A Saga

I can’t believe how long it’s been since I wrote anything. The stay at La Botanic was fabulous. And that’s where the good times ended.

When I got up in the morning my cell service was no longer working. Therefore I had no GPS. I was eventually able to find a store that sold SIM cards and after a small investment we got back on the road. Of course this stop delayed everything by about an hour.

About an hour after this, while I was nearing Marseille, one of my tires blew as I was getting on an on ramp to one of the major roadways. I was able to very slowly back up enough so that I was not blocking anything and there I sat. Of corse it was a Saturday afternoon. I could not get in touch with Roadside Assistance. I didn’t know the local police number and it was getting hotter by the minute. After about 20 minutes a car stopped with 3 kids in it, one guy, 2 girls and they offered to help. One of the girls called the police while the young guy got under the van to get at the spare tire. It was then that we discovered I had no jack and no lug wrench to remove the bolts. The kids tried waving down cars to ask for the use of a jack but no go. Thirty minutes later another caravan pulled up and a guy got out asking what was the problem. Fortunately for me he spoke Spanish. He helped search the entire van but we never found a jack or wrench. He said he was on his way to pick up his girlfriend from the bus station but that after he collected her he’d be back. The kids in the other car took off and so did here. This all happened starting at around 2:30 pm. At roughly 3:15 before everyone had left an emergency response vehicle stopped, said “sorry, there was nothing he could do” and drove off.

Polly, Henry and I sat in the van (no one else ever stopped) until 9:00. It was dark by then and I thought we’d have to spend the night on the side of the road when my hero returned with his girlfriend. To make a long story short, they took us to a hotel and promised to come back in the morning. I locked up the van, certain that in the morning only a shell would left, and off we went. Well, it turns out to not be so easy to find an auto supply place open on a a Sunday. Eventually successful, the pair agreed to let me treat them to dinner. The restaurant we picked let me bring the dogs in but it would be almost an hour before the kitchen open. My new friends, Gonzalo (who is Portuguese) and Sadaf (who is Iranian), thought that was enough time for them to go, change the tire and bring the van to the restaurant. WRONG AGAIN. They cam back in a little over 2 hours with the news that my spare tire had a broken valve and wouldn’t hold air. Another night at the hotel. Monday Gonzalo found a tire place, bought a new tire, went back and put it on the van, brought the van to the hotel. It was mid afternoon and too late for me to get to the next campsite. Gonsalo was adamant that I could not leave Marseille until I had a spare tire. Another night in the hotel. Those two people were absolutely angels brought to help me.

Tuesday I found the tire place which was an hour in the opposite direction I was going in. I got there, had a long wait, bought another tire and finally left there after 4:00. It should have only taken 2 hours to get to the campsite but 1) the traffic was horrendous. There a lot of tolls through France and when we got to Nice lines of cars were backed up almost a kilometer on both sides of the toll booths. Then, 2) there were small (I think) forest fires everywhere. I had to drive through acrid smoke and for a long time all I heard were the sirens from emergency vehicles. At any rate, we crossed into Italy a little after 7:00 pm and reached the campsite in Sanremo around 8:00. Hallelujah and praise God!!

We’re not moving from here for the next three days. Right on the sea and a fabulous little restaurant on site. That’s it for me. Quite a saga, right??

This is a view of the town as we passed through – typically Italian!