#7 - The Day Thomas almost Died
Captains log - Earth time 23, March, 2018
We're back!...rusty, nervous, unsure, stiff and shakey, after five months out of the busking game, it's gonna be an interesting starter. Its our first day back on the streets and considering all that, and the pretty coldish afternoon weather in MONTPELLIER, FRANCE, we did ok. It was good to be back and playing the old tunes.
The CAMPING location we found is pretty awesome, right in our backyard we have a gorgeous natural park, fresh water from its flowing river, a petrol station 5 minutes away for our generator, and it's a quiet area, can sleep sooo peacefully, and no-one seems to bother us.
Set up for dinner, poured a couple of glasses of French Cabernat Savignion, and that was the end of daylight...something must have been off with this wine, or the water, as both Eris and I fell ill, at almost the same moment - dizzy, nausea and the strong feeling of literally passing out...not good...threw away the bottle and went into damage control...this left Eris a little worse for wear in the bowl area for a few days, and us out of work as she needed recovery time...anyway, we survived the wine saga, and a few kilos lighter; everything has its upside I guess...
Drama strikes again, and our water pump has stopped pumping, jolly good!!!...that means no shower or washing dishes, so we're out and about Montpellier in search of a pump...after a wild goose chase, finally found a place, big one in France called Narbonne Accessories for about âŹ118, not bad...installed it but now it seems there's numerous air bubbles floating through the pipes that will not go away...especially in the basin, we've now dubbed it as THE EXPLODING TAP - watch out, your hands aren't the only wet appendigices in the room...
From Montpellier to Paris - it's going to be a long drive...
Parked the camper around 2 hours down the highway from Montpellier, Aire De Repos Lozere, very cool place indeed, reminds us a bit of Stonehenge in England, out front is the huge caffeteria, so looks like coffee and croissants in the morning...anyway almost time for bed, real cold tonight, two below zero - yes a very cold one, but we'll get beneath our sheets, and it'll heat up fast... zzzzz
Minus 7 degrees through the night, waking up to the sun shinning over a blue sky at minus 2. Like I said coffee and croissant, but must admit not as tasty as we would've hoped. But little did we know the day was just about to taste worse.
Prepared Thomas for the ongoing voyage, went to start the ignition, and he wouldn't crank over, the more we tried the worse he sounded until the battery gave way, and that was it...looks like Thomas doesn't like the cold...asked some helpful French to jumpstart, some tried, but to no avail...next plan, try to start using other batteries we have, nope, they're even worse, hardly a whimper...ok how about we go buy a new one from the petrol station just a short stroll down the road, sounds easy enough, but they don't sell them...ok, well there's a bigger one across the freeway, a dangerous crossing, but what choice do we have. So Vinny goes leap frog across the highway, until reaching the other side which is fenced off, so thought he'd ask a nice French couple if they sell new batteries at this petrol station ,parlavou English?...wee, lucky us, but no batteries here...froggy Vinny leaps back to Eris with the bad news...next we'll try the cafeteria, with the crappy coffee and croissants, and next door is 'information', thought we'd ask the lovely French lady behind the counter, and she does turn out to be lovely, to speak on our behalf, and to call a mechanic that might bring us a new battery, that was our idea anyway, and so she did...she finished with that, and then tells us they will be sending someone in 10 minutes, we understood with a battery, but NO, it's a tow truck... oh, this is gonna get costly now...anyway, Samuel, I find out later is his name, takes us about 10 minutes away, to his pretty high class Peugeot office, and 350 euro later we get our battery...but Thomas is still in a coma...Samuel connects some other contraption to the new battery, sprays some stuff in the engine, we try cranking, close, but Thomas remains flatlined. He then connects another battery, to our new battery together with the contraption, but Thomas isn't responding. Samuel pulls the plug, and says that's it. We look at each other as if we just lost our good friend, and this dream has just come to its end. Samuel hooks Thomas to a big black van, no not a hearse, in hope of push starting...phew we thought it was over...hope was still alive...he takes the wheel, our hearts pounding, rooting hard for Thomas!...the pulling begins, Samuel gives it a shot, but Thomas lays frozen, another big pull, another shot, and something happens...Thomas's heart beats, he cranks, he murmurs, he fires up, he runs!...he isn't sounding pretty, but he's breathing and he's alive. Thomas is alive!!!...Thomas is alive again, and so to is our dream. Take a picture with Samuel, wanna remember this guy, helped save our dream...thankyou, Dr. Samuel.
We fill up and off we went and drove until we parked in a place called CHAMPS...Symbolic...
Next morning, Thomas is at it again, he doesn't want to wake up. Not enjoying this. We ask bystanders for a push start, and they're all for it, down the long winding hill we go, but you guessed it, Thomas isn't responding, and it's another tow truck to another French auto repairer who decides in his ignorant wisdom that Thomas can't be saved, and leaves us stranded at his workplace in some unknown country town called Gannat. Remember that name. Gannat.
We weren't just going to sit here and watch our dream go down the sewer and take this shit from no arrogant, inconsiderate asshole, so after some heated discussions he finally took us to another mechanic down the road, called Roady. Remember that name too.
Well that's exactly what musicians need, ROADY's, looking good, and these guys are awesome fella's, they revived Thomas, thanks to Saint Nick and Saint Joseph, and next morning we were on the road again towards Paris. But there was a catch, the water pump is caput, and leaking like hell, and our starter motor is the cause of our torment. The diagnosis from our Roady - "Whatever you do, do not turn off the engine, not even to refuel, do not stop, or he won't start again, then when you get to Paris you can get him repaired"...well that's the plan anyhow
Uhhhhhmmmmm...well ladies and gentlemen, until next time, hopefully...Twin Circus.
