Setting up in Sauble Falls, we discovered that there are a lot of mosquitos around. There hadn’t been any at the previous two nights, but we should have expected it. Good thing we’d brought both Deep Woods Off and Coleman 100% Deet. The second one is harking back to my backpacking days, when Muskol was the only thing that really worked.
We had two nights at Sauble, and the first one was basically set up and go to bed early. The friendly campers in the spot next to us played Corn Hole and sat around their fire until all hours of the night, so we kept the windows shut on that side of the camper.
Early the next morning, the camp host stopped by and gave us a paper copy of that map, and a news letter about local day trips. I’d originally thought we’d spend our day touring the local lighthouses. But after taking the dogs for a walk up to see the falls, we just sort of vegged out around the trailer, Vicki mostly inside, and me and the dogs outside in our new camp chairs. Vicki doesn’t like to cover herself with Deet the way I do, so I was perfectly comfortable out there in the mosquitos.
On our walk around, we got to talking to one of the other campers and found out that the ferry to Manitoulin Island, the Chi-Cheemaun, can be very picky about the lengths of your combined truck and trailer. And I thought back to when I’d booked the ferry ticket I’d just sort of guestimated the full length. I dug out my way too short tape measure and figured that based on kicking lines in the dirt at each tape measure length, we were actually 50 feet long instead of the 46 feet I’d booked.
I tried calling the ferry company but it was after hours, and so I left a message on their voice mail and sent an email. And I worried all night. Early the next morning, I got a call back from them, and it the person on the phone said that the ferry was fully booked, and there was a good chance we wouldn’t be allowed to board. Ok, now I’m really worried. I decided we needed to get there as early as we could, so we packed up early and headed to Tobermory.
And just because it’d been too long since our last disaster, we discovered that the running lights on the trailer weren’t lit. Fortunately the important stuff (brake lights, turn signals, trailer brakes) were all working. The rear camera on the trailer was cutting in and out, but that had happened last time we’d travelled with kayaks and bikes in the bed of the truck so I don’t know if that means it wasn’t getting any power, or if the wireless signal was being attenuated by the bikes and boats.
When we got to the ferry terminal, the guy there just measured our rig (I think they just had marking on the ground, rather than pulling out a tape measure) and said it was 51 feet long. He made us pay another couple of bucks, and directed us to the correct line. He also noticed my two-four of Molson Export in the bed of the truck, and jokingly said he’d have to confiscate that. I said there were cold ones in the fridge if he wants a couple of them. He laughed and said they weren’t allowed to.
Ok, now we had some time to kill before the ferry, so I spent a lot of time diagnosing the problem with the running lights. Or at least I tried to. When we first bought the truck and the trailer, we got all the way home from the RV place (which had involved some thruway traffic) before we discovered that we didn’t have *most* of the functions from the 7 pin hitch plug – no electric brakes, no brake signals, I think one of the turn signals was working, but also no running lights. I used my pathetic skills with a multimeter to determine that there was no power coming from the truck on those pins. After taking it back to the dealership twice, both times which they said it was working fine, we finally put our foot down and demanded they fix it, the morning we were supposed to leave for our first trip. It turns out that each time we’d taken the truck back to the dealer, they’d hooked it up to their own flatbed trailer (not a RV trailer) WITH THE 4 PIN HITCH PLUG, and pronounced it working. This time the owner of the used truck dealer took it to a guy he knew who worked at a muffler shop, and that guy determined the problem was some blown fuses. I pretty much decided that the truck dealer didn’t know what they were talking about and tried to avoid using them for maintenance.
But anyway, based on that, I bought two boxes of assorted fuses, but somehow I didn’t get the ones that Ram uses. I mean, the Ram uses a bunch of different types of fuses, even using 3 different styles of fuse for the same amperage. I have no idea why they’d do that other than shear bloody mindedness. And the 3 fuses that seem like were most related to my problem were not the standard blade type fuses. So trying to replace fuses to see if it helped was out. Instead I just pulled those three fuses and reseated them. I was going to pull out the multimeter and test if there was any power coming on the various pins of the 7 pin hitch plug, but that’s when the ferry showed up and it was time to get ready to load up.
We’d been dealing with mist off and on when we left Sauble, although it was quite sunny while waiting for the ferry. But before we left the dock, it started to get misty again and by half way through the ride we could barely see the islands around us. Otherwise the ferry ride was uneventful, although the food they served was about half as good as what we got on BC Ferries. Also, when you leave the car deck, there are signs showing you which level and sector you’re on, but when you come down the stairs to the car deck, there are no signs! You have to open the door and look at the sign on the other side. Fortunately there are only two car decks, and we were second from front, so it wasn’t that hard to find.
By the time we got off the ferry, we were going in and out of rain. The private park we were booked (Providence Bay) into wasn’t anything special, but it wasn’t bad either. The Starlink was complaining about how obscured the antenna was.
We set up as quickly as we could between rain showers, and eventually it stopped. That allowed us to take the boys for a walk along the boardwalk on the beach across the road. But it continued to rain off and on so we mostly had an evening in the camper.
Next day it was still raining off and on, and we packed up when we got a break in the weather. We drove off Manitoulin Island to the north, and drove through some of the prettiest scenery I’ve ever seen. Just gorgeous. It rained off and on, but the hardest it rained was when we arrived at our second private campground, Carol’s. Like the previous one, this one was recommended by this tourism pamphlet thing we used as the basis for planning this trip. When we pulled in, we almost pulled right out. It looks like the epitome of one of those check-by-jowl campsites where you can’t look out any window without seeing a bunch of people a few feet away. It also immediately started pouring rain. I was tired because of dog troubles last night, and the driving, so I said we’re staying at least one night, maybe we’ll pull up stakes and find somebody better tomorrow. We unpacked as well as we could in the pouring rain, but we didn’t unhitch, didn’t hook up the sewer hoses, and didn’t unpack the Blackstone. A hour or two later, the rain seemed like it was well and truly gone, and with a nice view of the lake and blue skies, it didn’t look so bad. Maybe we will stay two nights. At least it’s got full hookups. I think tomorrow we’d like to go see Science North and maybe the Big Nickel.
It’s only 6:30 pm, but I’ve had enough writing today. Tune in for the next installment.