On September 14th we FINALLY left Ruth and Brian’s. We originally planned to leave on the 13th, and were actually all packed up and just about ready to go when I noticed that that none of the lights on the camper were working. Can’t do a road trip without brake or signal lights…so WTF? Turns out the power cable between truck and camper got ripped apart during the camper attachment process. Rewiring it didn’t go smoothly either but after about 4 hours of dicking around with it, Dave and Brian finally got it figured out. They also sorted out the sticky brake thing that was going on….or so they thought. More on brakes later.
By then it was too late to leave so had to reschedule our first reservation of the trip. Had ANOTHER good bye dinner with the family.
Our first stop was North Shore RV park in Carrying Place, right on Lake Ontario not far from Trenton. It was around a 3 hour drive for our maiden voyage with our "new to us" travel gear. Happy to say we made it to the campground safe and sound. No equipment issues, everything felt OK while travelling, I didn’t even have to white knuckle it at all…shocking!
Originally planned to stay only two days but extended that to 3 days…why, because we liked the place and Dave forgot to pack his laptop power cord and Ruth could only get it couriered to us on the Monday. This was our home for 5 nights. Looks nice right…not bad but lots of dust from the road and we were right across from all the recycling and garbage bins. On the plus side, couldn’t ask for nicer weather, so good that summer FINALLY showed up!!!
The location was perfect for paddle boarding, canoeing and biking. This shot from Google Earth shows why and I’ve included the route we took on our canoe trip. The Weller's Bay side was protected from the wind for the most part so very calm but very weedy which results in the water being so much greener. The water and beach on the Lake Ontario side was beautiful, very shallow and nice sandy bottom. Perfect to fall off a paddle board into…. right Dave? : -)
The land is part of the Wellers Bay National Wildlife refuge and is one of the last undeveloped sand spits in Lake Ontario. It harbours and protects many types of birds. Any time we were out on the water we saw a resident pair of swans and their 3 young ones. They never let us get very close though.
Here’s a few pics from our land and water excursions.
BRAKE, BREAK, BROKEN!!!!
We decided to take a break from all the activity and the sun on Sunday so disconnected the truck and went for a drive into nearby Brighton for supplies and then through Prince Edward county and down to Sandbank provincial park to check it out for a future stay. Managed to get there OK but just as we were leaving one of the campgrounds Dave says “We have no brakes”. OMG and WTF! He managed to slowly get out to the park entrance/exit where he could take a look at it and sure enough there was fluid leaking all over from the right rear. Wonderful, looks like the brake line is busted.
So we call CAA for a tow and the owners of the RV park to find out where they’d recommend we get it towed to. After about a 3 hour wait we get picked up and we’re headed back to the RV park.
Not a good thing to happen but better here than on the 401, going down a hill with the camper on…can you imagine? Makes me shudder!!! To the right of the truck was the park entrance as well as a bathroom and drinking water. So at least we were comfortable while we waited for CAA.
Turns out it’s not a broken brake line, worse. For you mechanically inclined people, the rear caliper seized, burning the brake pads completely off to the metal and the piston came out of caliper. Required new rear pads, rotors and calipers. So $1200.00 later we get the fixed truck back on Tuesday.
Since then we’ve made two uneventful trips. Phew!
Spent two nights at an RV park in Johnstown, ON, right on the St. Lawrence near a bridge to the USA. But, we pretty much got stuck in the parking lot. Didn’t want to disconnect anything so it was the easiest place be. Won’t go back there, especially since their “Free” WIFI sucked! Basically non existent, took FOREVER for a page to load if you were lucky…most of the time pages didn’t load at all….so frustrating and so very difficult to figure out where to go next.
But we got enough info to find a park in Quebec, where we’re at now, kinda in between Montreal and Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu so we’ll be able to get some good day trips in. Updates to follow!