Airstream Road Trip to Selkirk 2025 - Homeward Bound

 After the rain of the previous day, it was a cold night, and an even colder morning inside the Airstream. It was hard to remember that it was still August with the thermometer bobbling around 8C. I made my way over to the comfort station for my shower and noted that there were fewer trailers in the campground, but there were a couple of new ones, so Thursday had clearly been changeover day.

We had been in the Campground for a day longer than we'd normally camp in any one place, because the sites at Selkirk not only have 30amp power, but they also have water. Sadly there's no sewer connection, but if you're careful about what you put in the onboard waste tanks then the water on tap, as it were, does allow you to stay a little longer before emptying out the waste tanks. It would of course be possible to hitch up and drag the trailer to the dump station, empty, then go back and park on the site for a few more days. Similarly you could use a "Blue Boy", a plastic tank on wheels that you can dump your waste water into, then dump that in a vault toilet or at the dump station. The idea of a Blue Boy is sound, but when they've been used then you need to store them outside your trailer or tow vehicle, and that's not practical for us. I know there are plenty of people that will dump their gray water right where the trailer stands on the site, which you're not supposed to do. Most grey water will have a lot of soap in it, and very often food scraps, so that's the last thing you want, fouling your site. That we do not do.

Back in the camper, I put the furnace on for the first time this year. It was to warm things up a little, but it was also to try to disperse the condensation that had built up inside overnight. We've never had an issue with condensation because we always clear it, and that was the situation this damp morning when I fired up the Fantastic Fan in the roof hatch and opened a window, just to get the moisture moving.

There were a couple of women with very small babies, sitting under an awning on an adjacent site; they'd arrived the previous night. Both were in long pants and sweatshirts, and both swaddled in blankets. As I said, not much like August.

As we'd done much of the preparation the previous day, our camp breakdown was swift. All that was different from the usual was to drive off the Lego blocks and put them away before leaving the site. We'd been close enough to the power and to the water to not need extensions to the power cord or the water hose, so even they were stowed in quick time. We rolled off the site at about eleven-thirty, and made our way over to the dump station.

It's not the greatest dump station in the world at Selkirk, it's on a tight loop of a dirt track, and on a hill. Once in the line up, you just have to wait your turn, and this cold morning were were number four, right behind an older Airstream. The folks ahead of us seemed to move quickly and we were emptying our tanks after waiting for only about ten minutes. The tanks were full, and I'd used the short, clear plastic extender on the dump valve so I could see when the tanks had emptied, and I was able to watch the brown soup infused with toilet paper croutons rush into the underground septic tank. That tank, I fear, was getting quite full because it backed up a wee bit as our tank drained, and the smell was awful. But these are camping necessities, and can't be avoided, so I just did what I had to do, packed up and left. Thank goodness for Nitrile gloves.

I set the Google Map Directions app going and we had an ETA at home of two-forty-four, with a journey time just short of three hours. I knew we'd not match that as there are parts of the route that are slow, but it's always good to have something to aim at. 

Once our on Haldimand Country Road Three and pointed westward, I felt the strong headwind tugging at us and though that today I wasn't going to break any gas mileage records. Given that it was the Friday before a long weekend, there was more traffic on the roads than there had been on Monday, but that's relative. Compared to an English A or B road, it was deserted.

We made good time, had no traumas, and the Toadmobile dealt comfortably with the headwind. There are a couple of steep downhill sections, with the corresponding uphill sections, on this route. As I've said many times before, it's the down hill bits that are the issue, and I made sure to knock off my speed before I started the descent. I think the people following were a wee bit disconcerted as I slowed before the downhill sections, but that's what we have to do. 

We arrived home, unscathed, having dropped about fifteen minutes on the original ETA. Traffic lights, Stop signs and slow sections all contributed, but over a 226km drive and towing a big trailer, that's not too bad. The gas mileage was 17.6 litres to 100Kms (13.4 miles/US Gallon, or 16.1 miles/Imperial Gallon), compared with 16.4 (14.3 and 17.2) on Monday, so not a drastic difference. 

It was a good run, and good camping despite the one rainy day. Selkirk is great, and its a park that you can normally get a site at without the usual competition for sites that Rondeau has. We like the water to the sites, and I liked that it was a pull-through, so no horrible backing in to do. Certainly there's not a lot going on at Selkirk, but a relaxing couple of days, you can't beat it.

Our next trip is a short run to Rondeau in September, so we'll be back in the groove then, but first I'm on cleaning duties. Again.

Airstream Road Trip to Selkirk 2025 - Full Day the Third

 

With the prospect of storms later in the day, we opted for a do nothing, stay inside day. When I went for my shower at seven, the sun was just peeping up over the trees and the skies were deep blue, but there were some big fluffy clouds forming out to the south west so I guessed that today the forecasters may just be right.

