Travel Archives - Page 14 of 18 - Our View From The Road

Day 04: Ah! Sunshine…

We told ourselves that we would sleep in today as we are staying put at Big Lagoon State Park in Pensacola, FL… So, why am I awake at 6:30am? Most probable cause would be that we fell asleep before 9:00pm last evening. Sigh.

I thought I’d start the day by walking the longest trail in the park, a 3.5 mile loop that should allow me to really see what the park is about. The walk started well along the trail is pure white sand so it was similar to walking in several inches of fresh snow (something I am quite familiar with). Two steps forward and half-step back. At about 2km into the walk after passing several examples of alligator crossings on the trail I came upon a drainage channel that I could not cross(without getting wet), the bridge had apparently washed away (hurricane Sally in 2021?). This caused me to reverse my route and improvise the remainder of my walk. I ended up at the boat launch as the remainder of the park (day use area) was still closed as a result of the afore mentioned hurricane. After sitting and taking a few photos I returned to our campsite with stories of my adventure. Yay, 4.92km.

Eggs & bacon for breakfast cooked on our 18” Blackstone griddle (not too heavy or bulky Mr. Milddogs.com) 😆. There’s something about breakfast cooked outdoors… it always tastes so much better.

Most of the day was reserved for relaxing and reading. Of which we both did quite a lot. We both also tried the park showers which we rated a solid 7 out of 10. Room for improvement but satisfying nonetheless.

I also checked and adjusted tyre pressures of the van as I had inflated correctly for -9C which proved a little too much when checked at an air temperature of 21C. All tyres needed some air to be removed. I feel a little better about our upcoming drives now.

Before long the day had slipped us by and dinner needed preparing. Tonight the menu was steak, along with fried vegetables and potatoes all prepared on the Blackstone. A glass or two of Cabernet Sauvignon was also enjoyed. Followed by Little Debbie snacking cakes. Mmmmm.

As the evening sky turned that hazy bluish yellow color, Barb and I walked back to the boat launch at sunset. The remainder of the evening saw us prepare a few items ahead of tomorrows departure and then more reading ahead of sleep.

Tomorrow we head to NOLA. Be sure to check back to see what we get up to!

Oh, and if your interested be sure to check out our ‘merch’ store for our latest wearables and accessories… Oh right, we don’t have any merchandise to sell. Maybe we should?

Day 03: Are we there yet?

Having listened to several train horns at various times in the night, 6:30 arrived and I was up for my morning walk. Lightly showering but 11C so lighter clothing under the rain jacket.

Collegedale is a very car-centric community, or at least the area we stayed in is. Walking was a challenge as sidewalks were far and few between, the inclusion of them clearly being left to the developers should they have felt like it, most didn’t. This meant that I walked in the narrow shoulder facing traffic that was going well over the posted limit in damp conditions. Needless to say, I didn’t last long & hope to put in the remaining distance when we arrive at the state park this afternoon.

After breakfast in the van, we headed out at about 8:30 and travelled through Chattanooga on I-75 before picking up the I-59 towards the Georgia border, a few minutes later we crossed into Alabama where we entered the Central timezone, so it was 8:30 again. But we didn’t get too excited as we’ll lose that hour this coming weekend when the clocks change to daylight savings time.

Onto Birmingham, AL where we followed the I-465 around the city before heading South on the I-65 towards Montgomery, AL and then towards Pensacola, FL.

The driving today has been easy, lots of construction zones with reduced speeds and few to no workers to warrant the slowdowns, but stress free driving is always nice. The landscape changed a lot, from the mountains of Tennessee to the rolling hills of Northern Alabama to the mostly flat sandy pine tree covered dunes of Florida. Most of the hardwood trees were replaced with softwood varieties and the wild wisteria that hung blooming in many trees in Northern Alabama is not suited to the heat and humidity of the gulf coast.

As I write this it is overcast and showering in Pensacola but warm at 24C. We’re booked in to spend two nights at the Big Lagoon State Park here in Pensacola, FL and so will provide a review of our site, the park and what we get up to in the next couple of posts.

Stay tuned, be happy! Spring really is on the way.

Day 02: Provisioning day

Yep, all camping trips begin with provisioning, except this one. It’s day 2 and we’re yet to gather supplies. That changes today!

Had a great sleep parked at the Cracker Barrel in Winchester, VA. Highly recommended. Awake just before 7:00 and out for a 5.5km walk along mostly overly busy roads. Chilly at -1C but it should soon warm.

Back at the van, Barb has reorganized some things and is feeling much better about where and how our stuff is stored.

