Day 3

Day 3 and we were feeling really confident! This day would take us across the northern part of the
state of Michigan. You never realize how big a state is until you drive for 9 hours and still don't get
to the end of it. The weather has been sunny and unseasonably warm for mid September. The temperatures hit the mid 30's and we had to run the Air Conditioner for a bit. it got cool enough overnight to make sleeping comfortable without the A/C.

That meant we were passing just to the north of the "Big foot capital of the world". We also passed a town that said they were the “Brown Bear capital of America” and numerous Deer and moose crossing signs. My camera was ready!! Sadly, no wild critters were seen on this day

Apart from slight glimpses of Lake Superior, our drive was through tree lined roads the entire day. Very scenic as Mother Nature was starting to show her fall colors.

We stopped for the night just before the Wisconsin border at a beautiful park with a view to one of the many small bays off of Lake Superior.

Go Time and Best Laid Plans

After all of the planning and research it was time to go. The fun thing about travelling in an RV is that you can not cast your plans in stone: There are way too many moving parts to control everything. Or maybe it was just because it was our first big trip and we had no idea what to expect. 

Finally, the big day was here!! 

I thought we would be getting away around 7:00 am but we took our time and made sure we had everything we needed before blast off. The car was one of the last things to be dealt with. We got it on the dolly and strapped it down tight. \when we started out Rick said he could not feel the car behind. I guess that is a testament to the power of the big block Ford engine in Meander but it was a huge stress factor as well. We could not see the car behind us either so we relied on shadows to tell us it was still there. In the early stages of planning the trip Rick had a nightmare about towing the car. In his dream the he felt a bump and crunch and then the car passed the RV. During the first part of the trip I think every time a little blue car passed us his nerves jumped! 

Our first change in plans happened almost as soon as we started on the road. We decided to avoid the Toronto traffic and take the exit to Lindsay/Peterborough. Once we got off the 401 and drove north for about an hour Rick asked me how to get to Perry Sound from where we were. I told him I had no idea....I had not planned that route. Our adventure is off to a great start!

We traveled up through the country towards Peterborough and Orillia and then to Parry Sound where we spent our first night. The trip was largely uneventful but I know I spent most of the day staring out the window looking for the car’s shadow. I did not take a single picture that day as my focus was not on what we were passing. I do remember a beautiful park on Lake Simcoe as we made the turn to go around Orillia but not much else.

 I also did not realize how dependent I was on technology. I keep everything on my laptop. Why print when you can store electronically? All of our trip plans, including directions to where we were staying each night, was on my laptop. Ooops! I knew we likely would not have Wifi for most of the trip so it was a serious over site. In my defense, though, our ISP cut off our service a day early so I had no service to do my final review. Sooooo at the start of our second day I realized I did not have directions to where we were staying that night Originally it was going to be at a Walmart in Sault Saint Marie Ontario and then we would cross into the US the next morning. We did stay at a Walmart that night, but it was in Sault Saint Marie Michigan. Since we had to get groceries once we entered the states, this was actually a better plan which put us a couple of hours ahead of schedule the next morning. So sometimes mistakes and over-sites are good things!

Day 2 - The Adventure Continues

Our second day was bright and sunny. We were up early, had breakfast, cleaned up and were
on the road by 8:00 am. Our plan was to go from Parry Sound to Sault Sainte Marie Michigan.
Originally we had planned on staying in Ontario and then making the crossing in the morning,
but we decided that morning to clear US Customs and get our supplies that night. We fully
expected to be pulled in by Customs and be searched but that did not happen. The very nice
officer did take my only tomato though. It was the only thing perishable left in my fridge at home
so I grabbed it at the last minute, thinking I would save it from a slow death in out unattended
fridge, It looked like a lovely tomato. I hope someone ate it.

Another very big reason we decided to go across the northern states was the gas prices. Just
a week before Hurricane Harvey came ashore, flooding Houston and shutting down a large
oil refinery. Although Canada does not get or use gas from this refinery the oil companies
jacked up the prices at the pumps an average of $0.20/liter. We filled up outside Parry Sound
that morning for $1.29/liter. All of the other gas stations we passed were at $1.39/liter. We
paid US$2.70/Gallon (CAD$0.90/liter) in Sault Sainte Marie Michigan - for a savings of $35
for the fill up. That was the highest prices we saw in the states. The lowest we saw was
$2.41/Gallon (CAD $0.81). On average we paid $2.49/Gallon or CAD $0.83/Gallon.

On this second day of our journey we were much more relaxed about towing the car and so I kept my camera on my lap the entire day to try to capture some of the interesting things I saw. We were able to enjoy the ride and take in the spectacular scenery. The part of northern Ontario  were crossing had some of the most rugged landscape you will ever see.

One of the things I noticed before we got to Parry Sound the night before was every rock
cut - and there were lots - had at least one Inuksuk (Native for "I was here"). This continued
the next day and I was determined to capture one with my camera. That is a unique challenge
when you are travelling at 90 km/h and at the end of the day I had a lot of pictures of rock cuts
and brush and just one picture of the elusive Inuksuk.

After crossing the border we easily found the local Walmart, got our supplies, had dinner and
settled in for the night.

Let the planning begin!

Now, most people, when they are new to something like RVing would plan a couple of short, weekend rips to get used to living aboard and properly supplying the rig. Not us!! Our first real trip is a doozy! From home in Ontario to Grand Prairie Alberta. A whopping 4000 kilometers! But then Connor is at the end of that adventure.

