The Return Trip

Friday morning was our departure day. We thought that a later departure would be better as 800 rigs lining up for the dump stations could take awhile! There was a lot of rig activity early but there was still many left when we were ready to pull out. We get to the dump stations (there were 9), and no line up so all was good!

We returned to the WalMart in Sturgis to do some last minute ‘shopping’ and lunch. On the way, John had to slam on his brakes to avoid a collision with a train crossing arm and lost his brakes on the truck! John finds a brake repair tech to look at his truck down the road from WalMart. The repairs took a couple of hours so while John waited for his truck, the rest of us worried through our lunch! They had to replace some steel brakes lines and then we were all back on the road again, heading to Camping World.

During our trip to the Maritimes, our toilet was not operating like it should so we ordered a part from Camping World before we went to Goshen. When we picked up the part, I realized that it would not completely resolve our toilet problems. Adding the additional parts, our parts bill would be more than a new toilet! It would be an easier job too, change one toilet for another instead of removing the old toilet, replacing the affected parts and re-installing the old toilet! Humm, let’s take the night to think about it, AND, the repair time would not cut into our Mexican Train time! In the morning, we asked John & Di and Ray & Donna to carry on without us as we could be awhile with repairs.

The Escapade at Goshen

Saturday, we went shopping to Menard’s for a $10 solar rope light – a good plan but that rope light cost us $120! There were too many other deals that we couldn’t pass up! The afternoon found us at Jack & Barb’s friend’s house in Lagrange.

Sunday was the first busy day of the Rally with visiting the Chapter Row, Opening Ceremonies and the Ice Cream social. The evening provided us with excellent stage show entertainment.

The remainder of the days saw us going to many seminars and demonstrations. Barb did some line dancing and we both learned more about boondocking, RV preventative maintenance, Geocaching, and passing the RV Boot Camp. Even with all this activity, Barb found time to learn a new craft – wood carving. I went but nobody would let me use anything sharp so I just watched and chatted with the instructor!

 

One of the seminar/demonstration that we went to that was very important was the Fire Safety session. The instructor was a retired fire fighter who knew how to get his point across and identified issues that we all take to causally! Yes, he was selling fire equipment but his information and the fire extinguisher demonstration was far too important to dismiss!

 

Our evenings were either chatting with our posse or playing Mexican Train. The rally provided a room for games and cards but they close the doors at 9PM! That’s way to early for us, we just get started and had to close down the game – boo! We moved us all into our rig and with lawn chairs, we crowd around the table and still had fun!

Our First Caravan

We left Owen Sound mid day so we would not arrive at the WalMart in Sarnia too early. The ride down was a casual meander except for some construction along the way.

On Thursday, we met up with John & Di, Ray & Donna and Jack and Barb at the Duty Free shop at the border and started our journey. After an easy border crossing, we all caught up and wandered down to the WalMart in Sturgis, Michigan for the night. After shopping and dinner, 8 of us crowded around our table for a rousing game of Mexican Train, a few wobbly pops, lots of laughs and good times!

In the morning, Ray & Donna's fridge was not working and had to move all their food. So, the four guys huddled around to diagnose the problem - scary scene! We thought it could be a bad battery, poor connections, blown fuses or no charge voltage from the tow vehicle! Hummmm….. let’s go and get to the campground in Goshen, get connected and see if the battery charges from the converter!

The ride from Sturgis to the campground took us through Amish country! We had to be watchful of horse and buggies on the roads. The Amish farms are immaculately clean and well maintained. You get a sense of a peaceful and calm atmosphere as you pass by the farms. We arrive early, get parked and set up and the converter is charging so it looks like the problem was loose connections on the battery and no charge voltage from the tow vehicle.

The rest of the day, we get acquainted with the campground and the layout of the Rally, register for the rally and volunteer activities. We met up with our friends from Georgia and Hastings, Ont. The Plantation in Alabama hosted a pot luck dinner and we were able to speak to many new friends that we made when we were there in 2009.

