Getting A Tire Fixed But There Was A Problem

It’s been a couple of weeks that I noticed a loss of air pressure in one of the rear ambulance tires, and today I saw the reason why. A small screw had imbedded itself in the rubber and was causing the slow loss of pressure. So after a look on the internet I found a tire shop right here in Acheson. When driving off the RV-Park I was met with this. A semi was “parked” across the road leaving only a small area behind it to pass. But why was the tractor in the ditch??? My guess was that the driver had taken a wrong turn believing the road to be a ramp onto Highway 16A, which it isn’t. In fact it dead-ends in the RV-park. Sooo he must have tried to turn the rig around which ultimately ended him in the ditch. He wasn’t able to move neither forward nor backward. Anyway I got past him and was now heading towards the tire shop. But there I was told that they got no time for me today but that I could come back tomorrow. Another great example of Alberta service. After further consultations of the internet I decided to get myself over to Spruce Grove where another known tire shop could be found. They were busy as well and I would have had to wait 90 minutes minimum before they could even THINK of looking at my tire. After this I asked myself what if this would have been an emergency? Again: Alberta Service at its best. Another internet consultation brought another tire shop onto the screen. The address was along the same road, but I had not seen it yet. After cruising the entire length of the Avenue I saw the unpretentious sign over a small shop bay. I pulled up and walked into their office. It was unbelievably small, crowded and felt downright chaotic. I brought up my problem and was promised immediate help – after they had finished their lunch, which was alright with me. They had only room for one vehicle at the time as the rest of their garage was filled with junk. Or at least that was the way it looked to me. But within 30 minutes they had my tire fixed. I paid 20 Bucks and was on my way home, when my phone rang. It was Bea. “Don’t hurry home”, she said there is a semi across the road and NOBODY can pass by it. Didn’t I know about it? I sure did.   When I finally arrived at the scene a huge tow truck had pulled up alongside the semi and coaxed him up from the ditch. My waiting was cut short and now coffee and Christmas Cookies were waiting for me. Christmas Cookies? Well, well….of course I couldn’t keep my fingers out of the cookie jar. Even my home-baked cookies are gone.  Too bad. Temperatures have been really good today as we had no frost. At 0C (32F) it felt like spring had arrived. That led to a couple of outside errands been done. I had tried to get a quote from a propane company for a big tank delivery. A “PIG” contains 380liters and would last us a while. Unfortunately the delivery/pickup and rent of the tank is prohibitively expensive. Yes, they wanted 551 bucks for it. So I decided to ask my friend from the RV-dealership to borrow a couple of tanks from him. So today I got 5 tanks and got them filled up right away. Another change has been that we were lucky enough to find a home to move into. It won’t be before January 17 but then we will have a warm place for 3 1/2 months as the owners are snowbirds and will travel to Mexico for the winter. So from today on we are pretty much looking at 2 more months of trailer life.