Shining Up The Dodge

Today I had an appointment with our island-mechanic at 2pm to get the wiring for the daytime running lights done, but when I got there he apologized for not being able to accommodate me as he was running late on another job. Since I was in no hurry to get the wiring done, I got a new appointment for Thursday and went home again. Being home, I was eyeballing the van all around and decided to start doing some minor paint repair around the windows. I don’t know why paint is coming off there before anywhere else, but that seemed to be the case on this van. I still had a quart with white auto paint in my garage, so I chose a soft little brush and went all around the van. Prior to that I had cleaned the spots with paint thinner, to get all grease and dirt removed. It is a wonder that this 12-year old vehicle doesn’t have any rust, neither on the body nor underneath. The frame and the wheel wells look like it had just left the factory in Canada. But being transferred to the north it would probably do good to give the van a real good undercoating.    But Dodge never did a good job with the paint. F.ex. nearly every Dodge van’s hood has problems with the paint. Mine has a lot of rock chips on it and the hood is the only part which is going to receive a full repaint. After I was done with the touch-ups I got my Carnuba polish out and went about the blue-metallic paint on the lower part. I was thrilled to see what happened with the color. From a rather dull dark blue it went to a glistening metallic shine. I also tried it on the white sides above and got the same result. That van starts looking like new. For the rims I had bought a silver spray paint and those too are looking a lot better now. Overall It was a nice and useful day and I topped it off by taking Molly on a walk through the Provincial Park. The path, which runs due south, passes the “Gibraltar Rock”. I have no idea who graced this rock with that name, but it’s a huge rock in the middle of the forest. It probably stems from the ice age. There are a couple of other big loose rocks on the island. Anyway, Molly had a ball and needed to stick her nose under most roots and rocks to see whether she could locate a mouse or, even better, a squirrel! She was always ahead of me and I think it’s remarkable how a dog can find its way in a place where it’s hardly ever been before. It’s at least 3 years ago that we walked that path with her and it was from the other direction going north. These forest paths are sometimes barely visible, especially now after the winter with lots of fallen trees everywhere. Getting Visitors You might remember my post from Holtville, California where I told about meeting a German couple with that special German motor home. They are now on their way to Halifax and will soon be dropping in here on Campobello Island. Of course, we are looking forward to their visit and will be giving them the “Grand Tour De Campobello Island”. Their email came today and they were thrilled to be able coming through Mexico and Peru and yet having the possibility of getting to China – all within a short distance in the North East of the U.S. Naming towns after countries is something Europe usually doesn’t offer. I hope you had a few nice minutes again here, thanks for dropping by!