Reggie's Last Stand

Friday the thirteenth of April 2012 saw the passing of a close companion to many. Most of the people in Kooloobong will be able to tell you a story about how they felt unsafe whilst inside of him. We've had a lot of ups and down - sometimes we hated you, sometimes we loved you, but you were always there, and you will remain in our memories forever. This is the story of Reginald's departure from this world.

We had a great day planned. We would head to the seaside town of Kiama (about half an hour south of Wollongong), have a look around, take touristy pictures of the blowhole, pump up the tunes in the van and then move on to the descriptively named Seven Mile Beach. After a shaky start (we had to jump the battery)  we got to Kiama while singing along to many classics courtesy of Beyonce, Shania, Skaira and S Club. 

We lined up along the railings at the blowhole to take touristy pictures (I'm such a tourist that I took pictures of people taking pictures...).

A quick pit stop in Woolworths to grab some lunch, and we were on our way to seven mile beach. About half way there, I started to hear a rattling sound every time I used the accelerator (which, coincidentally, was a lot since I was driving) and that the temperature had sky rocketed. I pulled over next to some B&B and realised that the van was full of smoke and that we should get out. Luckily the woman who owned the B&B was lovely and let us chill out in the gardens to give the van some time to cool down. It definitely wasn't the worst place to break down in the world - such nice views!

A while later, we went back to Reggie to see how he was doing. After looking in the radiator, we saw that we needed to fill it up as all the coolant seemed to have disappeared, but when we filled it to the top, we could see that the water level was dropping quickly. So something in the coolant system was leaking (great news considering we bought a new radiator only three months ago). This didn't quite explain why the engine wouldn't start, though. We decided that we should get it towed to a mechanic, and see what they thought. When the tow truck arrived, I described the situation, and he said it sounded like a blown head gasket. Replacing one of those is a big job - definitely not worth replacing, and so we just called up a scrap yard.

When we got there, we were welcomed by a pack of men smoking and drinking beer in a shed full of spare parts. We unloaded the van, filled out the paperwork, and I asked about the money situation. The alpha male of the group said that on the phone, I implied that I just wanted to drop off the van and didn't want anything for it. I feel like this was categorically incorrect, but once he had the van, he had the power, and we couldn't afford to tow it to any other scrap yards because there wasn't one for miles. And so, the van was legally stolen from us. It actually was daylight robbery. 

As the sun set over Wollongong, so did it set on our hopes and dreams of freedom, convenient transport and not having to rely on the extremely unreliable free shuttle bus. Reggie managed to get us all the way back from Adelaide, and for me, anything after that was an added bonus. He will be missed by many, and remembered by all as one hell of a great van.

Sitting, watching, waiting

The van wouldn't start, and we couldn't get anywhere. We were beginning to think that it was going to be a huge waste of money, but at least we had somewhere to stay. We were still with Marion in Adelaide, spending our days aimlessly wondering around the city, reading, watching movies, checking our emails, going to the zoo (Australia's only zoo to have a panda exhibit) - anything to keep us occupied. She even introduced us to the art of bin diving. Bin diving is when people rummage through supermarket bins at the end of the day to get food that is past its sell-by date, but before its use-by date, which I think is a great idea considering the amount of waste produced by the large supermarket chains these days. We also played with Marion's dog (a jack russell called Weasel), who would just lie down and present his stomach for a scratch as soon as he saw any human.

We got a quote from a mechanic who, mysteriously, managed to start the van straight away, but told us that the radiator was bust. There were a few other minor problems with it, for example, the bolts on the drive shaft were worn, so it could fall off at any point and pole vault the entire van onto its side; or the fact that there was a bolt missing that should have been holding the alternator (attenuator according to Amanda) in place, and if it keeps hitting the engine then it would have exploded. We weren't too worried.

The next day we drove up to Jenny and Mark's house (Matt's relatives, who incidentally live up a huge hill, we had to stop half way up to let the engine cool down) for Australia day - a nationwide celebration of the day that the British invaded the country (aboriginal people actually call it invasion day). Marion was very against this holiday, and her views kind of rubbed off on me a bit - but not enough to stop me from going to Jen and Mark's barbecue. While we were there that evening, they kindly offered to let us stay until we got the van fixed. As nice as Marion was, she didn't have a son who could fix Reggie for free!

It took a whole day to replace the radiator. The gap to pull out the radiator was smaller than the width of the radiator itself, so the rest of the van had to be dismantled to get it out, and then reassembled after we'd sourced a new one and put it in. We could see why the old radiator wasn't working - if you touched it, it would crumble to pieces! We thought we should also put a bolt in to hold down the alternator. Exploding on the highway didn't sound like too much fun...

From here, it was another waiting game, because we needed to wait until Monday to hand in the change of ownership forms. In the meantime we kept ourselves busy by playing PS one games (mainly Rayman and Tekken 3), we went go karting one day, and Mark and Sam even play in a band, so we went to see them one evening. While we were staying with Jen, her brother and his wife (Dave and Alicia) were staying there too. Dave is honestly the most Northern person I have ever met. His accent is so broad that I could rarely understand him, and he had a whole vocabulary of word that I'd never heard of!

By 4pm on Monday 30th Jan 2012, after spending at least an hour trying to hand in the change of ownership forms, we were finally on the road again! I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to everyone in Adelaide who made us feel so welcome, Marion, Jenny, Mark, Sam, Joel, Dave, Alicia, and all of the other people we met  during our stay. You were amazing, and I hope to one day see you all again, but for now, Melbourne was beckoning!