Last report had us sitting in Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Labrador. From there we made our way west across the rest of Labrador, through Labrador City, then south down through more gravel roads in eastern Quebec. On August 31 in a tiny place called Relais Gabriel, QC, with two fuel pumps, a one-table restaurant and a few cabin rooms, we stopped for fuel (at $1.774-CD per liter) and homemade lasagna to die for. There we noticed the trailer was missing a bearing buddy again with some dirt in the hub bearing grease. No parts available, but the wheel was still secure, and it was not too far to go back to "civilization", so we decided to soldier on and fix it later. Late night we nursed it into Baie Comeau, QC running on fumes, tanked it up and spent the night.

Ferry was not running out of Baie Comeau on a Saturday, so we ran 25 miles farther east to catch the ferry out of Godbout, QC, for a 75-minute hop across the St Lawrence to land in Matane, QC. Having caught the critical ferry, we could rest for a bit, and began looking for trailer bearings. Unfortunately, no parts stores open Saturday afternoon, so we did what we could to clean and r e-lube and re-adjust the trailer bearings, covering the hub with a baggie taped in place, then soldier on. It would be another six days before we found the needed bearings in Dartmouth, NS, but the old bearings were holding up okay, so we left them alone, just installed a new grease cap on the hub. Another two weeks later the 21st we still haven't changed the bearings as the old ones are still hanging in there. I recon I will give up on bearing buddies and go back to standard grease caps. Seems like the bearing buddies are to heavy and tend to knock themselves loose on rough roads.

On Sunday September 2 we were sitting in Bathurst, NB when we found a new posting on a club web site and made a fast 3 -hour dash southwest to catch an Ice Cream Tour with Fredericton Area British Auto Club in Fredericton, New Brunswick. We were greeted by four cars destined to do a 7-mile tour to an ice cream shop, then had an hour to chat with the folks before they went separate ways. Oh well, just another two hours east to Moncton, NB before dark. We have been here before, 2 weeks and 2 days and a bit more than 3400 miles past. For the guys in Chicago who think driving 900 miles around Lake Michigan was fun, maybe try driving around the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.

Now that's a workshop, Moncton, NB

We had spent some time tracking down a contact for Greater Moncton British Motoring Association, finally found Robb Steeves in Moncton who was the club founder. The club is

Marlin kit car with Austin A-series 1275 engine

generally inactive these days, but we can still find a few people to chat with, so we will keep it listed as an active club. Robb has lots of space for his toys in a standard garage and a barn size workshop. We found a TR3 and an MG Midget, an MG TD with MGB engine and overdrive gearbox, an AMC Hornet, a Mercedes Benz 200, and a Bentley that looks like a Jaguar Mk-I with a small Bentley V8 engine. There was a Jaguar MK-I, an MGB GT, another MGB, and a Marlin kit car with Austin A-series 1275 engine. A couple larger American cars including a now rare AMC Pacer.

Part of the BATANS gang at Chickenburger in Halifax

Then on the throttle again heading south out of New Brunswick into Nova Scotia, landing at a Chickenburger in Halifax for a meeting with British Automobile Touring Association of Nova Scotia (BATANS), Halifax Group. No official count but had to be at least 20 British cars there. Just a toe in the water for the next couple of weeks when we would be visiting five of their seven groups as well as a barbecue with the club as a whole. We missed one group that had only limited activities, and one more due to time constraints, but I think we did meet most of the club members who are part of those groups. I did get to adjust the carburetor on a rubber bumper MGB, leaving the owned with a big grin when it ran better.

A couple days later the 5th I was tuning triple Weber dual side draft carbs on a TR6 in Falmouth, NS (grossly over-carbureted). Next day we were in Pictou, NS, tuning up an MGA with a host of niggly little problems with carburetor and distributor, but finally got that one running okay. Also took the opportunity to change oil in our MGA gearbox and differential.

Weber 6-pack on a TR6

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