Happy 237th Birthday to America!

For the first time in my life I found myself in a foreign country on the Fourth of July.....not that there's anything wrong with that, but it felt kind of weird last night not to see any fireworks, or Old Glory waving about wherever one's eye's might focus.  Canada Day was July 1st, and we missed that too by 3 days.  All that being said, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!  You are still looking good after 237 years!  Our thoughts return often to the sacrifices made by so many those 237 years ago to give birth to our great homeland, and to those who now serve in the various branches of our military to maintain the greatness, safety, and freedom we enjoy as a result.  To all who have served, and those now serving.....THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

Thursday was a kind of "fix stuff day".  Nothing dramatic, just small stuff.  We have what I call a "whole house" ceiling vent fan located in the galley area of our coach, and the 31 year old switch that controls it broke when I was trying to disconnect it from the motor, which had stopped working the other day.  So, instead of one thing needing fixing, I had a 2nd now.  

Vent fan

We headed over to Cochrane Home Hardware Building Centre on 1st Street to find a new switch, and while we were out, a good liquor store.  The building centre had just what I needed, and while I was there I picked up a new BBQ spatula to replace the one which mysteriously disappeared about 2 weeks ago, plus a few new drill bits to replace ones I wore out in Spearfish installing the new trailer door hardware.

From there we continued on down 1st Street visiting several liquor stores in search of interesting brews......much to our shock a 6 pack of most any kind of beer here in Cochrane is close to $16!  As Jim and Gail Ellis, our hosts here in Cochrane, said last night the alcohol tax helps pay for their healthcare.  Well, I didn't contribute anything beer wise to the healthcare here in Canada, but we did buy a few bottles of wine that seemed more in line cost wise.

From there we headed back "home" so I could work on the vent fan situation.  After removing the fan grate, and switch, I went about removing the electric motor and fan blades.  Everything in there was quite dusty and grimy, and it was time it was cleaned, even had the motor been fine.  I opened up the motor, and after a few minutes figured out that a connection had come loose, so I reattached it, and then used my 12 volt bench tester to see if that fixed it.....sure enough the motor came to life again. I then cleaned it and the fan blades, then installed the new switch, and put everything back together again.....but much cleaner now.  The fan continued to work after re-installation.  While it may not seem like a lot of work it took me a while.....nice to have the time to focus on a small project and do it right.

I sat down around 2:30 to watch the the replay of the end of Thursday's Tour de France leg.....I woke up 90 minutes later at 4 pm still not having seen the end of Thursday's leg.....:D It was a great nap!

Around 6:30 we ambled down to Tom and Darlene's coach for our daily potluck dinner, and fellowship.  Jim and Gail Ellis joined us again, and Jim regaled us with several funny stories of their travels in the U.S.  Jim, in his former life, was a teacher at a technical institute here in Canada.  I can tell he must have been a good teacher, because he kept our attention, and in stitches for over an hour.....I looked at my watch and saw, much to my surprise, it was almost 10 pm!  It stays light so long here!  I thought it might be 8:30, or so.....wow!

As we headed back to our coach for the evening we both commented on how fun Jim and Gail are, and what a great addition to our Newell group they are....frankly, I would like them whether, or not they owned a Newell.   I don't know why it should somewhat surprise me that we would get on so well with them.....that has been our experience almost without exception since we joined the Newell family back in March of 2008.

In addition to the great story telling Jim wrote down several places for us to visit while we are here, and after we head north toward Jasper and the icefields.

I will close with another great picture taken by my friend Forest Olivier of our drive up US 191 the other day....

Thanks for stopping by!