Month: September 2008

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Running out of Superlatives

Three weeks ago at this time I had just completed my first day on the road and was camped within site of very familiar lac Roland in Quebec’s Vérendrye Park.

Tonight, I can see the Canadian Rockies from my living room window.

I’ve run the whole gamut of emotions these past three weeks, but not once have I shed a tear, and now I can’t stop crying. I am so overwhelmed in the best of senses by this life I have chosen, by this country I was fortunate to be born in, by the variety of its landscapes and the generosity of its people, and by all the opportunities it gives me.

I’m at a really nice park about an hour west of Calgary and will be here for a full week. I hope to visit Banff, Calgary, Canmore, and Drumheller from here while reserving some time to research my mountain crossing, to figure out exactly what town I should use as a base of operations when I get to British Columbia, and to start looking for work.

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Decisions Reached!

Calgary, Banff, Canmore, and Kananaskis country here I come!

I found a campground with full hookups outside of Calgary that has very reasonable weekly rates, so I’m heading there for seven nights!

First though, I’m going to go on the hunt for a new coach battery. Actually two 6V golf cart-type batteries. Faithful reader Croft has voiced what I have thus far avoided staring right in the face: I’m probably looking at an imminent coach battery failure. So, I’m getting that done in Edmonton today (hopefully) and then I’m moving on to Calgary. If I get a late start today, then I’ll stay overnight in Red Deer.

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At Crossroads

Wow. I have to be out of this site by 11AM tomorrow and I have absolutely no idea where I’m going next!!! I really do want to plunk myself down somewhere for a several nights and just breathe before plunging back into working life. I’m a bit distressed that I don’t have the stamina I had when I was 19!

My options for getting to Kelowna, which will be my base of operations in October, are:

1) stick to my original plan and get to BC by way of Red Deer, Calgary, Canmore, Banff, Revelstoke, and Salmon Arm;

2) continue on the Yellowhead and get to BC by way of Jasper stopping in Hinton, Blue River, and Kamloops.

I’m going to get flogged for this, but I am trying to avoid staying in national parks. I don’t care how pretty they are, 45$ a night for camping is highway robbery!!! Even non-hook up sites are exorbitantly priced.

I’m told Banff is a must see place, but I already have a chip on my shoulder about it. I just resent having to pay a premium for going where everyone else goes. I therefore try to find my own out of the way equivalents. No, I have never been to Niagara Falls, either (well, other than as a foetus).

So, technically, that leaves me with a third option, crossing over from southern Alberta via the Crows Nest Pass. But that’s an extra 300km, so not an option I’m seriously considering at this time (although I did once).

Does it really matter which road I choose now? The one I don’t take will be the one I’ll embark on in the spring when I get back on the road again.

I’ve been avoiding making this decision since I started off on this whole insane adventure of mine knowing full well that I would eventually end up in Edmonton one night with no idea of what my next move would be. Let’s see what sort of wise advice the night brings. I’m such a procrastinator. 🙂

And through the night, behind the wheel,
The mileage clicking west,
I’ll think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson, and the rest,
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me,
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.

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Redoing the Electrical Audit

Another thing I did yesterday was redo all my reading about RV electrical systems to figure out why I’m having such a hard time when boondocking more than one night and properly determine what I need to upgrade. Things made sooooo much more sense this time around. For example, I finally figured out why watching a movie through the inverter runs down my batteries. Old timers are going to roll their eyes at me as this is really one of those DOH! moments.

I watch movies on my iMac. The iMac runs at about 100-120 watts. According to my initial energy audit, that meant that it uses at most 1 amp (120w/120v=1a), no more than a light. Therefore, I could definitely run my iMac on the battery for a couple of hours.

(Old timers are going waitaminute…)

Yeah.

What I failed to understand is that the inverter doesn’t really give me 120v power, so I should have been dividing that 120w by 12v, not 120. Meaning that my iMac uses 10 amps!!!

Okay, it’s clear. I can’t run the iMac when boondocking. It’s also the only power hungry thing I’d want to run for any length of time when boondocking. Therefore, my solution for long term boondocking isn’t to upgrade my electrical system but to get a slightly newer laptop that is faster and has a DVD player, a solution costing a few hundred dollars rather than a few thousand. Talk about my getting smarter!

That said, I most definitely need to replace my battery and I won’t even bother getting this one load tested. It has surpassed its lifespan and I doubt the POs did any sort of maintenance on it. So, two new 6V golf cart batteries are on my priority list for this winter, and then I’ll shop for a new-to-me laptop in the spring when I start boondocking again.

