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First thing, my Dad followed me to a local garage to get the broken lock fixed on the passenger door, giving Claire and Sonia the luxury of a lie-in and time to themselves. The mechanic was a very kind guy, replacing our broken lock quickly with a spare he already had lying around and charging us for the labour only - down from an initial heart attack inducing quote of CA$750 to a fantastic CA$60 final bill. The repair was faster than we thought it would be and we were on our way by late morning, following S+J ou of Vancouver and east up to the Fraser Valley - very rural and quiet compared with Vancouver, and quieter in our car due to our lack of stereo - bastards!
After lunch at a diner - we love diner booths - we stopped at another garage for (what we thought was) the quick job of getting the cars wheels balanced - its shuddering at high speeds. This turned into another lengthy, stressful situation when we realised that the wheelnuts were all lock nuts requiring a special key to be undone and we weren't given the key when we bought the car - we are never, ever buying a car when travelling again. All the wheelnuts had to be drilled out before the wheels could be balanced causing much mirth at the garage and much steam to vent from my ears. By the time this dilema had been solved it was late afternoon and we had not made the progress we had hoped to. We drove a little further along the Fraser Valley, which became deeper and more impressive to relaxed backwater called 'Hope' where we checked into a quiet motel. We walked along Hope's shady streets to a recommended diner and ate huge portions of home cooked food, chatting and bantering with the cheeky waiter.
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