Small Silver Lining
So, being “broke down” in Brockville turned out not to be such a bad thing after all. Our truck was still running ok as long as we weren’t towing anything so, because we were running on empty, we drove into Brockville to get fuel and were so glad we did. The historic part of Brockville is absolutely gorgeous. Lovely old buildings, nice boardwalk along the river. What a hidden jewel! And, on Sunday, we managed the 70km drive back to Morrisburg, where Upper Canada Village Park is and hiked around the village, taking in all the sites. It was a great way to spend the day. We bought some bread made on site from stone ground flour, visited the flour mill where the wheat was ground, watched a turbine powered sawmill in action and visited with the “residents” in the buildings. Today (Monday) we took the truck into the dealership for diagnosis and all they could find was that the fuel filter was maybe plugged. All the other diagnostic tests passed with flying colours but the tech told us that his guess was as good as ours as to whether or not that solved the problem. We won’t know till we hit the road tomorrow. Our fingers are crossed. We’ve enjoyed our brief stay here at the Happy Green Acres RV Park. It has been very quiet and relaxing. We have, however, made the decision not to go to Niagara Falls. That will have to wait for another...
Read MoreBummed in Brockville
We are stuck in Brockville, Ontario till Monday. Our truck started losing power 2 hours from our stopping spot at Camping Transit in Quebec. Camping Transit was awesome with their customer service. They called the Dodge dealer and translated for us and got us in that afternoon. And, we were fortunate that there was an English speaker at the Dodge dealer in the service department. They ran diagnostics on the transmission and truck and discovered that Canadian Tire put the wrong air filter in the truck so they put the correct one in.Everything seemed to be going fine when we left yesterday morning until we were about 2 hours in around Montreal. We were on the freeway and suddenly on a little overpass the truck speed dropped down to 60km. No power. On the freeway! No where to get off either. We finally pulled off an exit near Châteauguay. Found the Dodge dealer was only 10 km away and after sitting for 2 hours, decided to risk it. Got there and fortunately there was a large empty lot right next to the dealer. These are such tight streets. No where to turn around or park. I went in and said in my perfect French, Is there anyone who speaks English here. Again I was lucky. One of the receptionists did and she took me to the service department. The service manager also spoke English but very reluctantly. They send their mechanic home at noon on Fridays. One mechanic! Of course it was 1pm now. I was kind of panicked. We were only an hour from the Ontario border and English speakers. I said to Don let’s just go. Take the risk. If the truck blows up, it blows up. Well, it ran perfectly for the next 200 km and we got to our stop for the night in Brockville. Unfortunately the dealer couldn’t look at it till Monday but we are in a safe, good spot, hooked up to electric and water and have sewer too so we are good here for 4 days. The park is called Happy Green Acres RV Park. It is a beautiful RV park. Very spacious and green. Unfortunately we had to postpone our reservation for Niagara Falls till we find out what’s what. We drove into Brockville after unhooking and the truck is working fine. But it used a full tank of gas...
Read MoreNot all fun and games
This is the day we had today.It feels like a road show. We left Woodstock, NB this morning. We had a reservation at Cosy Cabin RV Park and when we got there yesterday afternoon, there was no one there to show us to our spot so I called the number and a lady came in a golf cart to show us the way. Fortunately I had a hunch that we shouldn’t follow her with the truck but to walk to see the spot first. Good thing. She wanted us to go down a very short but very steep hill and turn 90 degrees around a building with RVs parked all around the open side with 50 feet of truck and 5th wheel. No turning radius for the truck or trailer. Last I saw, the truck won’t go around a 90 degree angle around a building dragging the 5th wheel. And we would have lost the back end of the trailer on that little hump. I was pissed. Needless to say, we didn’t stay there. Fortunately Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park was just up the road so that’s where we stayed again. We had to listen to the water canon shoot off for about 4 hours but got used to it.Then this morning on the way to Quebec, our truck started dragging on the uphill (and not radical hills, either) – 1st gear and almost not making it. It felt like the tranny was slipping or something. We limped in to Camping Transit which was our stay for the night at Levis, just across the river from Quebec City. Good place for us to have problems with the language barrier. Fortunately they speak good English here. We had to phone Lubrico (our warranty for the truck) and they told us we had to drive an hour and a half to a tranny place. I told them no, we would take it to the Dodge dealer 10 minutes from us. Camping Transit set that up for us and there was one English speaker at the Dodge dealer. Unbelievably we have been driving from Peace River to Newfoundland to Nova Scotia to PEI to Nova Scotia to New Brunswick to Quebec with the wrong air filter in our truck. Crappy Tire put the one for a gas engine in instead of diesel – they look different – how can you make that mistake...