The first task of the day, though, was to dismantle and stow the bug tent, the Pleasure Dome. It's waterproof, but I really didn't want to be packing it up wet, so down that came. The pegs I'd used to secure it in Monday's wind were a right bugger to extract from the rock-hard ground, but my camping skills and experience came to fore and I utilised another peg to add some leverage to the extraction process. The bug tent was an expensive piece of kit, and in most respects is excellent. The manufacturer, though, has skimped something rotten on the securing pegs, supplying only twelve, the minimum number required, and they are the cheapest mild-steel items on the market, which means they will bend and they'll get rusty. Given how much the tent cost, you'd have thought some pressed alloy pegs with a point on the end could have been supplied. Ah well, I shall have to raid Amazon and get some proper pegs, I think. 

The rain didn't show until well into the afternoon. We watched other people breaking camp before the rain started, and as the skies darkened we stayed huddled inside, tending to books, or blogs, of family trees, just stuff to allow us to decompress. We did at least get to test the automatic closing function of Towed Haul's roof vents for the first time this year, and as the rain hit the sensors, down came the hatches, which was comforting.

It was quite the deluge during the afternoon and early evening, and there was a little thunder to liven things up. I'd expected to see lots of people arriving for the upcoming long weekend, but I think the rain kept quite a few away. As the rain petered out, trailers did start arriving, but it was getting quite dark by then, and setting up in the dark is never fun.

We revelled in the peace and quiet of the trailer. When you live at home with a five-year-old, the opportunity to get away and decompress should always be taken and enjoyed, We love the little shaver, of course we do, but as you get older your tolerance wanes, and after he's been at home for two months, this break has been seriously welcome.

We're heading home tomorrow, and if we get away before noon then we should avoid the rain. Everything outside bar the patio mat and the water hose is packed, so it should be a swift camp break down. We'll have to dump the four days accumulation in the waste water tanks of course, but that necessary evil has to be performed and I'll factor it in to our leaving time. Let's hope the run home is uneventful.

Airstream Road Trip to Selkirk 2025 - Full Day the Second

 

Goodness, what a chilly night. I roused myself at around seven, stepped outside to go to the shower block and thought I'd been transported to the far north in the night. The official temperature was 8C, not desperate, but it had been 22C the day before, so quite the difference. It was the north-west wind that was the culprit.

Shower done, and vents open in the trailer to disperse some of the condensation on the cold windows, I sat down at the Chromebook to jot down the previous day's doings. I didn't feel much like sitting outside, so I huddled indoors and pondered why I was being such a wimp. I could blame the previously sweltering heat and the sudden change, but really it was just me.

When we're camping, we're quite lucky to generally have good Internet access. We don't have twenty-foot poles with antennae atop, nor even a high gain aerial on the roof of the Airstream, we just use our cell phones and the WiFi Hotspot function, or in my case the USB tethering, to get access through our laptops. Our family cell phone plan is very generous with its data allowance, too, which helps. Airstreams are not great places for radio reception, given that they're made of two layers of reflective metal and have fine mesh metal fly screens over all the windows. FM radio, and even WiFi from your home network, simply won't penetrate it, but cell phone signals will. We can sit inside and get good cell phone reception, and therefore good Internet access, always assuming that we're in an area that has a good cell service in the first place. Rondeau Park, the campground end at least, has good reception, as does Selkirk Park, so we're quite happy. Yes, I could get one of those poles to make sure the cell signal was perfect, but you still have to get the signal inside the trailer and into a router, and that's way too much effort when you can rely on your handset to do the donkey work. I know, there are people that say you should go off-grid when you camp and keep off the Internet, but it's those same people that watch TV and have their air-conditioner going the whole time when they're camping. I'd rather be able to read the news and blog up a storm than watch TV. Talking of TVs, there is a fifth-wheel trailer here that has a TV fixed to its outside wall so it can be watched outside. I hadn't seen one in Canada before, although I had seen plenty in the US. Bad habits, folks, bad habits.

This was the day we needed to go off site to get some petrol for the Toadmobile. We opted to go to the little town of Cayuga, about fifteen kilometres away, where there was a Pioneer gas station, my preferred brand because I can collect all manner of points and prizes with that brand, and they're generally the cheapest. The nearest other brand, Esso, was about the same distance but in another town. Gas stations are few and far between outside of towns in south west Ontario, and I don't recall seeing a single gas station along the route we took to drive here. Obviously had we needed petrol we could have diverted to a town, but on these lesser roads, gas stations are a thing of the past, which given the prevalence of the automobile seems a wee bit ironic.

Anyway, we stopped in Cayuga for a quick walk along the bank of the Grand River. There was a little paved walkway with some adjacent parking, but it only extended about four hundred metres. We gamely carried on along the road when the path ended, just to get some steps in, and admired the extended trailer park along the river bank, home to what looked like the entire hoarding population of Ontario. I don't mean to be nasty about trailer folk or hoarders, but the two things seem to go together. Gas was bought, I clunked the hitch receiver on the steep ramp getting out of the gas station and bent one of the sticky-out bits on the hitch-slop stopper (hitch clamp would be a better term), so it'll be interesting to see how easy it'll come off when that time arrives. The Toadmobile is low and will clunk the receiver on steep ramps even when the hitch head isn't installed, but this day it was installed, as was the clamp and yes, I clunked it.

