Saturday, April 30, 2005

Plans for July

I just received an email from my sister in Maryland and she has offered to have Father for 3 weeks. Our 86 year old father lives with me and we are pretty much tied to the house, except for the odd weekend here and there.

We liberated Dad from South Africa in 1999 and then in 2000 he landed up in hospital having open heart surgery for replacement of a calcified Aortic valve. This left him very frail and we cannot leave him on his own for too long. Now that he may be going to the US in July, this leaves us freed up for a week long trip somewhere.

Thinking of going to Northern Ontario somewhere, maybe Halfway Lake or in Lake Superior Provincial Park. Another possibility is The Pinery on Lake Huron. We've never been there and have heard good things.

I would like to try dry camping again as we do have 45 watts of solar panels. We used these panels 2 years ago when we dry camped at Assateague State Park in Maryland. It is enough to keep the battery charged, plus a bit extra for an hour of TV a day. When we go fulltime, we will have enough solar energy to keep us powered up for computer, satellite and TV as well as the monitors and fridge. This is something that we are still investigating. Something else that interests us is wind power. If anyone has any experience with this please email us.

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Free Camping in July

We have been given 2 nights free at a campground in Buckhorn! We put our names into a draw at the last RV show and we are on their winners list (so they say). We are getting the free nights in exchange for a tour of the resort, yeah, I know...probably a hard sell, but we will resist as we cannot make any plans until we know what is happening with our retirement. The only thing that will interest us is if they have good rates for seasonal camping. We'll keep you posted!

Tuesday, April 26, 2005

Trailer preparation

The time has finally come for us to summerize the trailer. There is a bit of maintainence to do. When we closed it up and winterized it, we forgot to turn a tap on to decrease the pressure. When Michael pressed the little valve in the city water connection, the whole thing popped out. We tried to fix it, but, alas, had to buy a new part. That will be fitted this coming weekend. We also want to put a cargo door into the storage area under the closet in the bathroom and into the nightstand next to the queen bed. I doubt if I will be able to get Michael to do that so we will take the trailer to the dealership.

Of course the awning and the outside need to be washed. We store the trailer at a campground only about a mile from us, so it is very convenient. There is water, electricity and several dump stations. These days it is used mainly for storage of RVs.

Things are looking up

This week we will be opening up the trailer. We have some minor repairs to do as well as lots of cleaning. When we winterized in November, we forgot to depressurize the water system before opening the outside valve and blew the white stopper thingy out. Last weekend Michael bought a new part and he will fit that this weekend. Silly thing to do as it is the second year in a row that we did it! Maybe this winter we will remember to open a tap first.

Monday, April 25, 2005

A Bad day today!

First of all I was in bed most of the day with a horrible cold. I managed to get myself up to try and continue with building our web page, but that was not to be. I installed a web accelerator to work with my home dial-up access and now I cannot log in to the program. Maybe the site was down all day, maybe something has gone awry on my computer, we'll have to see in the morning.

The latest Trailer magazine arrived today and I was pleased to see that it was the 2005 models issue. I am going to spend the next few days browsing through, although I do know what is on our short list. We just have to decide how mobile we want to be.

Whenever I get a new magazine I read all the ads. There is so much to learn!

No photos today as I cannot upload anything from home and I am typing this in the library.

Sunday, April 24, 2005

Our first camping trip

Michael and I were married in 1969 and the following year we planned a trip to Cape Town. We had a very strict budget and therefore we begged and borrowed all the equipment we needed. The tent came from Michael's brother Keith. It was made by Jean, his wife. Other family members lent us a propane cooker, folding table, lamps and sleeping bags. We had a ball and were hooked on camping.

We had a wonderful time, spending 2 weeks in the Cape Town area. This area is famous for the wonderful South African wines. We toured wineries in Stellenbosch and Franschhoek. We swam at Clifton beach, watched seals at play on the rocks and soaked up the ambiance and flavour of the Cape. We went up into the mountains inland from Cape Town, took the cable car up to the top of Table Mountain and waded in the icy cold waters of the Atlantic at Bloubergstrand.

On our way to Cape Town we stopped for 2 days in Knysna. This was in 1970 and the campground was right on the banks of the bay. When I was in Knysna in 1997 I noticed that this area was built up with very expensive looking homes and townhomes. Posted by Hello

Camping in Cape Town 1970 Posted by Hello

Saturday, April 23, 2005


Michael and Daryl on the Saguenay River, September 2002 Posted by Hello

A Little about our camping and RVing history

We have always camped, one way or another, ever since we got married in South Africa in 1969. Our first camping trip was in a home made canvas tent. We had a VW bug and that thing was packed! We travelled from Durban to Cape Town, camping at Knysna on the way. In Cape Town we camped in Sweetwaters, Constantia. The campground is probably a suburb of multi-million dollar homes now! We tent camped for several years in such exotic places as Cape Vidal and Sordwana in Zululand.

When the children were 5 and 7 we bought a tent trailer. It was huge and heavy, but it was great fun. We camped at Park Reynie on the Natal South coast and at Umlalazi in Zululand. It was great to hear the monkeys playing on the roof of the trailer in the early mornings. They really are entertaining creatures.

In 1989 we emigrated to Canada and we were back to tent camping, exploring our new home country. We started off with a dome tent, air mattresses and sleeping bags. That was entertaining. Our last tent camping episode was in 1999 to Northern Ontario to see the colors in the Agawa Canyon. On the way up we camped at Killarney Provincial Park. Being October it poured on our last night there! In the morning we packed up and I ended up falling face down into the mud.....

"That's IT! No more camping until I have dry feet, bed, and a roof over my head!" So the next year we bought a small Keystone Bobcat Hybrid trailer. It was 17 feet long and had 2 bunks that opened out at each end. It was luxury, but Oh so small!

My dad had came to live with us, as we found the space a little too small and so 2 years later we traded up to a 22ft hybrid. A Trail-Lite Bantam. That was a lot more spacious but after a trip to Quebec in September 2002 we got tired of opening and closing the bunk beds at every stop. Another upgrade to a 25ft Travel Trailer this time, with an island queen bed and a bigger bathroom. We love it!

This is Michael and I. Michael will be 65 in 2 years and I will be 60, so we think it is a good time to go fulltime RVing! Posted by Hello

Our third trailer was a Rockwood 2502 towed by a Chevy Astro Posted by Hello