Thursday, July 29, 2010

Disaster Averted

We are in Cambridge, staying with friends Thea and Bobby Kruger. We are preparing for the 4 days in Long Beach Conservation Area on the north shore of Lake Erie and the long trip to Manitoba and then California. 

Today, Michael was rotating the tires on the car and he had done the one side, then went to the other side. He put the jack in where he thought it had to go and had the car jacked up. Thea and I were sitting inside and saw the car fall. We ran outside to see what happened and Michael was just looking at the car and he thought the brand new jack had failed. Now both wheel hubs on the driver's side, were on the driveway. He didn't know how he was going to get the car jacked up again because there was nowhere to insert the jack under the car. He then opened the car door and, guess what, the jack had not failed, it had just gone right through the floor of the car on the driver's side and there was the jack poking up through the floor of the car. Poor old thing was just white and in shock. Bobby Kruger was still at work.

Anyway, Bob got home from work (he works at Magna), took one look and got stuck in. They got the car jacked up, got the jack out from under and in the front. Thea and I went to Canadian Tire and bought some stuff that he had told us to get. He beat down the broken sheet metal inside of the car, he riveted steel plates over the hole and then covered the whole repair with the bitumen stuff that we bought. We just need to check the wheel alignment is OK. So it is a disaster averted.

This evening I drove Gus Kruger to the local ice-cream shop and everything seems fine.  Whew!!

Tomorrow we set off for Long Beach at about 11:00 am.

No comments:

Post a Comment