Read MoreBack to PEI
(August 20, 21 and 22) Don’s cousin Jimmy was expecting us for a visit back at his cottage near Fortune Cove, PEI. So we made another trip across Confederation Bridge and then the hour drive to the cottage. We backed our rig up with the back windows facing Mill River, a tidal river. It definitely was cottage country. People swimming, kids playing and boats zipping up and down the river. At night after the bugs disappeared, we sat around the fire. One of Jimmy’s friends across the river (it was a wide river), turned his stereo up and serenaded us with tunes. I am sure that the music could be heard for miles around. Jimmy took Don out for the day to visit all the old haunts and long lost family. We feasted on new potatoes, corn, green and yellow beans and cucumbers from Jimmy’s garden. Yum! Jimmy and Don bought fresh caught lobster, company came and they all feasted on the lobster. I got a little nervous when my eyes started to itch. Maybe psychological allergic reaction but maybe it was a real one from the juices and aromas floating in the air. Neighbour kids came over in the morning and dropped off their lists for Santa to take to the North Pole with him. We had some pictures of Santa printed so he autographed one for the kids. Fun. (August 23, 24 and 25th) We went back to Halifax and stayed at Woodhaven RV Park and took a few days to get ready for the trip to Niagara Falls and get some maintenance work done on the rig. Hot and...
Read MoreBack to Nova Scotia
(August 13, 14 and 15) On August 13th, we took the risk and headed back across the pond to the Arm of Gold Campground. It was a flat and calm journey compared to our crossing to Port aux Basque. It did take 6 and a half hours which was much longer that the way to Newfoundland. We decided just to take things easy and catch up on our shopping, clean the rig, do laundry, etc. Lucy was really happy running around in circles on the field below the RV park. I met a lady from Charleston, NC who was towing a Boler trailer that had been built at the Boler plant in Peace River in the 70’s. And, on one of my Lucy walks, I met another Virginia. She was an army brat and an army vet of 35 years and had retired on Cape Breton Island. (August 16, 17, 18, 19) KOA, Bedford Nova Scotia On Sunday we headed for our first KOA campground near Lower Sackville, NS. I have to say we were really disappointed. The park was old and felt kind of dirty and cramped. We had reserved a pull through and it was barely wide enough for us. We had to move our neighbour’s picnic table in order to put our slide out. Fortunately we didn’t put our canopy out, otherwise, while we were gone the next day, The RV that pulled in next to us wouldn’t have been able to park in the spot next to us. We could hardly get in our door. The rig next to us was SO big! The rig that had been there the day before had come in at night. We heard this horrendous screeching of metal as we saw it driving down the road towards the parking spot. In the morning, we saw the car it had been towing had hit a rock on the side of the road and crunched in the back fender. I am sure there were some unhappy campers inside that rig. We drove out to Peggy’s Cove. What another disappointment. It has become a crowded tourist attraction and there were probably several hundred people jammed in a tiny area. We just drove up to the lighthouse and didn’t even get out of the truck. The scenery is very beautiful and rugged and lovely to see but too many people for my liking....
Read MoreThe Great Cat Escape
Well, almost. It was a great attempt. While we were parked waiting for the ferry, we had let the Cat out in the bedroom and had closed the bedroom door to keep her in there. She would ride the ferry in the bedroom of the rig so she could access her litter box. I had to quickly grab something from the rig, popped in and left the main door open and slid the bedroom door a crack. Well, faster than you can say cat, she slipped out and tried to get past me. I managed to grab her tail with my left hand (ouch – my wrist still hurts!) but she slipped through my fingers. Fortunately she ran under the table and not out the door. I quickly ran and closed the door, chased her back into the bedroom. Bad Cat! When we got back into the trailer later in the afternoon, there was a hunk of hair I must have pulled out of her tail. I couldn’t find where it came from. When I got back into the truck, I was really shaken, hot and sweaty and covered with hair. Scared me silly that she could have...
Read More