LONG POST
After what seems like forever, a few days ago I was reunited with the heffalump.
I was very happy to to see my home again and have been homesick ever since leaving it. In my head, I had planned on spending about 2 weeks decompressing, getting prepared cognitively, and emotionally. Enjoying the mountains and coastline before doing a deep dive. In a few short works, I'll "deploy" as as a civilian to the warfront in E. Ukraine to support medical teams with medivacs and at stabilization points.
Sadly, this post isn't going to end happily. A friend of mine drove me to the USA/Canada border and watched my dog. I had to pick up the truck and get right back over. There was a bit of questioning at the border as I went into secondary inspection and had an interview, and the Canadians did some background checking. I think they found it odd that I as picking up a truck that was left some months ago. But they checked their boxes and off I went.
Update on the heffalump.
-The truck can now do speeds of 90+ kmh. When I first test drove it the right rear wheel and drum got hot, but it hasn't done that since.
-But now the parking brake doesn't engage at all now. I picked up a valve per Han's advice and I'm hoping that might fix it? It might be that the shoes are spread out to far and the parking brake can't engage.
-The after driving 40-50 kilometers, there was a lake of oil under truck, the cab was tilted and the entire right side of the engine/bay looked like it was dipped in oil . 8 liters of oil was added to "top it off". After spending a day washing the truck, finding loose fittings, disconnected oil lines, I think I got it under better control. About 6-8 trips to the car wash for washing, inspecting, tightening lines, had reduced the dripping. It looks a lot now. But with that much oil, it's hard to tell if what I'm seeing now is residual oil that I didn't get to in the wash, or if there are additional leaks to be resolved.
-The truck has tilting bumper that serves like a tire carrier. It looks like it was driving with it down.... The bumper is scrapped and left headlight is damaged.
-The thermostat for the habitat is not working. This powers the webasto heater. I'm guessing that it stopped working before winter as the water lines looked like they broke over winter.... When I entered the heffalump, the faucet was open and the water pump was on, sucking on dry air... Odd as I had shut this off when I dropped it off. The water tanks were now empty. And the there I what looks like frantic movement of items and lines at the water filters (now broken).
-My home was also overrun with mice. Between repairing the oil lines, water system, and a bunch of other things the past 48 hours, I've removed about 80 gallons of mice damage.
I've relayed this to Hans and I'm meeting up with him in a couple of days to discuss it all. It seems like he is aging and his health is also being affected by his years. I'm not trying to bash him, his business, or even recuperate the thousands of dollars he has charged me (he is NOT cheap). But I def will not be leaving my truck alone with him again. Just hoping to minimize all that has happened.
I've owned several houses and I'm a bit of a minimalist. This is the first place I've called home. I do consider myself to be a humanitarian and invest much of income in others as I firmly believe the earth and each other are the best of investment. The heffalmp is my home and has became a place of not just adventure and discovery. But a centering place of healing from all the storms that are faced. It's been heartbreaking to see it so neglected.
