At Campark, Niagara Falls

We took a nice slow drive from Stouffville to Niagara Falls, filling up the diesel and the propane on the way.  Luckily there was no traffic so it was completely stress free. We had decided to stop at Campark and then decided to cross at the Rainbow Bridge in Niagara, but by the time we got here it was raining and there are reports of snow and bad driving conditions in Pennsylvania and Maryland, so we are here at Campark for the night and then will see what the weather is doing tomorrow. The plan is to go south on US 219, but as this is not an interstate, we may change our minds and take the I 90 across to the I 79 and then go south. It is quite a lot further, but is freeway almost all the way. We'll cross the border on the Peace Bridge and decide tomorrow. 

Camped at Campark. 

Cedar Beach Park to Campark, Niagara.

We will not be going through the border until Sunday. Looking at Weather Underground Trip Planner , it shows ice and rain for the New York, Pennsylvania area tomorrow, so we will stop at Campark in Niagara Falls. We will have full hook-up so can run the heaters, fill and dump tanks and then make a quick drive through the border at Rainbow Bridge or Fort Erie.

Cedar Beach has turned off their water, so life is getting a bit more difficult here. Time to leave!

We were offered a spot on a friend's driveway, where we would have had electricity, but no water or dump, so decided to stop over at an RV park instead.

Here is the route we will be taking tomorrow.

Two sleeps!

We are leaving here on Saturday morning and will be crossing at Lewiston, north of Buffalo. Hopefully the weather will not be too cold. There may be some ice on Sunday morning, but we will wait until the temperatures rise a bit before setting out. We will probably make it to DuBois where we will stay at Flying J or Walmart. If that doesn't work, then it will be Bradford. My sister has a long driveway, so we will just pull in there and set up. Will probably just dry camp and I doubt we will get a cord long enough to reach the house. There are also tall pine trees, and while my sister says that she has trimmed the branches, I doubt she know how big this coach is! This shows our route to Keedysville.

My new facebook page

I have decided to make a Facebook page where anyone can go and check out where we are. I think that it will be easier to keep our travel information up to date by using this format, so go over to https://www.facebook.com/GoneRVing to check it out.

One week to go!!

We are leaving Cedar Beach next Sunday! So excited! We have the offer of staying on friend's driveway in Grimsby, so we can make an early start across the border. We will probably be able to make it right down to my sister in Keedysville in one day.

We have moved most of our stuff over to our new site and will finish up the move after the present occupant takes his trailer off.

Getting ready for the Big Trek.

Less than 2 weeks for lift off!! I have lists and lists of things to do. Flu shots, pick up prescriptions and get medications,and US dollars from the bank. I have forwarded all our mail to San Marcos, California (my American Mom's address) through Canada Post. Travel Health policy is in place. Bell Satellite is on hold, internet, on hold, iPad 3G Sim Card cancelled. Deposit paid for next season up here in Cedar Beach. Motorhome is booked into our dealership to get a water leak seen to.  List of things to put into the storage locker and things to get out of the storage locker. Stockpile of Tim Horton's coffee to buy.

We are getting so excited! The route we have chosen is in the image below. Use the controls to view the whole route. The stop in Maryland is at my sister's house where we will park on her driveway for about 2 to 3 days. We estimate our arrival in Escondido to be around November 15th. We may need to change our route depending on the weather. We then head over to Escondido where we have a reservation at Champagne Lakes RV Resort. We were going to stay in Virginia's house, but she has a winter tenant, so we will be in the motorhome.

We have a several apps on the iPad from AllStays to show us overnight stops, RV Parks, Diesel fuel stops, iExit etc. Very handy and show details according to where we are on the trip. I will get an ATT Sim Card when we get into the US. I also found a very useful site on Weather Underground which will show you the weather on your route. Another great site is Road Trip America.

I am looking at increasing our arsenal of Camping Memberships and have found I can get AOR for $895 from our home park in Texas. Considering this, as it will give us a lot more parks where we can stay for very little cost, even if we don't use it immediately, it will come in handy once we are freer in our travel plans every year. We have Coast to Coast, Passport America and Escapees.


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Unicell Camper

This morning we spotted a most unusual camper in the transient section of the park It is called a Unicell. Being the curious people that we are, we went to talk to the owners, Gary and Susie. They are from Surprise, Arizona and had brought it up here to get some work done, as it was built right here in Ontario. It is a 4X4 vehicle and very compact. We had a great chat and in the course of the conversation, I asked them if they had heard of Harvest Hosts. Susie's jaw just dropped, because they had bought the vehicle from the founders of Harvest Hosts and here I was trying to sell them a subscription! We were able to get some great info about solar panels and RVing off the grid, or boondocking, which we are very keen to try.

Here are the pictures that I took of their rig.

Overnight trip to Gravenhurst

We went up to Gravenhurst on Friday October 14th to spend the night with dear friends of ours. Michael, Trixie and I went to the Bala Cranberry Festival, but it was pouring rain and was not very pleasant. We went back home and had a lovely roast dinner with our friends.

Early Saturday morning I got up and went out to catch the early morning sun on the fall foliage. It was spectacular. We then went to breakfast at a local lodge at the water's edge. Great breakfast with dear friends. The following pictures are from the area around Pine Ridge Retirement Community and then around Patterson-Kaye Lodge.

Storm Clouds give this picture a very dramatic backdrop.

This would have been such a great photo if it wasn't for the rotten pumpkin on the porch!

At Patterson-Kaye Lodge

Moving the shed

We have been given a new site, which is bigger and cooler than our present site. We realize that it is going to be a big job to move everything, but we had the assurance of several people in the park that we would be able to get help with the move. This morning as the weather was really good and as it was the final day of the Thanksgiving weekend, I went around and found some able bodied men to help. We arranged for them to come over at 1 pm. We had some webbed straps which were inserted under the shed and 6 brawny men simply lifted the shed up and carried it over to the new site. Here are the pictures of the move.

Setting off down the road

and onto the site

All the stuff on the left hand side is what came out of the shed!

Easing it into place. The previous occupant's trailer is still on the site.

And in place on the concrete blocks.

We also called on 3 ladies to help me move the gazebo. Once the present occupant has moved his trailer off the site, we can go ahead and get the deck modules over. The Motorhome will stay on our old site until we leave, as I still have my internet connection over there. When we get back in the Spring, we will go directly to our new site.