These past couple of weeks has been great. We’ve done some sightseeing, biking, boating and doing some much needed maintenance upkeep on the trailer! Barb has been able to get some catch up done on a few sewing projects, start a new pine needle basket project and complete a shirret rug project. It’s great to have been able to put the jacks down long enough to clean up some of these things!

But, we have also been busy helping our oldest daughter decorating her home. Terri and Mark decided that instead of paying a stranger to do some of the tasks (painting, electrical work, sewing etc), they asked us if we would appreciate some CASH and help them out a little! Well, we’re not doing well with the lottery so why not!

We are also winding down to be ready for the Escapee 50th Escapade in Goshen, In. We leave here on Wednesday to meet up with friends to caravan down to the Escapade. It’s going to be fun!

Fall is starting to show up around here! Some of the trees are starting to turn, the flies are terrorizing us and the apple trees are loaded! Time to start thinking about the winter nesting areas!

I have been more than a little lax in publishing our blog lately and for no other reason than just lazy!

As we mentioned previously, this area is beautiful. We have everything anyone could want to do within a short drive. We have ventured out for a couple of touring days, a couple of bike outings and a boating adventure down part of the Sydenham River in Owen Sound.

The rail beds were abandoned here in 1984 and soon after, were converted into biking/hiking trails. Most of the trail is covered with crushed lime stone and easy to navigate. So far, we have covered 18 Kms.

On Aug 19th, we wandered over to Walter Falls for a look see. On our way to the next destination, the skies opened with a torrential down pour and we cut our trip short. Decided to do laundry instead and wouldn’t you know it, the skies cleared and the afternoon was perfect!

It’s that time of the year to renew our vehicle sticker but have to do an E-test. Drivers up here are not required to have Emission testing so the closest Drive Clean facility is in Collingwood. We drove down to get’r done then turned around and went back to Owen Sound to boat the Sydenham River. We spent a considerable amount of time trying to find a launch point. The lower part of the river out to the lake has wharf style sides and we couldn’t get close enough to put in. Finally (lots of construction in downtown
Owen Sound makes it slow getting around) we found our way to Harrison Park and were able to put in there and off we go. It was shallow in places but we managed to maneuver around trees and rocks. It was a very pleasant trip, water fowl and fish jumping around us.

Stay tuned as we continue to explore this area.

Aug 6
Ok, so now we are trying to find a suitable campground to get the jacks down for a month before we head off to the Escapee Escapade in Goshen In. We’re not asking for much, full hook ups (don’t want pump out service because then we have to dump to someone else’s schedule!), satellite friendly, lake or river nearby since we now have a boat and finally, something fairly close to conveniences and all that at a fair price! Well, we have toured 4 different campgrounds that range in price from $500 to $1,100 per month! Ouch, the $1,100 one was parking us in the ‘field transient sites’ at the daily rate of $40/day and discounting the rate to $1,100! Now, how good is that? We don’t want to buy the campground, we just want to rent a site for a month! Most of the cg’s are shabby looking at the entrance and tight roads with grass sites! We wouldn’t mind paying a little more per month if we received some benefit like cement pads and a patio. Instead, we get the privilege to park on the grass and step out into the mud where the previous tenant had their patio mat! I guess this is competition for the cottage industry!

Aug 9
We moved out of Larry’s and into our present campground. The drive up was uneventful except for the construction.

This one is near perfect! If the roads were a bit wider for maneuvering, all would be good. The entrance was clean, the campground is clean, no shabby units or clutter lying around and the price is reasonable! Now if was only on the water!

Aug 11
We toured around Owen Sound for a bit and there is a lot to do here so we’ll be exploring some more!

Heading Home

July 22
Moving day and it is pouring rain! We drove in and out of rain showers all day, all the way to Woodstock. We arrive at the campground and were lucky enough to set up in the rain! By the time we were done, the sun was shining, go figure.