After a smallish breakfast at our hosts, we were back on I-81 South at 9:00am. I’m hoping for a shorter day (a little foreshadowing here).

Virginia is a beautiful state. The mountains, farms, forests and valleys all tell a tale of over two-hundred years of settlement. It really is easy to see why it became a popular settling destination.

Although it won’t feel like it to those of you that live north of the US/Canada border, Spring arrived early for us today. The grass here is greening up and in some-places could already be mowed (still on the lookout for that first operating mower). Many trees are budding and the flowering trees are in full bloom. We saw Cherry blossoms, flowering dogwoods (State flower of Virginia) and Eastern Redbud that actually flowers with a purple flower. Daffodils are also in bloom. Yep, Spring is here.

Arriving in Roanoke, VA we decided to visit Camping World and pick up a few bits and pieces for the van and get Propane. Bits and pieces were acquired but their propane system was out of order. They suggested the TSC store next door. Hmmm, I’m hoping they will know how to fill an RV tank.

We drive to the TSC and immediately prune one of their lovely trees with the roof of the van. Argh! Phew, no harm to the van thankfully, but the poor tree had a few branches less after greeting us. As for the Propane, all went well & the dude was quite skilled in filling RV tanks. Yay, provisioning has begun.

Next we acquired water for our tank, we can now flush and wash!!! This is a good thing. We do not drink the water from our tank and instead buy bottled water for safety reasons.

Leaving Virginia and entering Tennessee, I-81 turns Westward towards Knoxville. We arrived during afternoon rush hour… yay! This slowed our progress and resulted in our arriving in Chattanooga at 7:00pm. Not a shorter driving day.

Dinner courtesy of Arby’s, parkup courtesy of Walmart on Little Debbie Lane, Collegedale, TN. the home of the Little Debbie factory.

After the Propane and Water acquisitions of earlier, food provisions have been acquired from Walmart that should last us for a few days.

All for today. Tomorrow we cross into the Central timezone and should arrive in Florida!

Day 01: On the road again…

Welcome back to our travel blog! The long and snowy winters end approaches; however, not quickly enough for these intrepid explorers. And so this post finds us heading out in search of sunnier and warmer climes in the Southern US. Todays drive took us from the US/Canadian border, across the Blue Ridge mountains and into the state of Virginia.

It’s 6:00am and half of the house is awake for the day, it should be a busy one. No snow overnight so at least there’s none to brush off of the van before we can drive. Now, time to go for a walk and then the final loading to complete. 9:00am target departure. Wish us luck!

Ok, so 9:30am and we’re rolling out of town after dropping a package off at the post office. The roads are dry and it’s sunny, a good omen we believe.

The St. Lawrence river is open water signaling that Spring is near. The border crossing is very smooth with just a few cursory questions concluding with the agent saying a rather abrupt “Goodbye”. Several hundred yards later at the bridge toll booth we were held up slightly as a trucker maneuvered his/her 11’6” wide load through a series of bollards signed at being 11’6” clear. Some of the item wrapping brushed against the bollards but otherwise no damage done. Nice driving.

The drive across US37 towards Watertown, NY was easy and a nice way to ease into what would be a long day.

We picked up I-81 and headed South towards Syracuse and onto Whitney Point where we stopped at the visitor center and had a ham & cheese wrap for lunch.

Frost capped trees near Whitney Point, NY

Binghamton, Scranton and Wilkes Barre soon followed as the interstate took us further South with each passing mile. By this point in the journey almost all of the snow on the ground was gone and the temperature was steadily above zero Celsius. By the time we cross out of Pennsylvania and into Maryland the temperature is a steady 8C, that’s 15C above this mornings temperature at home!

Driving through West Virginia the sun sets and the nighttime truck traffic is taking over the interstate, time to find a park up. Like Mr & Mrs Milddogs last year, we decided to stop at the Cracker Barrel in Winchester, VA. where we enjoyed a chicken dinner before settling down for the night. I was even carded when requesting a beer with my dinner! 59 and still looking under 25! I’ll take it.

It was a very long day of driving which saw us arrive at 7:15pm, almost 10 hours after leaving home. Tomorrow should be shorter and will see us head towards Chattanooga, TN. Stay tuned for how we make out.

Before signing off for the night, let’s address a few questions you, our readers, might have.
1. How are you handling the colder temperatures? Are you not afraid of the piping freezing while driving through states with temperatures below freezing point?
– We left home with the van still ‘winterized’ with plumbing antifreeze in the piping and plan on leaving it that way until the ambient temperatures support ‘dewinterizing’.
2. Have you made any changes or improvements to the van over the winter?
– We were generally very happy with the van when we last used it in 2022. We have added a small shelving system under the sink to better organize baskets that we keep there containing various items used in the galley.
3. Was any specific maintenance performed before travelling this year?
– As the van currently has only 15000kms on it, only an oil change and service was performed by the Ford dealer last Fall. Other than this, only the typical pre-trip checks of fluids, tyre pressures, etc. were performed. We are expecting to have to perform a little more maintenance upon our return.