Rather than head back to the Park, DW suggested that we motor over to Port Dover which, as the name suggests, is a little port on the lake, just where the Lynn River meets it. We were after a lighthouse-shaped souvenir for the grand-baby, knowing his love of lighthouses, and a port seemed a good place to find one. 

Port Dover is a fine little place, has a small harbour filled with commercial fishing vessels, and a nice sandy beach. It also has a dying Main Street, so like everywhere else in Ontario, and the usual array of fried-food emporia and gift shops that any little lakeside town would have. I say lakeside because it's right on Lake Erie, but it looked so like a little English seaside town that I was getting confused with all the "Lake Life" tat on sale in the shops, wondering why lake life when we were beside the sea. Of course Lake Erie is not the sea, but for an Englishman who grew up with the sea, it's hard to shake the idea that a massive body of water isn't the sea. It still gets me.

Anyway, we strolled by the river, walked by the beach (which was busy but emptying because a fresh south-westerly wind had sprung up and brought dark clouds), went into the tat shops, had an ice cream and also some fries, all those things you have to have when at the seaside, sorry, lakeside. We visited a bakery that had lots of vegan goodies for DW, and spoke to a man who worked there, or maybe owned it, who was from Mossley, near Manchester. We had a fine old chat about Saddleworth Moor, Myra Hindley and Ian Brady, and left the shop feeling quite depressed.

Port Dover is also the spiritual home of Ontario's motorcyclists. They have a gathering there every Friday 13th (I assume only when it falls outside the winter), and many of the shops there cater specifically for that event. These are not generally your Hell's Angel types, because the vast majority of bikers in these parts are oldiewonks like me. Bikes, Harleys being the favoured brand, are expensive, as is the insurance, and only old folks can afford them. However, there is a big bike community, and Port Dover is where they gather. Even though it wasn't Friday 13th, there were a few bikes about, and two caught my eye, ridden by a couple as far as I could tell. One was an original 1960s Triumph Bonneville, a noisy and oil-spewing 650 twin cylinder British bike, the other was a Yamaha 200cc, two-stroke twin cylinder, old enough to have drum brakes front and rear. It looked to be in good nick, too, so I guess the owners were real enthusiasts, although quite what the Hog owners would make of the Yammie oil-burner I don't know.

It was a lovely afternoon, despite the keen wind, and made all the better for being a spur of the moment thing. Port Dover might be a wee bit too far for a day trip for Charlie, but if we're in the area and staying, it'd be a great place for him.

When we returned to the Park, we sat out in the Pleasure Dome and had a wee drinkie-poo. It was warm and not windy where we were sitting. We spoke to a pair of fellow campers about the Pleasure Dome, about the trailer and of course, about the van that tows it. It's interesting to note that people in Canada raise their eyebrows and ask questions about how the van tows, but when we have been in the US, they just tell you outright that the van can't tow the Airstream, despite the fact that it's right there in front of them. Different cultures, and never the fifty-first State.

The weather forecast for our final full day isn't great, but the forecasts are not always accurate. We shall see what transpires. With a bit of luck, it'll be a wonderful day of doing not very much again.

Airstream Road Trip to Selkirk 2025 - The First Full Day

 

As I'd said in the previous post, it was an early night for me. Snuggled down under the duvet I went out like a light, although two beers had me up again in the wee small hours, but then I slept until six. Normally I would start moving at that point, but I just went deeper under the duvet and slept through until a quarter to nine, which is something I haven't done in a long while. Clearly the cool air of Selkirk Provincial Park is good for aiding restful sleep.

The first order of the day was to shower, which meant a walk through the campground to the Comfort Station. There's only one Comfort Station in this park, and you'd expect to have to wait for a stall but no, all but one was unoccupied and the cleaning team had been in and the whole place, changing area and all, was wet. While that meant drying off the clothes' pegs before hanging my clean stuff up, it also meant it was clean, which was nice.

The shower system itself was old fashioned but it worked. Lots of hot water, albeit discharging from the shower head at quite a leisurely pace. A hot shower is what sets me up for a hard day's camping.

It had been a cool night and the air was still warming as I sat outside with my coffee. The kids in the neighbouring sites were up and about of course, but that's what excitable kids do, and they seemed to be having a great time; I'm not sure the adults were enjoying it as much, though. 

I spent the morning working on the Chromebook and enjoying the warming sun. I did deploy the Airstream's awning because looking at the Chromebook's screen was getting a bit difficult in the bright sunshine. That was about the extent of the morning's activities. Breakfast didn't happen, so I went straight to lunch, prepared entirely by Dear Wife, which was lovely.

In the afternoon we ambled down to the lake, noting that the campground was fairly full and people looked quite happy to be sat outside their trailers or their tents just enjoying the fine weather. The day use area of the park is a large grassy field with barbecues and benches, kids' play equipment and even a volleyball net, which looked quite serviceable to me, someone who hasn't played volleyball in many a year.

