Month: September 2008

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Just a Wave

I can’t do justice to the last few days in the few minutes I have left online, so I won’t try at this time. Pictures and stories will follow! Some of the highlights of the past few days:

  • going 300ft underground into a gold mine;
  • experiencing my first nights (note the plural) at Walmart;
  • discovering just how bad are Miranda’s sensors;
  • dealing with the POs idiocy when it comes to RV plumbing;
  • and a full recount of just how I inadvertently perfectly recreated a certain scene in the Robin Williams movie ‘RV’.

For those wanting to follow me on a map, I left Val D’Or yesterday morning and overnighted in Kapuskasing, Ontario. I am presently in Long Lac and heading for Nipigon, several hours away hence why I can’t take greater advantage of this great connection! Northern Ontario, for those who don’t know it, is 90 billion kilometres long, so I have at least another two days left in this land of black spruce, granite cliffs, and clear lakes. I just wish the weather was better so I could enjoy it more.

All is well… and I still have my sense of humour.

More will come from further down the road! 🙂

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On the Road

For a change of pace (*g*) more photos, less bla bla bla.

Miranda at the Ottawa Municipal Campground

Miranda at the Ottawa Municipal Campground

We left this site at the Ottawa Municipal campground mid-morning on Thursday September 4th. Right on ‘schedule.’ I gassed up (oh, the cost of freedom these days) and without much fanfare made my way through most of the places I’ve called home for eight of these past ten years. Highway 105 north was the hardest as the string of familiar hamlets passed behind me, to be seen again, perhaps, in a very distant future: Alcove, Farrelton, Kazabazua, Low, Blue Sea, Gracefield… Maniwaki was a non-event, but the town has changed since I was there last, perhaps four years ago.

The drive was difficult because of construction, but the weather made up for that.

Finally, we reached the first major milestone of this first leg of my journey:

Grand-Remous, Quebec

Grand-Remous, Quebec

Loosely translated, turning right meant civilization and turning left meant heading into a northern frontier of mining towns, granite cliffs, and forests of black spruce.

I turned left.

When I reached the southern access point of Verendrye Park I was glad to almost be done driving for the day. It was getting close to mid-afternoon and my 250km done that morning had worn me down. So, I selected to stay at Lac Roland, 40km from the entrance and right on the 117. Cost for the night was the same as when I tent, 15$ and change, since I didn’t want hookups.

Then came the taking of a calculated risk that will have a lot of people saying “YOU IDIOT!”, but I repeat that it was calculated, and it paid off big time.

I drove all the way to the end of Lac Roland campground, right to a dead end, with no way out except backing up about a half kilometre. Or doing what I did. I unhooked the toad, and moved it onto a site, then I manoeuvred Miranda into that site, too. That took some precise driving, but I’m actually more comfortable operating her in reverse than I am the toad. The square shape makes it very easy to know exactly where I am and what I’m doing.

Lac Roland, VĂ©rendrye Park, Quebec

Lac Roland, VĂ©rendrye Park, Quebec

Why did I do such a seemingly foolish thing?

The view outside my study, of course:

View from study at Lac Roland

View from study at Lac Roland

If I had played it ‘safe’ I would have taken the first pull through I found where all the RVers gathered last night and partied hard, instead of being quietly ensconced in a private site with a great view.

And I wouldn’t have had the chance to gain so much confidence about my Miranda driving abilities. Driving out of there was actually tougher than backing in!

Next order of business was dinner. Mmm, charred bird!

BBQed chicken that tasted better than it looked

BBQed chicken that tasted better than it looked

(It was very tasty!)

This wonderful device was very useful for doing a preliminary cleanup on the greasy BBQ tools:

Outdoor Shower

Outdoor Shower

I then set up the computer and settled in to watch a couple of eps of a favourite show since it was way too early to sleep, but I was too tired to do anything useful.

Went to bed ridiculously early last night, so was up ludicrously early this morning. It was pouring rain and damp inside, so I decided not to hang around. Next stop: L’Abitibi.

Route 117, Quebec

Route 117, Quebec

Which is where I am now, parked outside the Canadian Tire in Val D’Or making full use of a free wi-fi signal I’m picking up. I have errands to run and am debating whether to leave the coach here and set off in toad, or to go off coach and all. There are so many RVs here that I suspect I’ll be able to get away with spending the night here. I hope so. The other place I have lined up is 25$ per night and that doesn’t include hookups!

