We left on the morning of my birthday to drive to Block Island. On our way, we stopped at a mechanic to receive the state vehicle inspection sticker. To our surprise, we failed the inspection because the emergency breaks didn’t work. Indeed, when we pushed down the emergency breaks, it didn’t seem to be doing anything at all. We received a red R, which means we are no longer allowed to drive the van and have to get it fixed immediately. We went to a mechanic next door, so he could take a look at the breaks. He told us that the breaks were gone entirely, and it would cost 600 to 800 dollars to fix them. Also, we would have to make an appointment to do it. Because we only had a few hours before our ferry to Block Island would leave, we decided to do it after returning from Block Island.
We took the 1-hour ferry ride and arrived on Block Island, where Grandma picked us up. We spent the next three days on Block Island in George’s beautiful house with an ocean view.
We drove to a mechanic on Block Island, and they told us they could fly in the required part and fix the breaks on the same day, which would only cost 300 dollars. While we waited, George gave us a tour of the island.
We spent the following day converting our van. We bought lots of wood in Boston at Home Depot, and George had all the necessary tools. Since we didn’t have a plan of how we wanted to convert it, we spent a lot of time discussing and trying to develop a good concept. We also drove to the hardware store three times because we constantly changed our plans and needed different parts. Finally, we finished the conversion and had a stable bed frame. We are very happy with the results!
We will leave Block Island very early the next day and drive back to Massachusetts to hopefully pass the vehicle inspection and receive the sticker.