After we were set up, we met up with Dave & Zen, our long time friends since London, before we moved to Toronto in 1980.

July 23
We’re on our own today so we toured around Woodstock, the Covered Bridge Potato Chip factory in Hartland and of course, the world’s longest covered bridge in Hartland. The evening was spent sharing stories, laughs and having a good time with old friends.

July 24
Today, we thought we would drive over to Millville to see the reported (according to the tourist info) world largest maple leaf! Huh! I think that was misinformation! Not much to see but the drive over the ridge was nice except for the road construction! On our way we saw a covered bridge route sign and thought we would go find it! Well, we started out down a gravel road that became narrow and very rocky and then muddy so we decided that it was not for us. On the circular route back to Woodstock, we see another covered bridge sign and thought maybe it was the other entry to the first one so down we go. This road is better but again narrows and we are soon at a cross road but it is an ATV and snowmobile trail! Yikes how do we get ourselves into these circumstances? Still no covered bridge in site so get us outta here!

July 25
We have a tee time tomorrow to play golf with Dave & Zen! We haven’t played much so we need a driving range to work the rust out of our swings so not to embarrass ourselves too much. Dave takes us to their golf course and range to hit some balls and give Mack a few tips. All is good now, just need some luck and blue skies tomorrow!

Back to Dave & Zen’s for dinner and an evening of card games and more laughs. A great time had by all.

July 26
Golf day or should I say it was golf course irrigation day! Some of us teed off on one and the skies opened up and down poured – where’s the shelter? Ok, so we crowded into the unused starters hut on the first tee! That was a sight! After a few minutes, the rain was gone and some sunshine sneaked through and that was what it was like for the whole way around, 3-4 minutes of rain then some sun! We all had a good time anyway and it was a nice golf course with great views! After dinner and more laughs, we said our farewells once more.

July 27
Moving day again! We had a short drive to Edmundston, NB, parked in the visitors centre and walked around the downtown, cute city. Off to WalMart there and settle for the night. Another trailer was behind us and asked for help with his electric brakes. He had come from Labrador and a trucker informed him that he did not have any brake lights. After checking the wiring of the brake control unit and checked the fuses, it was a bad connection at the trailer/truck plug! Isn’t it always the most logical and simplest answers that fix the problems!

July 28
We move onto a campground about 30 minutes from Quebec City. We arrive early and get set up but soon the rains chase us inside for the remainder of the day!


July 29
We decide to follow the ? mark for an information centre. The closest one took us to Levis. The information centre did not have any English info! What happened to this bilingual country? Do only the predominately English provinces have to provide both French and English information? Enough on my soap box!

We decided that since the ferry was right here, we’d take it instead of driving down to the bridge and having to find parking in Quebec City! It was a good decision! Soon we are prowling around the old town of Quecbec City, up to see the Chateau Frontenac and of course, browse through some of the shops. It was a great day!

July 30
Up early so we can get through Montreal before the rush hour of Friday on a long weekend! We got through Montreal with no delays and decided to do lunch on the west side. We see a Parks Canada historical site and thought that it would be a good place to pull into to have a break and lunch! Wrong! It took us down some very narrow streets we would have to make a right turn that I know we couldn’t do! So, took a left which wasn’t much better and ended up on a no exit street so had to make another left with parked cars along the right! Wow, it was tight but thank goodness, the curbs were low and allowed us to get around and out we went!

The rest of the drive to Kemptville where Kristi (our niece) lives was uneventful! We arrived there a little after dinner time, surveyed the turn into her driveway and decided that after we trim a few limbs, we could do it! Whack, whack, snip, snip and we’re backing in. It took a little back and forth but we made it.

Kristi and Cal have a beautiful home, a little bigger than the one they had in Inuvik, NWT! We caught up with their new lives in their new home and traded stories with them on ours.

Aug 1
It is moving day again and back to the Toronto area. We had a great trip to NB and PEI. We’re both exhausted and looking forward to leaving the jacks down for a month before we’re off on another adventure!