Lake Erie, the yellow blob is Selkirk Provincial Park

The lake was flat calm, albeit that there were heavy clouds, including a funnel cloud, and rain far out across the water. While only the fourth biggest of the five Great Lakes, Erie is still 241 miles (388 Kilometres) long, and 57 miles (92 kilometres) wide. It has a surface area of 9,990 square miles (25,874 square kilometres). When you're stood on the north shore, you can't see the south shore, although sometimes you can see the steam from the power stations in Cleveland, Ohio, rising up over the horizon. It's an inland sea, and the weather can be quite different out on the lake to that on the shore, as was the case this afternoon. Funnel clouds out on the lake don't have quite the impact that they do on land, unless you're in a small boat of course, but we snapped some photos anyway, just to show how brave we were.

The lake looked a little low, with a flat limestone shelf exposed which allowed us to walk out to the water's edge and take a look. The water wasn't deep and, given that it's late August, was quite likely fairly warm. There was no one out swimming, though, and I wasn't going to start a trend, even though out there away from the beach the water was crystal clear.

The area that Selkirk Park now occupies was once the domain of the Anishinaabe and Salteaux people, before European contact. I don't do it enough, but we should always make land acknowledgements when we visit and enjoy places in modern Canada. We're not far from the Grand River, and the Six Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy First Nations Reserve, the biggest reserve of its type in Ontario. The six nations comprise the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora people, and the reserve is home to some Lenape as well. A few years ago, we went to a Pow Wow on the Six Nations, and jolly nice it was, too.

I did check on the history of the park itself but couldn't find much of any value, other than the area the park occupies wouldn't make great farmland. Then I found the following paragraph in an Ontario Government paper about the Park's management plan:

"Selkirk Provincial Park commenced operation as a Provincial Park in 1969, primarily to provide recreational opportunities for the anticipated influx of people into the Haldimand-Norfolk Region. However, the increase in local population has not materialized as employment opportunities at the Nanticoke Industrial Complex failed to reach forecasted levels."

That would go some way to explaining why the park doesn't get as busy as some of the other parks in Ontario. Gubmint, eh?

Our evening was spent lounging around, inside the trailer mostly, and just chilling out. I started to watch a film on the Chromebook but couldn't maintain interest in it so I went to bed. That all sounds dull and boring but, when you consider that we've had Charlie on the go this past three months at home, the peace and quiet is something we both appreciate. Being a grandparent is fun, but us oldies really need the break sometimes. 

We're going to have to go off site tomorrow to get some petrol; it's much easier to fill the car up when you don't have a thirty-feet long trailer attached. Maybe we'll explore a little, maybe not. 

Watch this space for more battery-charging adventures.

Airstream Road Trip to Selkirk 2025 - On the Way

 

We don't usually camp in the school holidays. Camp sites can be hard to come by, and for many families it's the only chance they get to take the kids away, so we don't take places that would be better used. But when we were planning earlier in the year, I thought about Selkirk Provincial Park, a small and surprisingly unpopular camping park on the northern shore of Lake Erie. Ten minutes on the Ontario Parks website and I had divined that I could get a site, the same site we'd been to twice before, for four nights before the Labour Day weekend. There were plenty of other spaces available, too, which meant we weren't doing some family out of a trip, so I pressed the go button.

Quite why Selkirk is not much favoured is a bit of a mystery because it's really nice. There's a little beach, picnic areas, and an inlet off the lake that's good for kids to learn to enjoy the water. Certainly there are no long trails, or even too many diversions in the area, but it's pretty and quiet, and just the place for a peaceful break.

Our travel preparations were knocked a little off kilter with some last minute running around for the grand-baby. But Towed Haul was clean and ready to be filled with supplies on the Monday of our departure, so we spent the morning loading up. The summer's been very warm, but our travelling day was set to be around 20C, part cloud, part sun, and no threat of rain, so looking quite good. Selkirk is about a three hour drive from home, longer than we've done in a while, so I made sure there was some fresh water in the tank in order that we could use the onboard facilities if we had to.

Selkirk is also on the old Highway Three, a route that follows the shore of the lake all the way from the St, Claire River in the west, to the Niagara River in the east. We joined it at Blenheim, just about twenty minutes from home, and apart from dipping south of St Thomas, we stayed on "Number Three" for most of the run. It's not one continuous straight road, though, as there are the habitual right-angle turns every know and again as the road skirts the original land grants, and crosses north-south roads that have become more important over the years. There are arrow-straight sections of course, but there are also some nice "dips and swoops", and some challenging bends for us trailer towing people. There are also quite a few little settlements to pass through, which brings the speed down, and breaks up the field after field vista of soya beans and corn. It's actually a really pleasant drive, with or without the two and a half tons of metal behind us, and makes a change from the flat, straight roads of Chatham-Kent.

As we progressed and made our way into Norfolk County, the crops in the field changed markedly, apparently because the well-drained sandy loam of that county supports other things. Tobacco is one of the major cash crops, a paler variety than in Kent County, and dried in small sheds rather than the smoke barns that cure the darker tobacco grown in our part of the Province. There's a lot of asparagus (sandy loam again), and ginseng, a more recent introduction the area. Ginseng is grown in the shade, so there are fields filled with dark netting on metal frames with the rows of plants laid out below. I'm not sure what the market is for ginseng, but the farmers of Norfolk County seem to be able to make a profit on it.

