Day 1, June 27th, we left Barb’s and headed off on our adventure! Our first stop was a gas station south of Barrie (we both got hand cramps having to hold the pump so long, no surprise there). Our second stop was a gas station, LOL, which we thought was going well until we had a mechanical problem with the pump, which was how we discovered that the gas had overflowed and hit our running shoes. Okay, to be fair, maybe we weren’t paying attention.
Side note: the cost of gas the FIRST day was almost $800. At first we were panicking wondering if we have made the wrong choice given the expense. However, we quickly consoled ourselves using “Montreal Math”. By our calculations, we made $20,000 when registering the vehicle, so really we’ve still made $19,200, giving us 24 more days of free travel at this rate. If you don’t know what Montreal Math is, it comes from a video on YouTube called “Shopping Math is the New Free”, a must-watch for all over-spenders. The ‘Montreal’ piece came from Lori starting to use this math on an extravagant shopping trip in Montreal for her 50th.
Let’s talk for a moment about our first day driving. While we had driven RVs in the past, we certainly weren’t expert drivers of a Class A. However, in full female fashion we supported each other in our driving efforts. The passenger is always a key part of the drive, being the second set of eyes, especially to make sure we were not going over the “white line” on the side of the road. This is even more challenging the further north we drive, as Northern Ontario seems to lack adequate shoulders, and by adequate we mean NONE in certain areas. Oh, and did we mention the straight drop off the non existent shoulder into an abyss of forest? We are hoping we get used to this quickly, otherwise this is going to be a long and stressful journey!
The 549km trip to our first overnight stop was long and stressful, with rain and construction, so we were very happy once we arrived at Serpent River campground in Spragge Ontario. We had a smooth set up and a “winner winner” chicken dinner, which Barb brought from home – thanks Jim! What we neglected to do however, was check the weather. We left Toronto and it was hot and humid, so why would any other place in Ontario be any different? Hmm . . . there is a new definition of “freezing your ass off” when you use the RV toilet in the chill of the morning; it was 5 degrees outside and not much warmer inside. Bloody Hell!
Our morning goal is to pack up and get moving by 8am. Seems simple enough: unhook from power & water, retract stabilizers & slides, and do your final check around the unit to make sure all is well. Well, all was not well, as our neighbour saw that our back slide awning & cover did not retract properly with the slide itself. So Barb pushed the slide out halfway and Lori crawled onto the roof from the RV ladder at the back of the unit. There were twigs in the awning/cover unit of the slide and Lori thought she could just remove the twigs and voila the slide would fix itself. So Lori is up on the roof removing twigs, causing the awning to snap back quickly, but thank God she has lightening reflexes and was able to get her hand out in time. Whew! So we thought we had the problem fixed. NOPE, the slide is now going in crooked! This is NOT good. So we pushed out again, and recruited the neighbour Aldo and the local handyman Brian to help two damsels in distress on DAY 2!!! Brian got his ladder (because we chose to leave our ladder at home because….why in heaven’s name would we need it in the first 6 weeks….) and went up, and lo and behold – it wasn’t just a few twigs but a damned bird’s nest, including a dead bird! Brian did a great job cleaning out the mechanical motor and we were able to finally get the slide in with the help of Aldo and Brian pushing the one end that was retracting slower. Excellent work all around and we were OFF 2 hours later than expected, but with the slide fixed!
We travelled to Wawa Ontario to our first Harvest Host (HH) and boondocking experience at a blueberry farm. For those that are not familiar with either term: boondocking means parking with no electricity & water etc., typically not on an official RV or camping site. Harvest Host is an RV membership that provides unlimited no-fee overnight stays. These are usually at wineries, farms, golf courses, or personal properties. Our drive to the HH Algoma Highland Wild Blueberry Farm and Winery was relatively smooth, however we were rattled by the rough start of the day and arriving late at our destination. Thank goodness our location for the night was excellent and the owner Trevor was welcoming and over-the-top accommodating, even willing to go into the winery outside retail hours to give us wine for the night. Because all was NOT well with the back slide……
As we started pushing it out for the night, it pushed out crooked. So, in it went and we decided (quite wisely) to not use it again until we got it fixed. What does that really mean other than Barb’s king bed doesn’t open and she needs to crawl in and sleep sideways against the window. We also have NO access to clothes. No socks/shorts/tops/pants/underwear etc. All locked in their wonderful closets and drawers blocked by the slide. Now for those RVers out there, yes we should have put stuff in the overhead cupboards, but we were saving these spots for when we landed in Calgary and really loaded up from my house. Ah well, the things you learn on the way.
We started making phone calls to find a place that would fix our slide-out and we quickly learned two things. 1. Dealers take care of their preferred customers first. This means in the spring, people who have bought units from them get priority treatment. The places we called all told us it would be 2-3 weeks before they could get to us because of this. 2. Holiday weekends and high season are NOT the times to have issues requiring repair. This created a lot of stress for us as we: (a) only had a 10-day permit to travel to Calgary; (b) had to stop for a safety certification for registration in Alberta; and (c) had to have Lori’s house packed up by July 11th. Under this pressure we decided to call a place that was days ahead of us in a larger city after the long weekend, and pleaded with them to get us in to fix our slide. We managed to get a spot booked in Brandon Manitoba.
The morning of June 29th, we were travelling from Wawa to Dorian Ontario, staying at the HH Canyon Country Co-Op store. We had a good sleep in Wawa but woke up to heavy fog, with Environment Canada warning of extreme danger and to stay off the roads. We got on the road an hour or two late as we waited for some of the fog to lift, but the day went from bad to worse. We had torrential rain and low visibility, construction, multiple bridge constructions with NO advance warnings, and – NO SHIT – there were guys with stop signs jumping up and down and waving them in the middle of the road to stop people! Unbelievable.
SOOOO . . . we arrived late yet again at our HH destination. Super sketch location on the highway, dumpy store, and uneven gravel/grass area for us to park on. That night we had a huge rainstorm and we were certain our tires were going to sink and we would have trouble getting out in the morning. Good times. Still no change of clothes and no bed for Barb.
The following morning, June 30th, we got up and left Dorian thinking this would be a better day because frankly what more could go awry?? Well, hurricane force winds for one………the drive for both of us was “HAND CRAMPING” as we had a death grip on the steering wheel, like the hand cramping at the friggin’ gas pumps!! Well shit! New terminology for us, crosswinds. Wind gusts of only 25 km per hour do feel like 100 when you aren’t used to the full brunt of a wind push against your large vehicle. Another long friggin’ driving day!!! LOL! Why did we think this was a good idea?
We landed at The Ranch in Laclu Ontario which is NW of Kenora. This was another HH with a beautiful lakefront property with 30amp electricity and worth the stress getting here. The owner Don was awesome and owned a security company. He was very impressed with the security system that Bill had installed on the back of our RV. What type of security you ask? We have motion sensor lighting on the back of the RV in case of undesirables. Extra cameras, which we viewed on displays mounted on our dashboard. They are super helpful for backing up and for seeing what is behind us on the road.
Up early on July 1st and heading off to Brandon…..where we hope we will get our slide fixed on Monday. We also hope for great WiFi so we can provide further updates on the slide “issue” and…….yes we are driving on the Friday of a long weekend! Stay tuned.
Once the bugs are out, it should be fun.
The weather here has also been crappy!
See you soon!
This too shall pass . . . . it sounds like you’re learning lots and coping well with what’s being thrown at you. Stay strong and have fun!