Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Eleven days at Milton Heights

Our eleven days at Milton were very pleasant. It was cold, but we had very little snow.

The day we arrived at Milton
Site E 4
We rented a 100 lb propane cylinder for the furnace and hoped that it would last for the 11 days. It didn't. We switched over to the Seneca's tank on about day 8 and we tried to eke out the propane so that we would not have to pull up stakes and go and fill the tank. We were so frugal with the propane that we actually froze up one night. Luckily just the fresh water tank froze and for a short while we were unable to pump water. Luckily I had read that you could put a small ceramic heater into the basement storage area to heat up the underbelly, which is what we did and we were soon thawed out. We do keep a light in the utility area where all the drains and pipes are so that area did not freeze up. We also found that pulling the slides in at night helped to keep the RV warmer inside and we used less propane. One of the problems with a furnace in the MH is hat the furnace comes on and heats the inside up almost too much, then it turns off and the temp drops down quite far so we get cold before the furnace turns on again. If we ever have to spend an entire winter in Ontario, we will look into getting a catalytic heater. We did use 2 electric heaters as well which helped and as the cost of electricity was included in the price of the site, we took full advantage of that. We also kept the hot water heater set to electricity to save on the propane.

The 100 lb tank connected to the RV by an Extend-A-Stay connection
On the Saturday that we were camped there we hosted a dinner party for 4 other couples and we were quite anxious to see if we would all fit in. It was a fantastic evening and we had a lovely curry chicken dinner and a really good time.

A funny thing happened while we were there too. I have been a member on RV.NET for several years and I was online posting a question when I got a reply from a couple who are camped for the winter in Ontario. There was a picture of their rig and their toad car, which I recognized as the same vehicles parked right across the camp road from us. I emailed them and we went over for afternoon coffee and fresh bread with apple butter. They were the same couple who had stopped for a chat when we first arrived! We spent a few hours chatting and exchanging ideas for winter camping.

Paul and Marie's Winnebago Chieftain. Skirted and set up for winter with huge propane cylinders set up behind the RV
 The day before we left Milton Heights we had a light snowfall. We winterized the RV and set off for Ajax where we are storing the rig for December while we house and cat sit in London.

A dusting of snow just before we left

The Saturn is all hooked up and ready to go
When we were in Ajax, we heard that there had been a multi-vehicle accident on the 401 near London and that the highway was closed, so we decided to camp in Moodies for a night and carry on by car to London in the morning. The temp went down to -18C but we were warm and cosy and winterized, so no worry about freezing overnight. We had also filled up the propane tank so we could crank up the furnace.

No comments:

Post a Comment