As we approached the park, we skirted north of Nanticoke, a curious hive of industrial activity in the agricultural landscape. Nanticoke fronts Lake Erie and is home to a huge Stelco steel mill and an Ontario Power electricity generation station. I guess that steel milling supplies are brought in and out of the plant using the lake and the mass of freighters that ply the Great Lakes Waterway, which makes sense. The power station is powered by natural gas these days, but I'd bet that it was once coal, which would also have been transported on the water. Selkirk Park is just ten kilometres east of Nanticoke, but once in the park you'd never know it existed.

We arrived after about three hours and ten minutes driving, and I went into the little park office and shop to register. I'd already checked in online so it was just a case of confirmation. I was expecting some paper park's permits but no, apparently it's all paper-free at Selkirk these days. I haven't seen any Park's staff wandering around, but I'd imagine that they do a random check on camp site occupation. I'm all for it, but I hope people don't abuse the system.

Having dumped the holding tanks of the water I'd used in cleaning the camper, we found our site, a pull-through, and spent an age deciding where to park the Airstream. It made sense to put the "street side" of the camper to the power and water outlets, and that left a big usable space in front. Then we had a debate about whether the trailer was level, from side to side, and decided it wasn't. We deployed our "Lego Blocks", little plastic blocks that you can put under the wheels, and backed onto them. Still more debate ensued and we decided all was well, but only when we had unhitched from the Toadmobile did we decide that we'd over-done the levelling and Towed Haul was still on a slant. Too late, though, I wasn't going to hitch up again. I was going to be the first to fall out of bed as a result of any level issues.

We did notice, in among the Hop trees, a super-sized wasp's nest that was still clearly in use. With our newfound understanding of the insects that live around Ontario's native trees and plants, we didn't exclaim even the tiniest of shrieks of alarm. It was good to know that the nest was there, but if we don't bother the wasps, I doubt that they'll bother us.

The campground was fairly busy, a few empty sites but not many. There were lots of families, too, which is always good to see. The kids all seemed to be enjoying their camping, judging by the noise, but there's something quite comfortable about the sound of children enjoying themselves, or at least there is when there's a bit of distance between us and them!

We pitched our bug tent, the Pleasure Dome, and after dinner sat out in it until we both felt the cool air was too much. All our recent camping trips have been in the blazing heat of the early summer, so it was quite a turn up for us to start feeling cold. As the night time temperatures were set to dip to 12C, we broke out the duvet as well. 

It was only about 10pm when I gave up the unequal struggle and went to bed. A couple of beers certainly hastened my move to the bed, but I was feeling a bit pooped after the drive. 

We have three full days ahead of us at Selkirk and plan to do very little. Let's hope we achieve that lofty aim.

As a postscript to this entry, I should mention that this travel day was, coincidentally, our sixteenth wedding anniversary, so congratulations to us.

The sites at Selkirk are mostly pull-throughs, and are universally grassy. Unfortunately, on site 114 someone had obviously been camped for a while (two-week maximum) and there was a big, patio mat-shaped square that was completely devoid of grass. Those reprobates had clearly never been in the Scouts and learned that you take up or move your mat every couple of days. Still, we covered the area with our patio mat and it looked a wee bit better. 

Still in Niagara - day 4

Our final day, with one more thing to do before we go home. OK, more than one thing because we have to watch a couple more ships transit the lock. Well, that's the point of staying at the Inn at Lock Seven, isn't it?

Packed up and ready to leave well before check-out time was a new and exciting experience for me, especially with a party of four. But, there we were, getting ready to drive away with more than an hour spare. How on earth did that happen?

We were heading to Hamilton and the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum. Having just written that out, I have realised that "Warplane" is a made up word, and it's proper meaning could easily be a surface upon which a war is fought. But we all know what it really means, it's War 'planes, as in Aeroplane or Airplane. Pedantry is not yet dead, so I shall abbreviate it to CWHM.

The museum is a collection of aircraft, many of which still fly, and a workshop from which these aircraft are maintained. It occupies a purpose-built hangar in the corner of Hamilton International Airport and is quite the place to visit.

The entry fee is very reasonable (a little over $14 for an adult), and for that you get a nice little interactive display about Royal Canadian Air Force people over the years, before they let you lose in among the aircraft in the main part of the hangar. I was very surprised to find that we could walk under the Lancaster Bomber, one of only two still flying, and the Douglas DC3 Dakota, both of which regularly take to the skies. Indeed, for a fee, you can fly in them yourself when they're scheduled to fly. This particular day both the Lancaster and the DC3 were resting, but outside on the apron, a de Havilland Canada Chipmunk and a North American Harvard were up and running and taking lucky punters (albeit members of the museum) for half-hour trips over Hamilton. That's the true meaning of interactive.

It was excellent to be able to walk in among the aircraft, although obviously not to touch them. The place was teeming with museum guides, old geezers who really enjoyed their work showing visitors around, and on this day, parties of children getting special tours with said guides, and all for $14. 

