We are back in Ontario…

 

Our Location:

Valens Conservation Area, Flamborough, Ontario, Canada

A quick update for the folks out there wondering about us.

Day 1- April 6, 2025

We left Ogilby Road, in southeastern California, at 7:20 AM PDT,  stopping to dump the tanks at the Chevron station, our wheels officially turning toward home at 8:00 AM PDT. We rolled along easily, filling whenever we reached the half way mark, which ended up being 3 times throughout the day. Our day ended at a rest area in Fabens, Texas just east of El Paso. Which means we crossed one time zone, losing an hour of our day. We pulled off the road and 7:20 PM, MDT. Yes, 7:20; I thought it a bit odd too. We had no issues, but a long day, travelling 610 miles.

Day 2 - April 7, 2025

We had our wheels rolling from the Fabens, Tx rest area at 7 AM, MDT. A quick Dogsled repair at Van Horn, Texas and we were off once more. Our plan was the DOT Rest Area near Ranger but we somehow rolled on past. We opted at that time to make a big change of plans and continued along thru Fort Worth, Arlington, ( the only slow down occurred at the edge of this city), and Dallas, continuing to Walmart, Greenville, Texas. The end of rush hour was nothing like we expected, very little traffic and almost totally smooth sailing. We arrived at Greenville at 8:10 PM, CDT, shutting down for the evening.  Another very good day, with only a hiccup, we travelled 651 miles on this day, with another time zone change to Central Daylight Time.

Day 3 - April 8, 2025

(This was our original day of departure, with a long 9 day trek in mind, but we opted for a different plan.)

We left Greenville, Texas at 7:30 AM,CDT and motored along smoothly all day. We left Texas, crossed through Arkansas and stopped Big Dog in Missouri, at the Haiti Welcome Center, 20 miles inside the state line. Another good day, no issues. A much shorter day as we arrived at 4:00 PM, CDT, travelling only 481 miles. Green grass, lots of green leaves and flowers, along with a couple of otters in the pond. Spring has reached Missouri.

Day 4 - April 9, 2025

We left Haiti, Mo at 7:10 AM, CDT after a fabulous night’s rest, but we left in long pants and heavy sweaters. Rolling along with no issues we crossed from Missouri to Illinois to Indiana (another time zone) and finally into Ohio. We stopped at Walmart, Napoleon, Ohio at 6:30 PM EDT. It was a rainy, drizzly kind of day all day and evening too, we are happy we put new wipers on just this morning. We are back in our own time zone now. Travel was 556 miles. 

Day 5 - April 10, 2025

We left Napoleon, Ohio under rainy skies, cold temps and mittens on our hands. The time was once again 7:30 AM EDT.  We crossed the Ambassador Bridge into Ontario, Canada and were waiting in line at 9:43 AM. The scrutiny is longer, only two lines , things were at a stand still. We quickly hopped lines when a third one opened shortly after 10:00 AM. We answered questions for about 5 minutes, given our passports and we rolled off on our way shortly after. The weather is a mix of rain and snow, the air is very cold but we are excited to be back in Ontario.  We continued on to our current location, adding an extra week to our stay here, originally we were to be back on April 17, but as you have read, we changed that plan. We arrived here around 2:00 PM.  Travel today, 283 miles.

We are getting closer..

It is a very ugly travel day.

In 5 days we travelled 2581 miles, it leaves us still 400 miles from home. We will be staying here until April 24, when the wheels will roll again taking us home to our Island.

Thanks for following along. We do hope your days are filled with better things than yesterday, but that tomorrow will be even better. 

Until next time…..

Take care, stay safe,

Deb

Back in Ontario…

 

Our Location:

Valens Lake Conservation, Flamborough, Ontario

We woke to sunny skies and coolish temps in Perrysburg, Ohio but it did warm up on our drive. Wheels rolling by 7:45 am we had the best kind of drive….uneventful. The regular rough stretch entering Monroe, Michigan, but other wise other than a noisy road surface, all was good. 

Our last state this journey.

We arrived at the Canadian Customs, paid our $11.00 and rolled across the Ambassador Bridge pulling into line about 9:15 am. A new Customs Officer, reading from the “script” was pleasant and by 9:30 am we were wheels rolling on past the Customs yard onto the streets of Windsor.  Our second bonus of the day, an easy crossing.

The Ambassador Bridge

TD Duck is crossing the St. Claire River for the first time. Lol.

We are going to cross that bridge to Ontario.

Chatham Kent was our first rest stop in Ontario. The call to our intended destination brought us our first curve ball of the day. Due to new management, no returning early admissions allowed. Hmmmmm… this is not good, we had based everything on this park. Riley came up with the place we never wanted to return to, I called and yes, they are open, in fact open all year. We had little choice and took a spot. Our third bonus of the day.  A call to Dad to let him know we are back in Ontario, and on the road we were once again.

Not birds, boats on the St. Claire River as we cross, you can tell we are high up.

Riley texted our usual folks to let them know we have arrived and soon we were pulling into the Conservation area. Just under $500 CAD secured us a spot for the week.  We stayed in this park once before with the old Igloo, which was 30 amp, but now we discovered there are no 50 amp sites. Not knowing this is rig was 50 amp when we bought it, and since we plug in so infrequently, I left my 50/30 conversion at home. While the rig came with a short 50/30, this one plugs into the rig, not the end of the 50 amp cord like the one I have at home. So that didn’t help us. We decided we would continue with our plans and worry about later.

That is Ontario, Canada. Weare almost back to our home province, but nit home.

We left around 2:30 pm with the Igloo running as usual on battery and headed off to Brantford to see daughter Bradey, SIL David, and grandsons Auston and Lincoln. It was a great visit, the boys are growing so fast, and are full of energy. We enjoyed a very nice turkey dinner, but shortly after, we headed out, stopping at Walmart but not finding a 50/30, instead finding a 30 amp extension cord. We had a solution. We bought the cord, came home, plugged in the short 50/30 to the rig, connected the 30 amp extension cord, and voila, we are good to go. I think this might be our option of choice going forward. The 30 amp chord is much easier to handle than the very heavy 50 amp. We shall of course carry both but we are thinking of using this set up. Our fourth and fifth bonus’ of the day.

The green grass of Ontario.

It’s hard to tell but there is the slightest suggestion of green in the trees, barely but it’s there. 

We travelled 250 miles/402 km. We stopped a number of times, travelling approximately 6 hours, we used about 20 gallons/75 litres of fuel, we averaged around 57 mph/91 kmh. We had a bit of a head wind, side wind at times, some stop and go traffic getting to the park and a bit of hilly countryside as well. So my math says about 12.5 mpg. Considering our fresh water is almost full, I think that was good. 

Until next time…..

Take care, stay safe,

Deb