We awoke to dry weather, which was good, albeit that the temperature had dipped a bit. I gathered my towel and soap and headed off to the nearest bath house. Things didn't look good when I realised that there was only one shower in the mens' block, and even worse when I could see that the shower hadn't passed any water through its system for quite some time. Optimistically I put a quarter in the slot but realised that the money collecting box was missing as the coin just fell straight out of the mechanism. Oh well, I thought, it's a big camp site and there are other showers. A ten minute walk past a whole series of apparently abandoned trailers, an Airstream amongst them, and I ended up in the slightly more affluent part of the site. I knew this because of the big shiny fifth wheelers dotted about. The next shower block looked no more promising, though, and my pessimism was rewarded when I found the shower there locked up. Disconsolately I headed back to Towed Haul, determined to get a shower one way or another. Mrs T rang the gatehouse. In answer to the question “Are there any working showers on site?”, the reply “Well, there should be” didn't instill confidence. Apparently there were showers across the other side of the Conservation Area and they were 25 cents for 3 minutes. That made us determined to get our water heater fixed!
After an abortive call to a local RV dealer in search of some new thermal cut off devices, I decided to try bypassing the melted plastic thingy, to see if I could get the heater to work. It certainly fired up, but not in a good way! Flames started coming out of the air intake rather than into the burn chamber, which I had a suspicion was wrong, so a quick switch off procedure was instituted. I still didn't see the bug issue, but I should have done.
We decided to call our own dealers', located about an hour away. Somehow I ended up speaking to one of the co-owners, the legendary tow guru, Andy Thompson. Yes, he said, that'll be little critters in the pipework, even on a new unit like ours. Without my asking, he suggested that he'd be able to get a technician out to me, within the hour, because he knew one in Brantford. Good to his word, one Murray called right back and arranged to come out within 30 minutes. This was service par excellence.
Murray duly turned up, with his wife, and within minutes had the burner dismantled and was showing me the spiders nest in the pipe work. Well I never! It took him no time at all to clear the blockage using, I'm glad to report, a bent wire coat hanger and a piece of old cloth.
He then put the whole thing back together, fired it up (properly!) and then adjusted the air intake a little. As if by magic we were up and running again. I tried to offer Murray a $20 dollar bill, knowing he wouldn't accept it, but I insisted he take it for the WBCCI rally he was going to next weekend.
The whole episode was quite uplifting; our dealers, Can Am RV and their team are second to none for service. Murray was fascinating to talk to, as was his wife, and Andy Thompson was just brilliant getting things set up for us. How lucky we were to have found them.
After hot showers in the trailer (of course), we were running a little late but decided to head out to the Royal Mohawk Chapel in Brantford. It had piqued my interest when I'd seen it on the Internet and by a complete co-incidence, Mrs T had been on a school trip out to the adjacent Mohawk Institute and Woodlands Centre Museum not two days earlier. The rain started up again as we neared the chapel so we really just dived inside. Mind you, once there we were entranced. It wasn't that grand but was entirely lined with wood and well lit. Despite the poor weather outside, the stained glass windows looked excellent. We met the church guide, a lovely native lady who's name I didn't get, who gave us a wonderful talk about the chapel and some of the history of the Six Nations people. Being a Brit, it didn't make for comfortable listening and our guide certainly made her feelings known about the proposed and the actual land grant for the Six Nations in that area. I couldn't help feeling guilty. Anyway, if you're ever in Brantford Ontario, I can recommend the Royal Chapel of the Mohawks.
The rain hadn't let up when we came out again so we set off in search of some lunch and then onto the weekend's mission; Bed, Bath & Beyond in Cambridge and IKEA in Burlington. Tsk, what consumers we have become.
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