Southern Ontario Fall Roadtrip

What’s all this about then?

It’s Friday, September 23rd and we’re on the road again. This time we’re heading out on a tour that will take us around the Southern Ontario peninsula allowing us to visit family and some places that we’ve not visited before. Our first stop would be Woodstock for a couple of days where we ‘mooch docked’ in my brother’s laneway. The last time we visited was at the start of our Cross-continent trip in May of this year, it was nice to spend some time catching up on what’s new in our lives and those around us.

We left Woodstock on Sunday morning with the goal to head South to Long Point on Lake Erie; however, a quick detour took us past a house near Burgessville (below) familiar to the Fisher family.

Vittoria, ON

Our drive continued South through Norwich and Delhi. This area was the heart of Ontario’s ‘tobacco belt’ growing thousands of acres of the crop throughout the 20th century. As tobacco sales plummeted farmers in this area have had to shift to new crops such as Ginseng, asparagus and root vegetables, the sandy soil proving to be perfect for such crops. During our drive we passed several large distribution facilities setup to collect and take crops to larger metropolitan centers. However, if you looked closely there were still old tobacco drying kilns on many of the farms, left out of denial that they no longer had a purpose.

We stopped in the village of Vittoria, a small community south of Simcoe as I had discovered while researching Barb’s ancestry that a branch of her family had initially settled in Ontario in this area was an integral part of the community and contributed to the building of the local Baptist church.

“Located about three miles from Lake Erie, the little village had become, in the early 1800’s, the most active and important commercial centre between Niagara Falls and Detroit. It was not only the hub of the Long Point Settlement, but also, from 1815 to 1825 the judicial capital of the London District of Upper Canada, hosting the district courts and the Registry offices.” (Website: Welcome to Vittoria, Ontario, Canada)

We discovered that the church building still stands but now houses a bakery with the main floor being a space available for renting by the community. We purchased a few goodies from the bakery and were directed toward a local pizzeria whose specialty is ‘Dill Pickle Pizza’, Barb couldn’t resist and so lunch was to be a couple of personal sized pizzas that we enjoyed while parked alongside the beach in the village of Turkey Point.

Long Point Provincial Park, Port Rowan, ON

Our Sunday drive ended with us leaving Turkey Point and driving to Long Point Provincial Park. Located on the Long Point sandbar that projects into Lake Erie and home to many waterfowl and a stopover for many migratory birds, the area is a destination for many bird watchers.

Below you can see we had a sheltered site surrounded by trees and close to the camp showers. The day had been sunny for the most part, but the winds had been increasing throughout the day with rain forecast in the days ahead. We ventured to the beach and as you can in the photograph below, the winds were quite gusty, yet protected by sand dunes, the campground was sheltered from the wind. We spent two quiet nights camping here.

Fanshawe Conservation Area, London, ON

Tuesday September 27th and time to leave Long Point and head North but not before touring a little further West along the lakeshore to Port Stanley. A popular spot for Londoners to get away from the city during the warmer summer months, late September sees the beach empty and nearby businesses closed for the season.

Our drive from here turned North towards St. Thomas and onto London where we stopped for a quick lunch before heading around the city to the Fanshawe Conservation Area where we planned to stay for a couple of nights but ended up staying just one. The campground was quiet with the sites being grassy and treed. Like Long Point, here we also found ourselves outside of any cellular service which hindered our ability to plan our upcoming days.

Fanshawe Conservation Area, London, ON – Campsite

On Wednesday we headed North into Huron county where we stopped in Exeter and “mooch docked” at Barb’s parents. It was nice to visit for a few days as we had not seen them since May and so we spent time filling them in on our travels this year.

Goderich, ON

Saturday October 1st saw us leave Exeter and head towards Goderich where we would spend the night with Barb’s sister. It also gave Barb the opportunity to go to a beach on Lake Huron, something that she tries to ensure she does at least once a year. You can take a girl away from the lake, but you can’t take the lake away from the girl.