At any rate, I quit running the iMac while Walmarting quite a while back as well as running a million lights to either read or embroider as I’ve picked up a new hobby that requires no electricity and very little light. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is so don’t even bother asking. 🙂

Further evidence that I’m getting smarter about all things RV came about when I arrived in Edmonton on Monday night. It was really cold and damp in the rig, but I didn’t turn on the furnace since I was only on 15A service. Then, I actually questioned if the furnace would use as many amps as an air conditioner. I pulled out the manual and learned that the furnace only uses 8A. Add the 1 for the iMac and 1 for a light and I was still at only 10A. Ah, no more shivering. 🙂

Electrical heaters are next on my to-buy list and I’m still debating catalytic heaters. I have really mixed opinions on those.

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Where I’ve Stayed

I haven’t given too many details on the campgrounds in which I’ve stayed because I don’t think it’s wise to give too much information on exactly where I am at the time of posting, so consider this a bit of a catch up edition. 🙂

So, my first campground was the Ottawa Municipal Campground in Ottawa, Ontario.

I maintain that the OMC is Ottawa’s best kept secret. The park feels like it’s deep in nature, but it’s just minutes from the Queensway and from shopping centres in Nepean and Kanata while being about ten minutes from downtown (as long as it’s not rush hour!). Staff is friendly, rules are lax, there’s wi-fi at the laundromat, and the electricity and water are good.

I found this campground using Google.

My second campground was Stillwater RV Park in Nipigon, Ontario.

For the night that I stayed, this place was fantastic. It had 30A pull-thrus, good water, a cheap laundromat, and wi-fi. Even though it’s located right on the highway, the sites are removed enough from it to be quiet. But I’d hate to stay here in the high season as the sites are packed very closely together. Thankfully, the place was practically empty when I stayed.

I found this campground in an old Trailer Life directory the POs left me.

My third campground was Shady Oaks RV Resort & Campground in Sidney, Manitoba.

This was a really nice campground, if you like being in the middle of nowhere (60km to the nearest grocery store!). I had a beautiful spot overlooking the Manitoba prairie and shaded by oak trees that rained acorns the whole time I was there! Water quality wasn’t very good here (too much iron), but I wasn’t drinking it, so I didn’t mind. The staff was very friendly. There was wi-fi, but it wasn’t free, and this new service needed a lot of tweaking.

I found this campground by driving down the Transcanada highway and following the signs advertising a park offering full 30A hookups and wi-fi.

Then, I moved on to the Dyer Straits Campground and Cabins (great name!) in Whitecity, Saskatchewan.

I adored this campground. Even though it’s right on the Transcanada and just twelve kilometres from all the shops and services, it feels like you’re in a natural setting. It’s quiet and the owners are friendly and laid back. The water here had the same problem as that at Shady Oaks, but, otherwise, the services were good. Wi-fi isn’t available at all the sites, but the owners are okay with laptop owners coming up to their house after dinner and stretching out on their lawn chairs.

I knew that I wanted to stay in the Whitecity area and was looking at another campground found in my Saskatchewan Official Campgrounds Guide, but Dyer Straits was cheaper.

Next, I stayed at the Gordon Howe Campground in Saskatoon.

This campground is very well located. It feels private and rustic, but is close to downtown and several Saskatoon attractions. I found that there were a lot of rules and I was disappointed to learn that you can only dump during the week! That said, staff was friendly, laundry was cheap (and change for it was given with a smile), and the wi-fi was free (even though they had a service interruption most of the time I was there!). Water pressure at this park is very high, so you need a regulator. They warn you about this several times.

I had planned to stay at another campground right on highway 16 west of Saskatoon, but didn’t have specific directions to get there. So, upon arriving in Saskatoon, I followed little brown signs showing a trailer until I got to what looked like a dead end as I wound up at a sports arena parking lot. Just before deciding to cut my losses and try again to find the other park, I saw rigs off in the distance behind trees and realised that the road forked out to the left to the campground entrance. I’m glad things worked out this way as this campground was a much better choice for my purposes than would have been one several kilometres out of town.

Which brings me to here, the Rainbow Campground in Edmonton.

Meh. This campground was obviously my best choice for Edmonton, but it’s ludicrously expensive for 15A service with no water! And you have to pay 10.50$ per day for internet access! The gates close at 11PM sharp, so this isn’t the place to stay if you want to experience Edmonton’s nightlife. That said, it’s fairly conveniently located and fairly quiet. I’m right at the entrance and in front of the men’s washrooms, positioned here because I have a toad. They only allow one motorized vehicle per site, so I have to park my toad somewhere else. This is the only site where there is a ‘somewhere else’ close by: right across the way in front of the men’s washrooms. 🙂 I do find that getting here is a bit of a pain. My GPS is of absolutely no use and being ‘off Whitemud Drive’ is of only limited use. Depending on where you enter and exit Whitemud Drive, it runs north/south or east/west! So, I always have a hard time figuring out which direction to go to get home.

I found this campground in the Official Alberta Campgrounds guide, and decided on it with a bit of research done in Lloydminster on a limited internet connection.