A lovely end to a trying day

One thing sure to upset my daily rhythm is not getting my morning coffee, something that's particularly true when I'm out and about vanning.  I ran out of milk yesterday so knew that today was going to have it's challenges!

It was just a 20-minute drive to Geraldine where I purchased what has to be the cheapest milk I've bought in years!  Another 10 minutes to locate a nice resting spot to make my brew and consider what to do about something that had become apparent on the faster-than-yesterday drive to Geraldine.......vibrations through the steering wheel and van.  I figured it was probably something to do with the wheels after Wednesday's wee escapade and the alignment might have been affected.  After, coffee I tootled into Timaru expecting to get the wheels re-aligned then head off on my merry way.  Wrong!  It turns out that there is some damage to the driveshaft and to cut a longer story short I'm going to need a new one :(  Next problem - locating one.  My van is not a new van and it seems replacement parts are no longer readily available.  The alternative - find a second hand one from a wreckers yard.  This turned up zero positive responses, although if I wanted to drive back to Christchurch one place "may" have one to fit!  Apparently I won't do any harm to anything by continuing to drive so I could carry on if I can put up with the vibrations.  As well as a significant amount of time spent with the wheel aligners (who were also heroes in this saga) I also spent a significant amount of time on the phone with my insurance company who were also pretty heroic in their approach and helpfulness.  After all this I needed to find a nice beach somewhere where I could digest everything and consider my next steps............