MacGregor Point Provincial Park, Port Elgin, ON

Sunday would see us driving North along the lake towards Port Elgin. the rain from the previous week had moved out and we were now blessed with sunny skies and very nice autumn weather. Near Port Elgin is MacGregor Point Provincial Park, a large park with several campgrounds and a lot of sites some of which are available for camping year-round. Our site was surrounded by trees and only one other site was visible from our site. As you can see in the photos below, we finally had a campfire and enjoyed an epic sunset over the lake. The beach was empty because of the time of year and so afforded us a quiet walk along the edge of the water. This is a beautiful park and we will definitely return for a longer stay in the future.

Port Elgin, ON

After a couple of nights at MacGregor Point, we continued our trip on Tuesday October 4th by first heading into Port Elgin and exploring the harbour area. Clearly another lakeside town that becomes very quiet outside of the warm summer months.

Our last camping stop of this trip would require us to drive some distance back across the province eastward. Our route took us around the southern edge of Georgian Bay through Owen Sound, Meaford and onto Collingwood where we would then head away from the lake towards Orillia and south to Lindsay and Peterborough before arriving in Campbellford.

Ferris Provincial Park, Campbellford, ON

We arrived at Ferris Provincial Park without a reservation and after the gatehouse had closed for the day. There were instructions to simply drive in and locate a site completing the registration the following day. We chose a treed site in the upper campground and settled in for the next couple of days. A smaller park on the edge of the river just on the outskirts of the town, there are lots of walking trails with some leading into town for easy access to supplies. The suspension bridge across the river afforded some great views along the gorge.

And that’s a wrap for 2022 camping!

As you can see in the picture above, we both enjoyed this trip very much. The Autumn is a favourite time of the year when the weather can still be warm and the fall colours are beautiful. We drove home along Highway 7 towards Perth and then onto Smiths Falls, this drive allowing us to see some stunning displays of fall foliage.

This is our last camping trip in our van of 2022, its been a fun year in which we’ve been fortunate enough to see many beautiful places across the continent. Where will we venture in 2023? For that you will have to ‘stay tuned’ as our planning is now just beginning.

Prince Edward county: Wine and sand… Oh my!

For our second trip to Prince Edward County this year, we teamed up with our friends Dean & Cathy to spend a week relaxing at Sandbanks River Country Campground. We chose to take the week immediately after the Labour Day weekend in the hopes that it would be quiet, we chose wisely!

The drive to PEC was uneventful with the exception of having to detour around the town of Picton due to water mains construction in the downtown. Dean & Cathy have a 33’ class-A motor home and so we were hoping that none of the detour roads would be impassable in a rig of that size. Luckily, no problems were had and we enjoyed the country drive to the campground.

As we were together and our van is small and maneuverable, we parked on our site ‘backwards’ by driving in. This allows our sliding door and awning to extend towards their site and thus makes it a friendlier camping experience. This meant that in order to dump our tanks we needed to partially pack-up in order to turn the van around to reach the drainage point and then turn back again to continue camping. This turned out to be easier than it sounds and was only performed once mid-week and then again just before we left.

Below you see our 2 campsites shortly after arriving. Setup only took about 45min after which we relaxed for the remainder of the day catching up with each other.

Early on the Tuesday morning, Tony headed out for his daily walk and went off to explore the access footpath into Sandbanks Provincial Park. The campground in which we are staying is directly across a road from the Provincial park and there is an agreement in place that grants campers in the campground walking access to the Provincial Park beach. The walk to the beach turned out to be only about 10mins. We will likely use this a lot during the week.

This morning the beach is empty with the exception of a few dog walkers and joggers. The picture below shows how big the beach is when it’s empty. We’re in for a couple of cloudy days and so do not expect it to be busy until the weekend.

Throughout the week we all had plenty of time to relax and enjoy our surroundings. Many a book page was read and many a drink was enjoyed. Once the weather improved later in the week for sitting out in the evenings, we enjoyed several campfires including the one below. At one many marshmallows were toasted or burnt and eaten in S’mores. At another pie irons were used to bake various campfire treats. We even explored making a ‘breakfast’ sandwich in a pie iron that included an egg and ham. Yummy!

On Thursday we were driven to a distillery, 2 wineries and a craft brewery as part of a tour we had booked. The following pictures are from that tour. A great time was had by all of us.

Our last full day was Saturday and the campground and Park beach had become much busier now that Summer-like weather had returned. We spent most of the day at the campsite relaxing and playing games before heading the the beach for one last visit.

We have already booked the same campsites for the same week next year in the hopes that the weather will be as good.

Great times were had by all. Friends for over 30 years and we’re still making fantastic memories together. Until next year, happy camping!

Mid-week excursion to Charleston Lake

Our grand-daughter, Elena, is staying with us for the week and so we thought a quick two day camping get away would be a nice break. However, Mother Nature decided to make the start of our journey a little challenging by delivering a deluge of rain just before we were to head out. In the picture below you can see the Summer shower ‘inviting’ us to enjoy the great outdoors.

