A cool morning greeted us today, so cool that the furnace was fired up in the campervan. My early morning walk was enjoyable as it was sunny, but the wind off of Lake Huron reminded us that it was till May and to not forget that the weather in these parts can be fickle.
It looks chilly…. Brrr.
The morning flittered by and before long it was time for more farewells as we prepared to hit the road once again. Kath & Al, thanks for having us, your warmth and generous hospitality were once again very much welcomed and enjoyed. All the best.
The drive to Exeter is only about 40 minutes and it hardly felt like we had begun when, we had arrived! The next two nights will be spent camping in the laneway at Barb’s parents home. We’d spend the first evening catching up on family happenings with the help of Barb’s Aunt Pauline who stopped by and joined us for dinner.
All for today. Life in the van is going well and we’re becoming accustomed living within the smaller space….. stay tuned.
Oh, apologies for those looking for photos of our travels… I will be adding some as we get a few more so check back on earlier posts as I catch up on this task.
Today would be a short drive across the arable farmlands of Southern Ontario.
After finally attaching the skid wheel to the trailer hitch of the campervan, we were ready to set off at about Noon. Mother nature had other ideas. Looking at the sky the thunder storm watch had turned to a warning and the clouds had been building quickly. The colours of the clouds told us that we should sit and wait for an hour or so before heading out. This was clearly the right call, as moments later the winds came up whipping trees about and the rain was driving sideways at a good 60km/h or more.
Lunch completed and our farewells said, we were off towards Tavistock, Stratford & then onto Goderich. Our decision to wait out the storm took only a few minutes to be proven as a good one. We passed many large tree branches that had been snapped from Maple trees lining the roads and blown into fields on the other side of the highway. Some were 6″ of so in diameter & would have severely damaged any vehicles should they have been in the way. Entire trees were uprooted neared Tavistock; however, as we drove on the dame soon subsided and we head left the path of the storm. (We would find out later in the weekend from news reports that the same storm had reeked havoc in and around Ottawa. Our thoughts are with those that were injured or have suffered property damage.)
In Goderich we were staying with Barb’s sister for a couple of nights and this first evening they took us into Goderich and to “The Old Saltie” Fish & Chip shack down near the harbour. It only sells fish & chips and only as takeout. Barb & I agreed that the food was fantastic!
After a short drive around town to see some long forgotten sites, we arrived back at the campervan to settle in for the night.
9:15am and we’re pulling out of our laneway on the first leg of the trip. Destination today is Woodstock, ON to visit my brother and family. After a quick stop in Kemptville to fill up with gas ($2.046/l) we’re off down Hwy 416.
Time to go!
The van is driving very well on Hwy 401 and the first several hours pass without incident. Before we know it, we’re coming into the GTA where we stop for gas and lunch. Gas price in Ajax is $1.962/l which we think of As a bargain ?!?!
Toronto traffic is heavy as it’s the Friday before the long weekend and folks are heading home and to their cottages. Although slow, we make it through and traffic lightens a little for the remainder of the drive to Woodstock. We arrive at about 3:30pm.
The evening is spent catching up with my brother while enjoying some pizza and drinks. Sleep came close to midnight. The end of an enjoyable first day with hopefully many mor e to come.
It’s almost time to head out on our cross-continent road trip. A few final preparations to complete ahead of tomorrows departure, we’re in good shape… we think.
We’ve been wanting to get a Class-B campervan for a few years and in 2020 we ordered from PleasureWay Industries of Saskatoon, Canada their OnTour-2.2 model. Based on the Ford Transit 350HD platform, the OnTour-2.2 comes complete with wet bath, galley and lounge/sleeping area. We picked up our van in October 2021, a full year after ordering.
Storing the van under a shelter in our laneway for the Winter was hard as we both just wanted to get out and travel, but van camping in Canada in the Winter is not how we wanted to learn about the ins and outs of our new van. So, we spent the time instead planning for our first retirement trip in the van.
And here we are…. After a long Winter of planning and preparing we are about to head out on a cross-continent trip that will see us leave Ontario, Canada and head to Indianapolis, IN to watch the Indy500 after which we will head West to Colorado and Utah before turning North to Idaho and finally Washington before crossing back into British Columbia, Canada. A couple of weeks later we will head East back across Canada arriving home in Ontario by early July.
It’s hard to believe that it’s all about to start!
Ok, so it’s time to check out actually camping in our campervan. We’ve had the van since last November but immediately put it away for the Winter. As such we have had several months to stock the van with all of the supplies and amenities we believe are needed. Time for a shakedown trip to discover what we have forgotten.
To that end we have booked a 3-night stay at Smugglers Cove RV Resort near Picton in Prince Edward County, Ontario. Our friends Dave & Liz will be accompanying us as our experienced guides and mentors.
The drive to PEC went very well with no issues of items shifting and after topping off our fuel we crossed PEC for the South-East corner of the county and locate the campground.
We’ve chosen fully serviced sites close to the beach in order that we have good views across the bay. As you can see in the picture below, this proved to be a good choice come time for the sunset. What a view!
Probably due to it being early-May, the campground is very quiet and there are lots of open sites. Our sites are not really level and so we had a chance to practice leveling the van on the wooden blocks I had cut just for this purpose. The water and electrical hookups were a little away from the van and so we also needed to use the extra hoses and electrical cords we carry just to make the connections. Again, proof of our preparedness.
The first couple of days pass quietly as we settle into camp life. Camping in a van really is very different from the tent camping we both enjoyed some years ago. We used our Blackstone griddle to cook our meals and found it to be as versatile as we had hoped.
On Monday we rode our bikes to Point Traverse (20km each way) and explored the old lighthouse that can be found there. The ride proved the longevity of the batteries on the e-bikes as although we used the batteries quite often during the ride, there was still plenty of charge left at the end proving that we could have gone further (if our bodies would have let us – Numb butts and sore shoulders.) 😊
Monday night delivered another wonderful sunset.
We had set aside Tuesday to drive our vans about the county and explore a few wineries. Below you can see that Waupoos Estates Winery was open and we purchased a couple of nice bottles to enjoy another time. We also located near Waupoos Bay a small store (shed) from which homemade tarts and pies were sold. The butter tarts were absolutely delicious!
Our last evening at the campground was again spent relaxing and reflecting on how things have gone with the camping experience. In general we’ve been happy with the time we’ve had to prepare the van for travel such as this and we feel confident ahead of our 2022 cross-continent trip that we will be OK and not completely out of our depth. I guess we’ll find out in just a few weeks! Stay tuned.
A big shoutout to our friends Dave & Liz for putting up with us ‘newbies’ on this trip. Their tips, tricks and words of wisdom will surely come in handy on the weeks and months ahead.
