Less than a week after we picked up the trailer and truck, and we were off for our first trip.
The first day we drove to a little RV park just outside Niagara Falls Ontario. The drive up went well – the truck and trailer combo was surprisingly easy to drive. Luckily the spot Vicki had booked us in the park was a pull-through, meaning my pathetic back up skills wouldn’t be tested. It was a full-service site, with electric, water and sewer hookups. But it was also in a wide open field with just a few scattered trees. There was another part of the site that was more wooded, and obviously the older part. It had a street or two of spots for RV travelers, then an another street or two of spots for permanently parked RVs., with gardens, decks, and lawnmowers.
Our first night we thought Gizmo had escaped the trailer, and we split up and went around the site calling for him. I encountered two very nice couples, and they recruited their children and they went around looking for him as well. Eventually we discovered Gizmo was just hiding under the table. Luckily the kids were modern kids so I just had to tell one and she texted the other, but Vicki and I brought the dogs on a walk by the nice couples. In a first, afterwards Vicki complained that the two women were so talkative that she could barely get a word in edgewise. I, however, learned a lot about driving a trailer, including the fact that one of the two men was more scared about it than I am.
The next day, we met up with Alyssa, James and Maeby – first they came to see the trailer, then we went to the Butterfly Conservatory. It was gorgeous, but Maeby found them a little overwhelming when they kept trying to land on her.
Afterwards, they went back to their hotel room and Vicki cooked dinner in the trailer. The relatively big kitchen compared to other trailers we’ve looked at, or the motor home we rented was a selling feature, but I still don’t think we could both work on dinner at the same time. At least that’s my excuse for now.
The next day we met the three of them in Niagara On The Lake (NOTL). As we often do in NOTL, we mostly just wandered up and down the shops on the main drag. It was too cold for the park or the lake front, but Maeby loves the Christmas Store. And I love the chocolate shop.
Afterwards, Vicki and I went to dinner at this brew pub that was in the middle of nowhere, in an industrial estate near the campsite but with no signs of life on a Sunday night. As is unfortunately too common, their beer menu was heavy on the IPAs, but there was a nice amber lager that wasn’t too bad.
Evenings in the trailer are very cozy and companionable – we sit together reading, crocheting, petting the dogs and just generally relaxing. Lovely.
After one long drive and a couple of nights of RV life, we’d discovered a couple of problems:
- The shower leaked. It took a bit of effort to diagnose where the water was coming from, but after we figured it out it was the shower, it wasn’t hard to figure out there wasn’t any caulk on where the shower pan meets the walls. After a trip to Canadian Tire to buy some silicon caulk, we got that fixed and the leak went away.
- The trim around the base of the benches in the dinette kind of popped out. We’d tried to glue it, but it didn’t fit very well. I think we’re going to have to pull it mostly off and reglue it and put a trim strip with some large headed tacks or nails. Oh well, something for the off-season..
- The plastic piece that prevents the bottom of the sliding door of the bathroom from flapping about broke in transit. It looked like it had the wrong screws put in it. I found a very similar piece on amazon yesterday and I’ve ordered a new one.
- The shower glass has a clip thing that’s supposed to keep it from sliding around, but in two trips it’s come undone. It feels like it’s really solidly in there, but it’s come undone twice. We’ve got to figure out some way to keep it from popping open.
- The dinette table doesn’t really have any way to prevent it from sliding down. There is a thing that turns and looks like it’s supposed to clip into something but there’s nothing there. Another one to figure out in the off season.
The next day, we packed up and hitched up and moved on to Darlington Provincial Park (DPP). Actually before we left, I pulled out of the spot, and then tried backing into it. Only took a few tries. Maybe I’m getting the hang of this? Or maybe not.
We chose DPP because it’s about 10 minutes drive from Liane’s home in Whitby and 10 minutes drive from Alyssa’s home in Bowmanville. I can anticipate spending a lot more time there in the future because of the convenience.
DPP is brilliant because the sites are semi-isolated from each other by trees. The sites have electricity, but no water or sewage, although there is a dump station on the way out. We’d planned ahead and filled up the fresh water tank before we left the first place. Supposedly the sites at DPP aren’t pull-through, but ours kind of was. Only two problems – there was a tree between the road and there was a rather large mud puddle right where I originally parked. But after I parked and unhitched, I realized I was too far from the electrical hookup for my cable to reach, so I had to hitch up again and move the trailer, which luckily moved us away from the mud puddle. I didn’t realize it until just this moment that RV electrical cables have different plugs on each end, so I couldn’t chain two of them together. I guess I’ll have to see if anybody wants my second electrical cable and put a proper 30 amp extension cord on my Amazon wishlist. I also decided I want some of those semi-circular ramps to help level the trailer side to side, after the blocks of wood I’d wedged below the tires ended up sinking and tilting.
The park was nice, and we took the dogs for a couple of walks around and found a nice beach area and a bit of a playground.
Alyssa, James and Maeby came to visit on our second day at DPP. We had a bit of time together, and they presented us with two art works that Maeby had made. They now have pride of place in our RV, right in front of the picture window in the kitchen area. Afterwards, we went out to dinner together at a chain restaurant in Bowmanville. So nice to be able to leave the trailer set up and just take the truck.
The next day Liane, Nash and Gray came to visit. The boys were typical 8 and 10 year olds in that they decided they wanted dogs, an RV trailer, and a pickup truck. We also spent some time playing at the playground and on the beach. I’m not sure if the boys are budding geologists or just destructive, but they sure enjoyed using big rocks to smash smaller rocks open. Maybe they need a geologist’s hammer for Christmas?
Up until now, the weather had been pretty nice, but we could see virga and rain coming towards us. We got some rain off and on that night and also the next day as we were packing up, and using the waste dump, and a bit on the drive home. Glad we didn’t get that when the kids were visiting, at least.
The drive home was pretty uneventful. Because it was basically the combination of both the previous drives, I had thought I was going to have to ask Vicki to drive for part of it, but I ended up driving the whole way because my pain level seemed pretty managable. The only hard part was backing into my driveway. I think it went easier than the first time, but I wouldn’t call myself an expert.
By the way, if you drive a diesel vehicle, you need to download the Mudflap app. On the way home, we refueled at a stop that takes this app, and they normally charge $4.00/gallon, but we only paid $3.53/gallon. If you do sign up, use my referral code https://download.mudflapinc.com/invite/pa442950 and we both get a $10 credit.
Sadly, it’s now early October and just about every campground is closing, so reluctantly we decided it’s time to winterize and put the trailer away for the season. But that’s for another post.