already knew that.  Unfortunately the idler/adjustment pully that tensions the belt in it's serpentine travel, is damaged.  They (Firestone) tells me the bolt holding the belt is bent and has now damaged the carrier arm. Work they are not equipped to do.

Jose, tows it to a huge automotive repair service called Wilhelm's Auto Machine shop in Peoria, where the tech is away on his honeymoon but would look at it Monday morning.  I'm thinking, buddy is going to be so worn out and hung over,  who know what will happen., haha.

Didn't need to worry after all, Kent and crew were very professional and they had me fixed up late Monday.  Turns out. they say, the bolt was not tightened too much... but in fact was not tightened at all.  A mere few threads were holding the thing together.  Thank goodness I didn't suffer the same failure from Gallup to Glendale!

In near 100 heat, I make use of they're courtesy shuttle and pay the bill (another near 400 US dollars) and head 'home.

I've now spent nearly $2000 usd!  Yikes!!

*Raised White Letters

Pandora's Box

The Dr ... has not forgotten about you!

However, I have been dealing with a plethora of problems that goes far beyond the definition of                                                                       "Misadventures…"

Let's hope my life gets a little less weird moving ahead.

I'm not even sure where to start, so I'm going to dispense with the formalities and dive in! 

If you are readers of this blog, and you've been so for some time, you'll know that I began writing about my adventures 10 years ago.

At that time I was traveling Europe on a bright Red Yamaha 600 Diversion,( that I named "Kis Piroska" which is Hungarian for Little Red Riding Hood) or as we knew them on this side of the pond... the Seca II

I was finding it difficult to hook up to email, sending a message that I was alive and in France or the Dolomites or the Alps or the Pyrenees or the Med or the Adriatic or the Bay of Biscayne or Switzerland or A Rua or Elba or Pisa or Budapest.

I'd sit in a bar or café staring at a keyboard that often was missing letters or of course was in the local language... or my pics wouldn't upload or some such thing.  And that was only getting connected. 

My eldest daughter Holly suggested I use a Blog to keep in touch rather than punching out a dozen or three emails.  She even gear it up and I have been filling pages regularly.  Until recently that is.

You see, back in my Alberta days, in 2008, I got serious about having a home down south.  After all, I had job flexibility, worked for myself as a licensed financial advisor, single and with trail bikes in my Calgary garage.  I bought a home down south, furnished it and it became my adventure central get away spot.

In the time I've owned it, I've had several Dr N Thusiast adventures published in CDN Biker and Motorcycle Mo Jo.  My specialty was riding trails that you wouldn't drive with the family sedan or even the SUV. 

I've covered a great deal of territory on the seat/pegs of my locally bought Yamaha XT 350 as well as my Adventure scooter.  

With the move to PEI* in 2012, I've used it less and less.  A long day's flight, limited travel insurance, travel cost and other priorities, like Lisa's family with their newborn also moving to the Maritime's  from Cow Town these last few years. 

The last couple years I've thought more about riding on the East coast and less of AZ.

Long story short (this is a Blog after all right) I made the decision to sell in Glendale and pack up my few things and close that chapter.

 I had three motorcycles in Phx.  My first was a 150 cc two person 60 mph scooter made in China, a Honda Ascot 500, and a Yamaha XT 350.  No car.  My scooter became my "mule" and what a great dependable partner she was.

With a year closing and my 65 birthday only a month or so away, I've put my condo on the block.

As I had a full house in Phx, I prepped my listing and departure for a late years sale and reducing  my American footprint.  After prepping my Ford F 150 for it's longest trip even, I prepped for my departure by driving diagonally across the continent across more that a dozen states and loading up what I felt I wanted to keep, I intended on selling the bikes but was equipped to bring back my Ascot or Yamaha two machines that could be imported across the border if not.

As it turned out, all three bikes sold locally, and that cleared the way for loading up boxes of clothing, riding gear, a few mementoes and tools.  I set aside an entire month for this.  My target date was mid September to mid October, "camping" in the sleeper of the truck and hopefully doing this before the weather turned.  

Things went 'bang' the other side of Albuquerque, first I saw a gray rabbit chomping on a carrot and not too much after he says to me...

 "What's up Doc..."

I found myself facing a long tow into Gallup New Mexico, the cause... a broken serpentine belt on a Saturday morning.  

The tow guy unhitched at the Firestone shop and went to work. 

Having no choice, I got a room at the El Rancho hotel and hunkered down for some forced sleep.  

No sooner than powering up my laptop, there was a bang and smoke, well no smoke, but a very dead computer.  Great... what do you do when your computer drops dead in front of you. 

I know what you 'don't do'... you don't do blogs!