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[pinelakechic]

Day 15: The Anticipation is Killing Me

Today is the day that we took Bilbo to "meet his maker" - we had an appointment at the Hymer factory to get his battery system checked out and to see how many of the other 30-plus items on the warranty list could be addressed.  

Dan didn't get a very good first impression when he was waiting to check in as he was ignored for while when the people at the front desk were just chit-chatting. But once he got their attention and the technician came to look at the van, things started to pick up. The tech assigned to our case clicked a few of the controls for the battery system and immediately pointed out that the behaviour of our batteries and the display were not normal and something was wrong.  We also gave the service manager the laundry list of issues we would like to address, knowing that not everything could be fixed today - we just wanted everything on paper or on the work order so that they could be worked on at a later date. 

We have left the entire day open as we did not know how long it was going to take to do whatever they needed to do, We dropped off Bilbo for a couple of hours so that they could run the diagnostics; meanwhile, we took a walk to a park/campground, Bingeman's,  nearby to kill some time. This park is a combination of campground, splash-park, and event venue. There were groups of kids there for day camps but we were able to find a quiet spot at a picnic area to just chill out and wait for the call. It was nerve-wrecking waiting for the diagnosis and when the call finally came, I found myself holding my breath waiting for the call to end so that Dan could tell me what they said! It turned out that the wiring for the entire battery system was done incorrectly (from factory) and they would have to re-do the whole thing! 

We took the Grand River Trail (trailhead was by Bingeman's) back to the factory, thinking that we could avoid walking on the busy street. It turned out that the street access from the trail to the street across from the factory, as indicated by Google Maps, did not exist and we ended up taking quite a bit longer getting back to the factory. The stress of not knowing how far the trail was going to take us totally negated the calming effect of taking a walk through the woods!

Just as we got back to the factory and were about to make arrangements for a factory tour and to get a loaner car for the day, Sunny texted to check on our progress and offered to pick us up, take us to have lunch and a tour of her work place, and then bring us back when it was time to pick up Bilbo. Given that we had made no plans for the day to begin with, this is turning into an interesting day!

What would make a tour of a work place that exciting, you might ask? Well, Sunny works for the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, the largest private scientific research institute in the world. It is a not-for-profit organization with independent funding and not associated with any universities… it was described by a physicist as a "physics spa"! When I first learned about the nature of the organization, I thought it sounded like something right out of a Dan Brown novel!

The PI has tenured faculty, visiting professors on sabbatical from their own universities, visiting post-docs, retired professors who are "permanent visitors", and students enrolled in their graduate programs. The building is of very modern design that puts a lot of emphasis on providing collaboration and interaction space - any surfaces that is chalkable has been used as a writing surface and the stairways are configured so that people have to brush shoulders when passing each other, etc. They also carried on a tradition that started during their first conference: when they put on their first conference at the old building, they didn't have pointers in the lecture room, but someone found some lacrosse sticks in the building to use as pointers. Those were too heavy, so the founders went to Canadian Tire and came back with an armload of hockey sticks. Since then, using hockey sticks as pointers became a thing for PI lectures. There are just so many cool things and stories about this place and we have not have even got into some of the research topics yet!! Check out their website - all the lectures are available for the public for free online.

[I saw the heart drawn next to the formula(e?) and added the “they discovered love” on the the board...]

After lunch at their cafeteria and the tour, Sunny drove us back to the Hymer factory. By then, we also figured out our itinerary for the next couple of days and decided to stay in Kitchener (or on Sunny's driveway) for another night. We had a factory tour at the Hymer site and got a feel for how all the Hymer and Roadtrek RVs were made. The whole time during the tour, all I could really think of was how Bilbo’s repair went... it was really not very different from having a pet undergoing a procedure and wondering the whole day what the end result would be and what the long-term prognosis is going to be!

By the time the tour was over, Bilbo was ready for pick up. And here is the lowdown: the entire battery system was wired incorrectly, e.g. the polarity was reversed, the batteries were set up in serial instead of parallel, the settings for the inverter was wrong etc. Because so many things were wrong, the techs weren't able to pinpoint which one or which combination of the errors resulted in the problem we saw. To be sure that things would run properly, they replaced both lithium batteries and replaced a number of controllers. They also got around to working on a few other things on our laundry list: leaks around the bathroom fan, water valve, squeaky microwave, and drawer latches; they even installed a grab handle that we asked for the last minute when we saw one in another van as we were doing the factory tour. All in all, we were quite pleased with what they have accomplished.

It turned out that one of Sunny’s co-worker, Ann, who we met during lunch, was also an avid knitter (we didn’t find out until after Sunny brought us back to the factory). When I mentioned that I am hoping to visit a local yarn store, Sunny asked Ann for a recommendation. She suggested Shall We Knit in Waterloo which is quite close to Sunny’s house. It is located in a beautiful old brick house, with Arts and Crafts style interior that I just love so much! Even the logo adheres to the style and that was the first thing I noticed when we arrived at the store. They carry a wide variety of yarn from Cascade, to Shbui  and they have an upstairs for spinning and weaving supplies, but I only had my eyes for something local. They have yarn from a dyer from Waterloo, but they colours were a bit more limited, so I ended up getting a superwash merio/cashmere/silk blend sock yarn from Indigo Dragonfly based in Ontario in sage green. It is so soft that I might use it for a shawl.... oh the possibilities! 

We returned to Sunny's after my little fibre adventure and met  her husband, Jeremy, who was now home from his tour in Victoria, BC (he's a concert violinist). We  had a nice family dinner and then we all took a walk to the corner store to get ice-cream for dessert. Afterwards, their neighbour came over with their little grandson - Gimli was super gentle with him and I was a proud mama! :) 

Benji started practicing his dance moves and circus tricks, and Dan got to resurrect his juggling skills after 20 years! It was so much fun hanging out with Sunny and her family; I am so glad Dan got to rekindle an old friendship and I had a chance to make these new friends. 

Starting tomorrow, no matter what happens with Bilbo, we will just have to deal with it as we go as there is no more "We will add it to the list for Kitchener". I am partly anxious and partly relieved about it because for the last 2 weeks, a lot of effort has been put into figuring out what was wrong with the van and how to get ourselves to Kitchener by a certain date. From here on, we will just take it as it comes and enjoy the journey. For now, good night from Kitchener, ON.

Check out our route on Roadtrippers!

#crosscontinentalroadtrip #roadtrip2018 #bilbothevan #thereandbackagain #hymeraktiv #campervan #vanlife #labradorable #fibreadventure #sourveniryarn #localyarnstore