Charlie loved it, too, and was able to sit in a Canadair CT-114 Tutor and twiddle the controls for all he was worth, all under the expert eye of a museum guide of course. He didn't realise it, but it was the same type of aircraft that the RCAF Snowbirds Aerobatic Team fly, so I was moderately excited.

There was a nice little cafe on site, too, which looked right out onto the apron, and we sat watching the two excursion aircraft prepare for flight while we had some lunch. Indeed, it being such a nice day, they had the patio open, which was the outdoor part of the cafe and gave you not only the view but the sounds of the aircraft as well. DW and I sat for a while out there and watched as both the Harvard and the Chipmunk buzzed the airfield and then came into land.

We spent a happy couple of hours wandering around, and even spent a little money in the gift shop, before we started our homeward leg of the trip.

There's not too much to be said about driving the 403 and the 401 that hasn't been said before. Too many drivers are complete numpties, they drive too fast and too close, and it's little wonder that there are nasty crashes almost every day. Thankfully we arrived home having avoided all that, but there'd never much pleasure to be had driving on Ontario's 400 series roads, and I'm always relieved to be off the darned things

Three nights, four days, quite a lot of money spent but everyone enjoyed it. The weather was good, if a little warm, and despite the drenching at the Falls, it didn't rain once. I think we can file that trip away as "Successful".

Still in Niagara - day 3

 Today's plan was hit the Falls and make some use of the bus passes we'd bought. But first breakfast. Everyone was up late, but we seemed to get moving fairly quickly. When I'm on these jaunts I tend not to keep checking on the time, unless there's something specific to aim for, and today it was just making good use of the time. We'd decided to make our way over to the Queen's Coach again, a wise move given the availability of vegan comestibles, and the fact that it was only ten minutes from the Aerocar parking lot on the Niagara River Parkway.

The Queen's Coach was not quite so busy, so a little easier on my ears. The vegans went vegan, and I opted for the cheap default breakfast again, which I knew was going to negate the need for lunch. The bill was still fairly reasonable for four people, so I think the Queen's Coach gets a thumbs up from all of us.

It really was a short hop to the Aerocar parking lot. Because it was free parking, we weren't sure how busy it was going to be in the middle of the day, and had a backup plan if we couldn't park there. The main, and very large parking lot for the Falls was our fallback, made possible because the WeGo bus pass allowed us to park there without paying the $36 fee, which I thought was quite the deal. As it turned out, we didn't need to drive into the Falls because there were plenty of parking spaces at the Aerocar lot.

The young ones booked Aerocar car tickets for the afternoon, and we all piled onto a bus and let it take us into the chaos of Niagara Falls on a summer Thursday. The bus was slow and very full, although the driver seemed to be equipped with superhuman patience as he exhorted people to move down the bus, and to get able-bodied people out of the "Mobility" area, to allow people with mobility issues to sit. There may even have been a wheelchair loaded, I couldn't see from the back, but either way he had everyone boarded and charged headlong into the heavy Falls traffic.

At the Table Rock Center, the shopping mall that sits just feet from the edge of the Horseshoe Falls, it was manic. There were lines for the toilets, lines to buy tickets for the various attractions, and above all noise. I had to retreat to the outside and wander around, marvelling at the Falls and at the all the people milling about rather have to deal with the assault on my ears. To be frank, I wouldn't normally attempt Canada's most visited tourist attraction during the summer, but when there's a school-aged child in the mix, there's no choice. That said, it is part of the overall experience, and the crowds are very International. Tourists from China, Japan and Korea flock to the Falls, as do Americans (the US is literally just on the other side of the river), and of course, Europeans. I saw footy shirts being worn, from Chelsea, Arsenal, and Shamrock Rovers of Dublin. As I said, a truly international gathering.

We sauntered up towards a position opposite the American Falls, but didn't get very far. We watched various iterations of the "Maid of the Mist" boats driving loads of poncho-wearing tourists into the spray at the base of the Horseshoe Falls, and we took in the sights.

What we didn't do was head up Clifton Hill, which is a street that runs up from the river into the Hotel District. It's Canada's answer to Blackpool, or Pigeon Forge, a street so full of tacky diversions and ways to relieve you of your money that I would pay good money just to avoid it. Yes, I'm getting old and grumpy, and maybe Charlie will appreciate it when he's older, but for this trip, we kept away from the place. The strip of land along the river on the Canadian side, and pretty much most of the way to Niagara-on-the-Lake, is controlled by Niagara Parks, a quasi-Governmental organisation that still has some standards. Yes, the attractions along the river are expensive, but all of the outlets are Niagara Parks branded and you know that some of the money is going back into maintaining the place and not into some wealthy person's already bulging pockets. The Parks also limit the worst commercial excesses, and if you want to know just how bad the Falls area could be if left to private enterprise, just visit Clifton Hill.

