Blowhole at the waterfront of Xcaret Park near Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Toluca on December 24th!

Friday, July 8, 2016

The little blue car has a boo-boo

Ruth went into Swift Current on Wednesday to do groceries and a bunch of running around for the park. We always pack the little blue car full of recycling and returnable bottles and cans to collect the deposits back for the park. This generates revenue for the park to the tune of over $2,000 per season!

Anyhow, when she came back, the first thing she said was "the little blue car has a boo-boo", and of course I instantly thought uh, oh...there's a scratch or dent somewhere...

But there's no scratch or dent.

There is, however, a major crack in the windshield.

And of course it would be on the driver's side!

This is the original windshield, so it's got ten years worth of minor chips in it, as well as two fairly major chips. It's actually in pretty rough shape. But I hesitate to get it changed because driving in Saskatchewan means that it could get another chip tomorrow. Besides, we don't have windshield coverage on the insurance, so we would have to pay out of pocket. I haven't made any phone calls, but I would guess it would probably cost close to $300 out of pocket.

At this point, we'll probably wait and get it done next spring.

On other news, I recieved my new footwear in the mail the other day. Cutting it close, because it looks like Canada Post is shutting things down this weekend due to a labor dispute. So at least the package didn't get stuck in limbo.

New Merrell hiking boots for Kevin. At $125 CAD ($100 USD), a fantastic deal!

With Vibram soles. Looks like snow tire tread!

Also in the box were my new sandals. I've never bought a good pair of sandals, so when I saw this $65 pair on sale for half price, I added them to the order.

New Reef sandals for Kevin.

These sandals have a bottle opener built into the sole! 
What more could a beer drinker ask for?!

Another busy weekend here at the park with quite a few campers checking in this afternoon. Weather is supposed to be decent, with storms coming through Sunday afternoon, and then rain on Monday.

Enjoy your Friday!

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Emergency sewing kit. Handy item to throw into the RV!


And in Canada, a great deal on binoculars. For an inexpensive pair, they have really good ratings, it almost makes you wonder why they're so cheap. Comes with strap and bag too! Some of these updated deals here are also worth checking out.



22 comments:

  1. I laughed out loud when I saw that bottle opener. That is SO you :)

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    1. Yep, most expensive bottle opener that he has ever bought! ;-)

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  2. That must be the best sandles EVER

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    1. Hard to wipe the grin off his face. Now he just needs a bottle of beer to try it out with, to make sure it works of course! ;-)

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  3. A bottle opener? You'll have to bum at least one beer to try that out, crazy! I also ordered from that site, new Columbia winter boots, and new Croc sandles (not the ugly ones!!) - got them delivered for about $100 (yes, taxes and delivery!) in just a few days - I couldn't believe how fast it came. Thanks for the tip on that website! I now won't be overpaying for winter boots come December.

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    1. Yep, bumming a beer is going to be the only way he will be able to try it out until the fall!

      So glad that you like the site and got some great deals yourself. Now, you just have to hope for lots of snow and cold this winter to make sure the boots are good, lol!

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  4. Not too shabby, ten years out of a windshield. On my 03 Honda Element, I'm going to have the windshield replaced for the eighth (yep, eighth) time. Good thing I do have insurance that covers it. The poor car is a rock magnet. :c(

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    1. You are not kidding! I owned a 2004 Honda Element (bought new) for seven years and probably had four complete windshield replacements plus several repairs over the years. I think it's the fact that the windshield is very close to vertical on that car. I loved the Element but hated that one thing about it!

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  5. Heck, when I lived in Louisiana, it seemed like I got a windshield ding every other week. I waited till the crack on the driver's side was really bad before doing anything about it ... and then got another rock chip thrown up as soon as I had a new w/s installed. Grrrr.

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    1. We will probably wait until it gets really bad as well before changing it. Who knows we could get another rock chip before the summer is done! That's exactly why we want to wait, we would hate to spend that money and then get another ding on the windshield right away.

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  6. Maybe you can check a car junk yard for a windshield? They are pretty easy to replace yourself. At least they used to be. It's funny all the recommendations you've been making lately. All things we have been looking at getting...just ordered a pair of Merrill hiking shoes and we've been looking at metal detectors and binoculars. Also a sewing kit for our emergency pack.

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    1. I am sure that whatever we get, Kevin will make sure we get a great deal on it.

      So glad that we have been able to help you out with some good product deals, Kevin must be reading your mind. ;-)

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  7. Very nice sandals. I'm interested to see the price on the windshield. I'm thinking 300 is a bit low and I hope I'm wrong.

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    1. Kevin is pretty sure it will be under $300 but maybe that will change by the time we get it replaced, probably at the start to next season.

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  8. Like your shoes and especially the sandals.
    We replaced the windshield in our 02 saturn a couple years ago. We had $300. deductible, but a local shop replaced it with an aftermarket one for $225.00 cdn, and does the job.

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  9. Three hundred is our deductible to replace a windshield on our vehicle insurance.

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    1. This is why we don't have the windshield replacement on our insurance, for us it isn't worth it when the deductible is about the same price as the windshield would be for our little car.

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  10. I have gone through three windshields on my pickup in 14 years, each one cost about US$200 installed, without insurance.

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    1. That sounds like great price for a pickup truck. I think in all our years together, all 33 of them we have only ever had to replace 2 windshields and one of them was for Kevin's work truck many years ago.

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  11. We live in our motorhome full-time and do not have a toad. We recently rented an adorable little Kia Soul for a month, since we needed to be able to go back and forth to my parents' home on nearly a daily basis. We decided to drive it a few states away to visit my husband's folks for a few days, and wouldn't you know it, a truck threw up a rock and cracked the windshield. It didn't go all the way across, but was a pretty long crack. Budget Rental Co. charged us $199 (US) for the repair (or replacement) since we didn't take out the supplementary insurance, which would have cost us something like $600 for the month, as it's charged on a daily basis. I thought the $199 was pretty good, actually. We were expecting more.

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    1. We have a credit card that will cover the insurance on a rental car as long as you pay for the rental with that credit card of course. We have never had to use it so not sure how it would work or if there is a deductible. You might want to check out your credit card and see it it has this feature on it.

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