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Order and Chaos

This entry is about organization.

I wanted to attend one last writing group meeting last night and decided at the last minute to just go for the whole thing even though I had said I was just going to pop in. I therefore wanted to be on time, but I needed to change first. I became incredibly frustrated, even angry, that I couldn’t quickly find what I needed to get out the door quickly.

I had just spent a year where I was almost perfectly organized, especially in regards to my wardrobe. To go from sorted drawers to piles everywhere was depressing. My home hadn’t always been neat. *laughs* There were often piles everywhere. But I could, whenever I wanted to, restore order very quickly. Everything in those piles had a home. If there is anything I learned over the past year it is that neatness is physical state while organization is a mental one. Someone who is very organized isn’t necessarily neat, and someone who is very neat isn’t necessarily organized. I had been disorganized AND messy my entire life until I realised just how much of my life had been wasted because of this. I finally clued into the number of things I had missed out on because I had more important things to do… like procrastinating on getting myself organized and neatened up. I decided that, once and for all, I would purge what needed to be purged and organize the rest. I succeeded. And then I moved into the RV where, that first night, it seemed that I would have to start all over.

A friend said to me that she wouldn’t worry about getting the RV all sorted out before leaving; that she would just chuck everything into a big bin to deal with later. I’ve been doing that my whole life. I’m tired of living like that, in a sort of organizational limbo. The last thing I wanted to do was spend my month on the road ‘getting organized’ again! My things had been organized in the house; it was just a matter of reorganizing them to suit the setup of my new home.

So, Tuesday’s order of business was most definitely clothing. The load done at the laundromat on Monday and dried outside was ready to be put away. I looked at my wardrobe and realised that perhaps it isn’t suitable for a bank of drawers, but that’s okay. I prefer to hang my clothes! 95% of my clothes are hangable! I like sliding open a closet door and seeing all my clothes hung neatly with like colours together. Why try to reinvent that system when it has worked so well for me? So, I hung up everything again. It’s a bit tight in there, but everything fits since I’ll rotate out of season clothes. I then used the drawer underneath for under things and sorted the rest of the stuff into the extra Ikea Kassette boxes. Since I don’t have more clothes than I actually wear, I only needed one box per category: scarves, shawls, camis, summer pjs, winter pjs, regular socks, cold weather socks… It’s not as nice as opening a drawer, but the boxes can only stack two high, so it’s not a huge hassle to take a box out of there. I filled a larger see through bin with pants. My running wear went into a basket. I used what I had and it worked! Today, I was able to go to work without having to pull an outfit together frantically on Tuesday night.

Tonight, I don’t have anything to organize. Put away, yes, but not organize. I still have a ton of stuff to do, but it won’t be as overwhelming as the last few nights have been. I started with several loads of laundry (one nice thing about laundromats is that you can do several loads at once!) and then move on to putting away the last odd bits left so that I can drive off safely tomorrow. I still need to carve out more space for groceries, but I can find everything now. So, I’m good to go.

What I am most surprised to discover is just how much I have come to need that sense of control over my life. Having lived in chaos for most it, hiding it relatively well from my peers, the new organized me found a lot of free time once she wasn’t dealing with stuff.

To have gone from the mess on Saturday to this is absolutely astounding. I found room for everything. Go figure.

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Trials and Tribulations

I don’t have any pictures to share at this time because my desktop computer isn’t set up and hooking up the camera to the laptop is too fussy for the short time frame I have. So, enjoy all the bla bla bla and come back later for pics. 🙂

Oh, I’ve written soooo much about the last almost week, but I need to save some material for a book! 🙂

Here are some highlights from the past six days.

Friday August 29, 2008

  • I successfully backed up into a busy street at rush hour as I couldn’t very well sleep at my mechanic’s. No one was injured during this impressive feat of driving. Thank you to David for stopping traffic!
  • After spending several hours loading STUFF into the RV, I took off for a sports arena a few blocks from the house to spend my first night as an urban boondocker. The cats took to the RV immediately and slept good nights. Mom was too exhausted to fuss and had a good night, too. The arena wound up being quiet and dark. I didn’t suffer for lack of 120V current and I really, really, really enjoyed being able to take a hot shower!