While I'm on the subject of who runs what, I have to say a word about the WeGo buses. There are a couple of routes, one along the river and one up the hill into the town, and they run every fifteen minutes during the day. The vehicles themselves are the lovely "Bendy" buses, and while fairly new and full of innovate things like wheelchair ramps and "kneeling" suspension, they did scrimp a bit on the seat padding. I'm certain they're operated by a local bus company, but it's all under the auspices of Niagara Parks again, which keeps them honest with scheduling and the like. When we visited last time, a long while ago, the buses were the green and white Parks buses and they stopped running after Labour Day. Just take that in; Canada's most visited attraction and the transit system stopped at the beginning of September. That was old thinking, where it was imagined that everyone went back to work in September and nobody visited. Thankfully Niagara Parks has moved into the twenty-first century now and the WeGo buses run all year round, albeit on a reduced schedule away from the summer. There's also the link up with the attractions and the parking, where you can by one ticket that covers everything, which is another innovative move, although I have to say that it was long overdue.

Anyway, back to our day. We decided to buy some tickets for the "Behind the Falls" attraction, a walk in the tunnels behind the cascade, and out onto a deck right at base of the falls, pretty much where the Maid of the Mist boats travel to. We had to time it so that we could get the kids back to the Aerocar for their trip over the Whirlpool, then come back to the falls for the tour, and that involved yet more bus rides. We were getting value from the tickets we bought.

We were early for the timed ticket entry for the Aerocar, so hung about the gift shop and any shaded areas we could find, because it was a very warm day. They wouldn't let the kids in to the ride until 3pm, and even then it was a twenty-five minute line up before they could get on the Aerocar, but the they did get on, and I think they enjoyed the ride. For those that don't know, the Aerocar is a big cable car that runs across the Whirlpool, the circular pool in the river formed by the river taking a right angle turn at that point. The river does fairly rush through a narrow gap before entering the whirlpool and then lurching off towards Lake Ontario. When you remember that Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron and Erie all drain through this little gap, you can imagine the quantity of water that's gone through there to create the whirlpool.

Aerocar trip completed, we boarded the bus again and made our way back into the Falls area. On the way, the bus diverts from the Parkway into the town of Niagara Falls and the combined GO railway station and bus terminus. I have to say, and others on the bus said it too, that two blocks off the Parkway and you're into a seriously run down area. Boarded up buildings, empty lots where buildings have been pulled down, and even Queen Street, the main shopping area, looks as run down as any little Ontario town. Then, two blocks east and you're back on the razzle-dazzle of the Parkway. 

The tour of the tunnels under and behind the Falls was self-guided (although we knew that), but involved a forty minute line up where you collect a yellow plastic rain poncho and line up for the elevators. Part way along was a young man in charge of a camera, whose was taking pictures of people with an exciting backdrop. I didn't want my picture taken but was nudged into position by one of the youngsters. I kept my hat down over my eyes, too. The photographs were available at the end of the tour, but we passed on that, and I didn't even take note of the cost, which I'm certain would have been exorbitant.

Down in the tunnels and out on the terrace there were too many people to make it enjoyable. That said, standing at the base of Niagara Falls is quite the experience. The noise and the spray frame the view up as millions of gallons of water continually cascade over the lip of the falls. We'd done the tour before, but even with all the people, it was well worth doing it again.

Back up above the falls, we made for the bus stop and yet another journey out the Aerocar parking lot to collect the car. It's worth pointing out that all the attractions have good public washrooms available, and that I put down to Niagara Parks influence; I doubt commercial enterprises would be so keen to provide such things for free.

In the car, we opted to go straight back to the Lemon Tree restaurant in St Catherine's for another vegan food-fest. Second time around it didn't have quite the wow factor, but it was still a good way to end a busy day. Of course back at the hotel, there were a few ships to watch through the lock before bedtime, ad I felt the choice of the Inn at Lock Seven was inspired if only for the canal excitement.

I would be packing up day tomorrow, and an end to the trip. There was one more excursion, though, which I'll document in the next post.

Still in Niagara - day 2

 Our first full day here was a quite mix. We started by watching ships in the canal lock (of course we did), before driving over to popular eating spot called "The Queens Coach". I say popular because it was packed.

Breakfast and lunch places are very common in Canada, and many follow a certain pattern, and clientele for that matter. The restaurant will generally be dark wood, as was this one, and the patrons will be of a certain advanced age, as was they were this fine morning at the Queen's Coach. It was packed, too, but we were efficiently ushered to a free table and menus arrived forthwith. The serving staff were very busy, but coping, until two of them collided and upset a few tumblers of cranberry juice on the white outfit of the unfortunate lady at the end of the long table they were sitting at. A brief altercation between the staff ensued, but they all quickly turned their attention to the now pink-suited customer. A free meal was offered, and I suspect that the rest of the party would have been offered a similar deal, if only the party hadn't been one of at least fifteen people. I think the wet customer was very unhappy, as she had a right to be. I hope the manager offered her a little more than free meal.

Our breakfasts, vegan platters for the vegans and a standard sausage, egg and home fries for me, was ordered and delivered in quick time. My coffee was regularly topped up, too. Because my meal was the default breakfast, it was $7.95 before tax, which is really competitive, at least compared to Chatham. We were happy bunnies as we left.

