DAY 94

Thursday 13 October 2011

Broken fan belt

Some of us got up on the wrong side of the bed – (Isn’t it funny how time clouds the memory?) We decided to leave our little parking place by the community park and look for the elusive gas can for our stove (still not usable for cooking). An easy task no? NO! After driving to two places we continued the day’s downward spiral when at the toll booth we went through without getting a ticket. (In Greece there’s always a human and after we pushed the help button we were so glad the gate went up that we didn’t look back.) Unfortunately at the toll booth on the other end, the man wanted about $85.00 for a 15 minute use of the road.. He let us go through with only 3 euros to pay but then we read the whole receipt. (Lots of fines if it wasn’t taken care of.) We then started smelling burning rubber so we pulled over at a gas station in a tiny town where our map for caravans and campers had shown us a place to buy the gas can. Strike two and three. After looking everything over and determining that nothing was radically wrong in the engine, we decided to leave the coast and start hightailing it to Colleen’s villa in the middle of Italy before we got stranded and missed our rendezvous with her on the 16^th.

Stranded in "paradise"

The grape arbor was a nice place to wait for the tow truck (which was our second time for that experience) and the driver wondered why we were on such a God forsaken road. His name was Tommy and he had spent his high school years in Oakland, California. He towed us to his hometown of Orsonia where a group of mechanics went to work diagnosing our problem immediately. Definitely different than most garages in L.A. – the immediately part.

Whilst they were doing that, Dian and Nicole were asked by the owner’s wife to come to her house and speak English with her daughter, (a 17 year old named Francesca). We were escorted into her room which began to fill with family and friends and while her nails were being done by her friend, Anna, we chatted. The birthday of her one year old nephew was that weekend and when we asked how many relatives would attend she said about 100! The visit was a slice of how a cool teen in a small Italian village lives.

The cell phone rang and we were told the van was almost ready and had a new fan belt. When asked where we might find a safe harbor for the night, they pointed us in the direction of town and a peaceful little parking lot adjacent to a gym.

It thundered and lighteninged (is that a word?) but with spaghetti in mushroom and caper sauce and pastries Charles had procured on his walk-about, we ended the day with a few rounds of Boggle which Nicole dominated…again.



Sugar never tasted so good