One might think that travelling in an RV is as simple as just jumping in and driving off. Nothing is further from the truth! When planning our big adventure the first thing that we had to do was plot a route. Originally we planned to go west to Toronto then north through Barrie on the way to Sudbury. From there the shores of Lake Superior and on to Thunder Bay. From there it would be a diagonal cut through the Prairies. I got our first 3 nights planned and then Rick talked to some friends who had also traveled out west and we started to look at cutting through the upper US states.Ultimately that was the route we chose and I spent hours with Google maps and various web sites sorting out places to stay over night. Going across the border complicated things a little bit as there are restrictions around what foods you can bring into the US. I had to plan a shopping trip for as soon as we crossed the border so we would have enough supplies to last the trip.

The week before we were to leave was a flurry of activity with lots of last minute things to do. Deciding what to bring in terms of clothing was, in itself, a challenge. September can be a fickle month where you are in shorts one day and long pants and a sweatshirt the next so I had to pack a mix of items. We also had to be sure of our route as I could only have enough meat on board to get us through Canada, Anything more would likely be taken by US Customs. That lead to the first modification of our travel plans. We decided to make the crossing at Sault Sainte Marie on our second night instead of waiting until the next morning to cross.

Then we discovered that someone had broken into my car some time over the Labour day weekend and took our GPS. We contacted the police and then the GPS company. We kept the box so still had the serial number and all of the information we needed to have them lock it down, making it useless to whom ever now has it. Small comfort when we had this big trip ahead and no GPS. A friend who saw our post on Facebook offered to lend us his so we did not have to worry about getting another one right away. Thanks to Don the day was saved!

We brought Meander home after a few misadventures and some jumping through hoops to get the licencing taken care of. Surprisingly, the insurance part was a very good experience. The agent doing a full review of everything we had with them and increasing our bill by only $22 after the RV was added to the mix.

One of the reasons for fast forwarding our RV plans was the goal to be in Alberta for our grandson’s first birthday. According to our plan, we should be out there for about 3 weeks. But we can’t just drive our 27 foot palace all over town so we knew we would have to take one of our vehicles with us. The RV came with a tow bar, but my car would need to be modified at the front to use it. It is a lease so that was out of the question. My husband has a Jeep Wrangler and apparently the fact that it is a 4 wheel drive makes towing it complicated. So we looked at car carriers. Rick had already researched them and found the one he wanted the day after we bought the RV. He negotiated a price and we picked it up 2 days before we brought Meander home..

As soon as the deal was made on the RV I was given an outfitting budget of $500. I found some really good deals on Walmart.com by taking advantage of their discounts to pick up my purchases in store. By the end of the week I had my kitchen completely outfitted, new towels and face clothes purchased and a kettle, coffee maker and toaster installed. As part of my Walmart order I got 4 jumbo pillows for Meander but got a better deal on bedding buying it locally. I ordered a projector which will be used in place of a TV and decided to redo all of the window dressings. All in all I did pretty good with my budget. Rick made some purchases of his own, installing fog lights, a GPS and back up camera as well as a wifi booster. For now we are done outfitting Meander. I am sure after our big trip we may find some changes or modifications we want to make but for now we have all of the necessities and then some luxuries on board.

Our very first adventure with Meander was the day after we brought her home. That night we were attending a party at a friend’s house and decided to take the RV so we could camp out after a night of drinks. What a flurry of activity to get it ready to go. Somehow alcohol was the very first thing that was put in Meander which is funny because we rarely drink at home. We did remember to take some coke and Ginger Ale as well as some bags of ice. I installed the new bedding but did not have pillows yet so I washed pillows and put them aboard. I have decided to use our 5 year old, rarely used duvet. We have not been using it in the house because it is white and we have cats who like to cast their fur on everything and occasionally leave us a fur ball where we least want or expect it. Now it has a home. I made sure that we had coffee mugs for morning and whitener, sugar and sweetener but somehow failed to pack coffee. That almost got me fired as chief cook and bottle washer! I remembered toothbrushes, toothpaste and toilet paper but somehow managed to forget a hair brush. Not a big deal for Rick since he is follicly challenged but I have long curly hair halfway down my back so it was a big deal for me. I knew there was a reason for my to-do and packing lists.

In the beginning there was change....

My name is Lori and my husband is Rick. We live in a small town in Eastern Ontario Canada with our 4 cats - Squirt, Baby, Boots and Junior. My husband retired from the Canadian Coast Guard near the end of 2012 after 32 years of service. I was a Training Supervisor at a call center. I had been a trainer with that company for almost 15 years. My husband and I had decided I would retire at the end of December 2018.  

We - mostly Rick - are building a boat that will carry us through warmer waters in the winter and help us explore many of the wonderful waterways here in Canada during the summer. (You can read about that adventure in his blog at https://she-kon.blogspot.ca.)  We have always talked about getting an RV after we were done our time on the boat but that was 10 years down the road and barely on the radar. 

There were 2 significant events that changed our long term plans.

In October of 2016 we welcomed our grandson, Connor, into the family. That grandson is almost 4000 kms away in Alberta. With his birth, the idea of getting an RV was once again a topic for serious consideration. We were starting to put a plan together to purchase one when I retired. 

The plan changed again when my job was eliminated at the end of my shift on June 26, 2017. That night we made a plan and the very next day we went looking for an RV. It took us just over 2 weeks to find the one we wanted. On July 10th we successfully made an offer on a 30 foot Triple E Class C RV.  We named her Meander (Me and her). This story will be our adventures.