Luckily the weather delayed our departure by only an hour and the drive from our home to Charleston Lake Provincial park is only an hour so even with the small delay we still arrived at our campsite well ahead of dinner time.

Setting up the van took a little longer than usual as we had to prepare a 3rd bed for Elena. This is comprised of a board and blankets placed on the swiveled front seats. Really quite a nice space.

After dinner we took a short walk to the beach and then to the playground where Elena had to slide, swing, bounce and teeter-totter before she would allow us to leave and return the campsite. The evening ended with a small campfire.

The campground is quiet and the sites quite large and level as well as shady amongst maple and pine trees. Ours had lots of space for Elena to run around.

On Day 2 we decided to spend some time at the beautiful beach that they have in this park. It is really quite suited to younger children as it’s roped off and quite shallow. The water was warm and clear, and frogs and fishes were spotted.

After lunch it we enjoyed some quiet time at the campsite.

In the evening we had a campfire where marshmallows were roasted and s’mores were made. Sleep came fairly early as we had all really enjoyed the outdoor air.

Day3 started with Grandpa cooking breakfast on the griddle before we all pitched in to pack up our campsite. Time for one last picture before heading out.

Although the camping trip had been fun, we all slept really well in our own beds at home that night. Until the next camping trip, here’s hoping everyone enjoyed seeing and reading about our quick get away to Charleston Lake.

July 21, 2022 – Recap and Statistics

Three weeks, yes it’s been that long since we arrived home after our 42 day cross-continent tour. A few friends have asked for some specifics about the trip and so we provide the following for your consideration.

The first question tends to be about where we stayed each night. Did we find suitable camping locations? So, here are the stats for that.

13 nights moochdocking (family laneways). Thank you all.
3 nights at Indianapolis Motor Speedway camping field (no services).
7 nights at Harvest Host locations
3 nights in Walmart parking lots
6 nights at KOA campgrounds (serviced).
3 nights at US state park (Fort Stevens)
2 nights at Canadian National Parks
4 nights at Ontario Provincial Parks

As you can see we mixed it up a bit and tried a variety of places. Favorites?

Harvest Host: Shiloh Winery & Vineyard, Kansas. Quiet solitude on the plains.
KOA: Central City, Colorado.
Parks Canada: Jasper, Whistlers Campground, Alberta.
Ontario Provincial Park: Macleod, Geraldton, Ontario.
Family laneway: Yeah, we’re not picking a favorite as we love you all.

The next obvious question is about where exactly did we go? Here’s a map that shows you the route West from Ontario, across the US Midwest, up to British Columbia and the back across the Canadian prairies.

Lastly, given the current price of fuel, folks have asked how much fuel we used and what it cost. So, here it is all laid out in a table for you to review.

So there you have it, a few statistics about the trip. Hoping you find them interesting.

Day 42: June 30 – Deep River, ON to Home

Slept in today as it will be a short drive home from Driftwood Provincial Park. Had time to cook eggs, bacon & hash-browns and enjoy them outside…. Yes, the weather has finally cooperated to allow us to do this.

Last breakfast on the road for this trip

This being the day before Canada Day traffic between the park and Ottawa was much heavier than we had seen in recent days. However, we enjoyed an uneventful drive and before long we found ourselves driving into our laneway. We are home.

We were greeted by Kyra and an overly exuberant Dublin (Kyra’s dog) both of whom had missed us these past 42 days.

The remainder of the day will be spent unloading the van and settling back into the house.

If you’ve followed our journey from the beginning, thank you. I hope that my writing and our travels have been engaging for you. I plan on posting one or two follow on posts in the next few days that provide some statistics and thoughts after the fact. So, stay tuned!

Day 41: June 29 – Timmins, ON to Deep River, ON

Today we shall complete our Hwy-11 journey and join Hwy-17 at North Bay for the journey down the Ottawa Valley.

We pass through Earlton and wave at ‘Earl’ the bison on the way past. We stop for lunch at a quiet rest area a little North of North Bay and find an amazingly tranquil lake.

North Bay seems overly congested after the past few days of driving. The return to civilization is a little jarring. We leave the Toronto-bound traffic and continue Eastward on Hwy-17 towards Mattawa.

At Mattawa we spot Big Joe Mufferaw and turn towards Ottawa. Our destination for the night is Driftwood Provincial Park near Deep River as it will leave a short drive for tomorrow, our last day.

We snag an amazing waterfront site and settle in for a relaxing afternoon in the sun. The view is incredible across the Ottawa River and the sun is warming but not hot.