Another late start, we’d now had two solid sleeps, and were feeling blissful. With the house to ourselves, Dan made omelettes for brekky and killed it. I read the Wall Street Journal feeling proper American, then started catching up on all the blogging from Baja. Already fed up with a day of doing nothing, we contemplated the options for the day. We didn’t get very far, staying on the couch with me blogging and Dan Instagramming. An hour of that and we were sick. We tried watching a TV series Dan had recommended but had technical issues with Kodi so tried a couple of National Geographic shows on Netflix. Neither of them suited our fancy either, grossing us out.
Properly fed up now, we decided to do some van work. It couldn’t be so bad outside could it? Actually it could. It was 47*C, the definition of oppressive, but we resisted the temptation to run back inside and attended to Dan’s van. I unplugged the inverter quick smart because it was going mental in the heat. I don’t think it will ever be the same after Baja. Approaching the car, both of us smelt gas, which Debbie had noticed yesterday. After a quick inspection underneath, we found a tiny nick of a hole in the fuel tank that was the culprit. We obviously hit something but couldn’t figure out when it must have been. Thankfully, the hole was so small that the fuel was evaporating on the outside of the tank before it could reach the ground. We would need to deal with that.
In the next hour, I moved out of Dan’s van. We gave it a good clean and I separated my stuff from his. It was alarming how little was left when we were done. I stashed everything in my van, ready to repack it tomorrow. I gave the fridge a good clean since it was in a bad way after being turned off for the whole drive back and that was the end of our work for the day. We retreated to the house and got straight into a cold shower. It was the perfect opportunity to give Cleo a much needed wash so she jumped in with us. One big happy dirtbag family in a confined space. A good scrub with some Head and Shoulders and Cleo was a new dog. I finished my shower and went out to have a bash on the piano while Dan finished his. I had fun playing “My Favourite Things”, slowly retraining my brain to read music again.
We had ourselves a smoothie then we retreated to the back room for yet more MotoX, this time finishing up the Thunder Valley Round. After checking my emails, my Uncle had alerted me of the “McLaren” movie so we set about watching that. Needing rest (obviously), we set it up on my laptop in bed. It was a brilliant movie that had both of us engaged the whole way through, but of course with a sad ending which was unfortunate. Cleo spent the whole time on our feet, dreaming about chasing bunnies or lizards.
Lazy afternoon complete, we got up and I went outside to retrieve my fridge that I’d inadvertently left outside. Debbie got home as we were outside and we were happy to be able to use her car to go out for the night. We needed to get out of the house and our solution was to find a dive bar and play some pool. We hopped in the BMW and after a stop at AutoZone for some metal putty for the fuel tank and injector cleaner for my car, we hit Zips. The bar only had one pool table and it was occupied. The waitress tipped us that the pool players would be leaving soon so we hung around for one drink. When we decided we didn’t like the vibe of the place, Dan found another spot down the road.
The Tavern Grill was right up our alley. Definitely a dive bar and hardly anyone in it, we had the only pool table to ourselves. A very nice waiter sorted us out with beer and water for me since I was enjoying a period of sobriety. The waiter convinced us of the rib special so we ate a salad, chips, garlic bread and a half rack between us for $10. Not bad. We got right into pool, me winning the first game with finess, then Dan found his talent and won the next three. I was distracted, having too much fun with the 90s music and people watching the Tinder date at the bar between an over-confident lady and a shy middle-aged guy.
In the end, Dan beat me 4-3 at pool, but it had been good competition. We were the last people in the bar by the time we left. We both used the bathroom before we left and when I came out, I figured Dan was still doing his business so I perused the photos on the wall. After a few more minutes, I decided he must be outside so out I went. Sure enough, there he was, laughing his arse off. He’d been out there for ages, plotting to scare me when I walked out. His plan went to shit when he jumped out of the bushes and grabbed the leg of one of the waiters. Poor guy, he was successfully scared.
Back home, Cleo was very happy to see us and took up her usual position in the corner chair where she could monitor all entrances throughout the night.