Saturday August 30, 2008

  • Up at six, worked non stop, got the house emptied and the RV stuffed by noon, right on schedule.
  • Was screwed over by VidĂ©otron one last time.
  • Arrived at the campground absolutely drained and overwhelmed.
  • Circled my loop, planned my entry into the site, came back, pulled straight into an empty site, and unhooked my toad, which is where:

Rae learns a very important lesson about towing

Watch where your feet are. The tow bars are heavy and purple toes are NOT a fashion statement.

Toes weren’t broken, so I ignored the throbbing pain down there and moved the toad out of the way. Moved the RV back, forward, and back again, getting it into the campsite in one shot. Eyewitness testimony states that I seemed to have been doing it my entire life. Which is where:

Rae discovers that backing up perfectly (in one try) into a campsite is actually not the most important consideration at that time

As it turned out, I had circled my loop and reentered another one. I was in the wrong site. But, in my defense, both sites had neighbours with a blue tent AND both sites were of the same shape as I’d been told to look for!

A very nice park official checked to see if the site would be available for the five nights I was staying. It was. I could stay.

The RV was stuffed to the gills, I was overwhelmed, and just about burst into tears when I saw how much work I had ahead of me. So, I said *expletive deleted* that and went out for a nice dinner during which I formulated a plan of attack.

I slept the sleep of the dead. Never mind that the mattress is really too thick and that I can barely roll over. I was on my own mattress with my feather duvet and pillows. The cats were by my side. I could hear crickets outside. The wind was whispering a lullaby. I was home.

Sunday August 31, 2008

I slept so late I was disoriented upon waking up. I mean, the day is half gone by the time 9:30 arrives!

I hadn’t been able to plug in my RV on Saturday since the prongs on my cord didn’t match the holes in the electrical post. So, I just dragged the coffee maker and toaster out onto the picnic table.

A few hours later, as order begins to emerge from the chaos that was the basement:

Rae finds something that no longer makes it necessary for her to run an extension cord from her electrical post to the coffee maker set on a picnic table.

She believes it’s a ‘cheater adapter.’ Possibly. Whatever it is called, it’s an adapter. She now has 15AMP service!

One of the most useful things I did on Sunday was label a tote TOWING and put in it all the odd bits that I use for towing.

I took the afternoon off to get organizational stuff at Wal-mart, then I head off to a friend’s for a Labour Day BBQ. Her mom gave me a hibachi she had lying around in the shed and I am now able to char my own barbecue sauced bird!

Monday September 1, 2008

I was spending the day with a friend so I woke up early and attacked the basement. I got it so well sorted and organized that it is no longer stuffed to the gills!

At some point during this day:

Rae has a real light bulb moment involving a too highly chlorinated fresh water holding tank

“Gee the water is caustic. I can’t wait to empty the tank and put in fresh water. Waitaminute. The tank is only a third full. Maybe I can use the new hose I bought yesterday at Walmart at a major discount and top up the tank with fresh, unchlorinated, water and dilute what’s left?”

Tuesday September 2, 2008

WORK! I finalised all my files and opened cases and packed since I knew Wednesday would be a wash.

A separate entry will follow about the evening.

Which brings us to today, Wednesday September 3, 2008

I did some real work, spent some time on line, shed copious tears, received and gave a ton of hugs, and left the way I’ve always dreamt of leaving a place, with a tug of regret.

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Settling In

I’m going to have to start to compose posts that I can just cut and paste into Blogger during my stolen moments of online time!

More about the last few days will follow, but I will say that I’m settling in nicely, learning A LOT, eager to get on the road, already nervous about how the winter is going to be, and collecting lots of amusing anecdotes.

Topics to look forward to:

  • Rae learns a very important lesson about towing.
  • Rae discovers that backing up perfectly (in one try) into a campsite is actually not the most important consideration at that time.
  • Rae finds something that no longer makes it necessary for her to run an extension cord from her electrical post to the coffee maker set on a picnic table.
  • Rae has a real lightbulb moment involving a too highly chlorinated fresh water holding tank.

And more!

Stay tuned! 🙂