Ontario

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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, Vérendrye Park, Quebec

Lac Roland, Vérendrye 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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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 Vidéotron 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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Doin’ the Moho Slalom

I got the tow pins tonight. All I will say about that is that I’m surprised that I’m surprised about how that went down.

Anyhoo, I arrived at Miranda’s parking spot for the last time around 7. I took perhaps fifteen minutes to unload boxes and empty as many of them as I could.

Then, I looked for the magic battery button, but I don’t seem to have one, so I positioned Pommette for a boost. Once I got Miranda going, I manoeuvred her into place for hooking up the toad behind her.

Hooking up was surprisingly easy!

My tow bar is a Blue Ox Aventa II. I would have bought an Aladdin, which is a high end model suitable for towing a small car, but much cheaper than the Aventa II. The Aventa II, also a high end model, could probably tow a Hummer. It’s really huge and heavy, but I like knowing that I could upgrade Pommette to a pickup or SVU one day and still have a tow bar I can use.

The Aventa II is a self-aligning bar. I can’t figure out what’s ‘self-aligning’ about it, but I can say that I was completely hooked up, safety cables and all, in less than 20 minutes. The hardest part was getting the toad lined up perfectly with the coach and at the correct distance. Then, it was just a matter of attaching safety cables and electrical wires. I figured out the wiring on my own. As it turns out, I had to open a thingy under the rig, push in another thingamabob, and then plug the cable into the thingamabob. I’d seen the thingamabob in the rear pass through and had offhandedly guessed that it was part of the towing system, so I was already one step ahead of the game when I couldn’t find a skinny rectangular outlet for the wire.

I’m surprised by how easy it was to hook up the car on my own. There is no way I could have done that with a traditional ‘fixed’ tow bar, the kind with a ball coupler. The only thing I wasn’t able to do was confirm that the brake lights were working on the toad, but since the turn signals were, I didn’t worry.

Then off we went, the very picture of freedom and the antithesis of the current economic climate, LOL!

The drive back to Ottawa was very emotional. I was pretty sure it would be my last time driving up the 416 into a beautiful orange sunset and watching the pastoral landscape slowly become the skyline of the adopted city I will always consider to be my hometown. For all that’s found, something else is lost….

I let Majel the GPS pick the best route to the garage where I would drop off Miranda. She had me go down a narrow residential street that had cars parked down it. The parkers were smart and alternated which side of the road they were on, so I was able to take a serpentine route all the way down. Maybe I’m just tired, but I really got a kick out of doing the moho slalom.

Towing was a piece of cake. It really helps that I could see the car in the backup camera monitor, as well as all the connections. I didn’t notice much of a difference when stopping and starting, even on hills.

I feel positively drained and have to keep reminding myself that this time next week, the first day of my adventure will be just about behind me.

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A Tale of 30 Kilometres

Whew! Miranda’s officially officially mine! I dropped her off at the storage place tonight. This was my first time driving her. Yes, I bought a vehicle without test driving it first. No comments on that, please. 🙂

I looked her over and then decided to take her out onto the street to see if I could tow. Taking a deep breath, I sat down in the pilot’s seat (very, very comfy), adjusted the mirror, inserted a key, and ROAR! My gal came to life! It took me a moment to remember where the parking brake is on such a a vehicle and then we were rolling!

Although I parked her a tad crookedly, I was still reasonably close to the curb, something that was really hard to gauge. I wasted perhaps a half hour trying to hook up my car to the tow bar before realising that I’m missing some pins. I’ll check with my mechanic to see if the pins come with the base plate or the tow hitch. I was happy to discover safety cables in her basement so I didn’t have to go to the back end of Gatineau to pick some up.

Since I couldn’t tow, I moved on to plan B (get someone to pick me up at the storage place) and took off with just Miranda. First obstacle: getting to the end of the street. It’s a fairly wide street, but cars were parked on both sides. I held my breath as I ran the gauntlet, but Miranda and all the cars came through unscathed.

I took it nice and easy and made my way out of the neighbourhood. By the time I got to Island Park Drive, about two and a half kilometres away, I was feeling pretty cocky.

And then came the cyclist.

She was well in her bike lane, I was well in my lane, and the traffic in the opposite direction was also well in its lane. But I wasn’t so sure about the mirror…. I slowed to a crawl as I passed the cyclist. The mirror seemed to miss her and I moved on, keeping an eye backwards, praying that when she passed my blind spot she’d still be on her bike. I soon saw that, of course, she was, and she wasn’t even paying me any mind. I rolled my eyes and continued.

The turn onto Merivale (Merry-vail, not Merry-val-eh, dear Majel!) was a bit awkward, and then I was on Carling, heading for the Queensway. I crossed three lanes to put myself in the correct one. Got to the light at Kirkwood and discovered that there was a utility truck in my lane between myself and the on ramp!!! So, I had to move one lane over in traffic. I put on my turn signal, checked the mirrors, prayed, moved into the second lane, crossed the intersection, passed the crew, and quickly manoeuvred myself back into the third lane to access the ramp.

Whew! I was on the highway!

The rest of the drive was positively uneventful, as I expected highway driving to be. Miranda handles well for her bulk. Of course, I need to get used to braking (I’m not bad at estimating her braking distance needs, though) and the backup camera will be most welcome, but I didn’t feel like an utter nincompoop who had no business driving an RV.

Saturday will bring a new challenge: backing up. 🙂

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Day Eight

Saturday, I was determined to make it home even though it would be a LONG haul. If I didn’t get held up at the border, I was twelve hours from home, give or take a bit depending on the number of stops I took.

At exit 133 on I-95, I took route 17 which led me to I-66 which in turn took me to I-81 which would take me straight to the Ontario/New York border, avoiding DC and Baltimore without adding significantly more time to my journey. I enjoyed this route immensely; it was mostly rural with some services, not too busy, and offered fantastic views. Like on Friday, I took it easy, stopping as needed.

I want to visit all 50 states (as well as all ten provinces and three territories!) before I die and I was thrilled that this trip would take me to the halfway point. I was not expecting to go over the halfway point. As it turned out, the detour meant going through a state that I hadn’t realised I’d be going through, West Virginia. State 26! And that’s not counting Washington DC.

I made it to Syracuse just before 7PM and began to get that second wind I get on road trips that tells me that I’m almost home. As long as the border crossing was quick and painless, I was less then three hours away from my bed.

The crossing turned out to be very quick. “I live in Gatineau, been out of the country 8 days, bought less than 200CDN worth of stuff”, that was it. I was out of there in under two minutes, wait time included.

I stopped for dinner in Brockville, then shot home, praying that I’d have enough gas to get there, which I did.

That’s it. Not a very exciting trip for anyone reading this, I’m afraid, but I had a good time. I’m just glad I like to drive because I averaged 500KM per day of this trip!

Oh, and spring seems to have sprung in my absence! *crossing my fingers*