Saturday, April 29, 2006

Water Problems!

Today we went to the camper to clean it and get it ready for a weekend of camping next week. Michael's main job was to de-winterize the water system. When we bought the camper it included an inline water filter made by WaterPur. This filter was fixed on the line from the tank to the water heater, situated under the sofa, in a place that is very difficult to reach.

Every year when we winterized we had to by-pass the filter, or else it took up a lot of anti-freeze. Perhaps we should have just let it fill with anti-freeze, instead we decided to by-pass it last winter. We used a small hose with metal fixtures. Something happened over the winter and the metal fixtures damaged the plastic ones on the hoses in the camper. When we tried to de-winterize, the water started squirting out everywhere. Now we were in a pickle. What to do. We had already decided that we were going to remove the factory installed filter because the new carbon cartridges cost C$40+ each. Instead we will fit a Camco RV Filter that fits on the water line outside the camper.

The problem now was that whenever Michael turned the pump on, water squirted everywhere. What to do, what to do. After some "discussion" Michael went to Owasco in Whitby and bought some new fittings for the pipes, came back, attached the filter inlet pipe to the filter outlet pipe and thus eliminated the problem. Now we don't have to worry about bypassing the filter or disconnecting anything every fall.

We are now ready for camping and, depending on the weather, we will go to Darlington this coming weekend. Camping is GOOD for the soul!

Thursday, April 27, 2006

Summer Camping Plans

The past few months I have been busy making plans for our summer camping. We hope to do a couple of weekend camps in May, just travelling to Darlington Provincial Park. This park is just 24 kms from home so we use it for short get-a-ways. June has been kept pretty camp-free because I want to be available to help Suzanne with the new baby, as much as possible.

On June 30th we are travelling to Six-Mile Lake Provincial Park for a few days. My best friend from high school in Zimbabwe, will be in the area and we are hoping to hook up for a reunion. We will be attending her daughter's engagement party on the 29th June.

On the 9th July we are going up to Pinery Provincial Park for a week. We have booked a riverside site until July 16th. I have wanted to go to Pinery for years and this year made it a priority. There is nothing more booked until we leave for the US on August 15th. We will spend a night on the way down to Maryland. Probably an overnighter at a truck stop along the way. We have booked at Greenbrier State Park for a week while we visit my sister in Keedysville. Greenbrier is just 6 kms from my sister's house. August 20th is Dad and Virginia's birthday. We are all meeting at Patricia's for the birthday party and will be spending some quality family time together.

After the week in Keedysville, we are going to Delaware Sea Shore State Park, where we will be camping almost on the beach, with full hook-up. We leave Delaware on August 30th and stop at Lackawanna State Park in Pennsylvania for 3 nights. Our last stop is at Presqu'ile Provincial Park for the first weekend of September. We are both back to work after the Labour Day weekend.

New Grand-child

Our biggest event of the summer is that our first grand-child will be born around the 7th June. Suzanne is doing very well and feeling great. Of course, grandma has been buying up the stores. Suzanne, Sandy and Greg have all moved into Greg's new house in downtown Toronto. Greg lives in the lower section of the house and Suzanne and Sandy live in a complete apartment upstairs. Keep coming back for the news on this exciting event.