Our next port of call was a farm shop on the Niagara River Parkway that hosted a real church in a garden shed, or at least that's what it looked like to me. It's a show stopper and gets people in the shop, but there was a constant stream of tourists having their photographs taken one the church step. That's step in the singular of course, it being a very small church.

From there we motored over to the port of Dalhousie, just west of St Catherine's, to visit a couple of lighthouses there. The run over there took us through the famous Niagara wine producing area, and the rows of vines were present for miles around. Did you know that warm air is wafted over the vines in the winter to stop the plants from freezing? I didn't, but I do now. If we were more winey people, we'd have loaded the car with local wines, but we're not so we didn't.

The lighthouses were a bust, for Charlie at least. They're not big stone affairs, but rather wooden structures built to mark the harbour entrance. The old, disused but preserved one was all fenced off, and Charlie took against walking to the end of the breakwater to see the active lighthouse, so it was back to the car with very little to show for our efforts.

Just across the harbour, though, was a very interesting attraction that we decided to visit, namely a lovely, preserved Merry-Go-Round, just by the beach at Dalhousie. It was $3 to park, and the parking lot was busy with beach goers, but the Merry-Go-Round was excellent. It was housed in a purpose-built roundhouse, it was every bit the classic fairground ride, with prancing horses, mirrors, and fairground organ music. The fee was a five cents a ride, but if you didn't have five cents they let you ride anyway, and Emma, DW and Charlie all had rides. I'm a bit of a martyr to motion sickness, so gave it a miss. But what a great thing for the people of Port Dalhousie and its visitors! I didn't take any photos of the Merry-Go-Round because pointing a camera at lots of other people's children really isn't the done thing these days.

After a fairly long stay there, we motored back to the hotel for a break, and to watch ships in the lock again, before going almost all the way back to Dalhousie to visit the Lemon Tree Restaurant in St Catherine's. The Lemon Tree's menu is 100% vegan, although you'd never know it from the choices. I won't bore you with the meal details, but it was fabulous and all four of us had to carried to the car in wheelbarrows afterwards as we'd eaten so much.

The night was still young, so we drove over to Niagara Falls, yes the one with the waterfalls, the tourist tat, and the tourists. The Falls area gets ever more commercial and ever more busy, particularly given that its the summer holidays We drove right down past the falls, but baulked at paying $36 for a car park when would only be there for an hour or so. We turned the car around, drove past the falls in the opposite direction and headed away, along the Parkway again. When we reached the Whirlpool and the Aerocar attraction (a big cable car that runs across the Whirlpool in the Niagara River), we pulled into the parking lot to see what was what because Emma and Charlie wanted to ride the Aerocar. While were there, a couple of WeGo branded buses came and went, and, realising that the parking there was free and we could access the Falls area by catching the bus, we made an on the spot decision to buy a couple of 48-hour bus passes for everyone. As if to prove that it was a brilliant wheeze, we boarded the bus and rode the thirty minute bus journey right back to the Horseshoe falls. 

The bus, a noisy and quite uncomfortable "bendy" bus, duly dropped us at the Table Rock Centre and we alighted to give young Charlie his first glimpse of the mighty falls. For a five-year-old he looked quite impressed. As usual there was a lot of wet mist coming up from the base of the falls, but for some odd reason, it suddenly started to rain huge amounts of spray, so much that thought it was rain. Like so many of our fellow gawkers, we were soaked in seconds. We retired from the fray, (or should that be spray?) to go inside the shops there and buy a couple of plastic rain ponchos and in my case, a $30 baseball cap to keep my specs clear. We had hoped to stay to see the Falls all lit up as the night drew in, but it was so busy and so wet that we decided to call it a day and head back to the car on the WeGo bus. We did at least see the lights, all LED and fancy now, but it wasn't yet dark enough for them to make an impression on the falls themselves.

Back at the hotel, we watched another ship transit the lock and finally crashed out at about 11pm. A busy day for sure, but will we match it tomorrow?

Not Airstream Camping, but Hotel Staying - Niagara - Day 1

I wasn't sure that I wanted to document this trip, being sans Airstream, as it were. But, as the day has been long and interesting, I thought it worth a few words.

We had planned a trip with Emma and Charlie to the famous Inn at Lock Seven, which is in Thorold and sits right beside the mighty Welland Canal. It actually overlooks the lock, which is nice.

We had wanted to visit the area again, but this time for Charlie's benefit, and we could incorporate lake freighters, trains and the Falls into one trip. We settled on the lovely but dated Inn at Lock Seven, not only because of its panoramic view of the canal, but also because we'd been before in August 2009, on "Honeymoon 2", the little post wedding trip that supplemented the longer pre-wedding trip to Nova Scotia. The fact that the Nova Scotia trip was supposed to be the post wedding trip is a distant memory now. It's complicated and involved Canadian and British Law.

Anyway, I digress. We packed lightly for our four day, three night trip, and set off only fifteen minutes behind schedule on a bright day, albeit that the smoke from wildfires elsewhere in the great country was drifting over and making everything seem hazy. Just a few yards from home, looped back to get get some cushions from the other car, but hey, it's a long trip.

The 401, the big bad highway to Toronto, wasn't too awful, and we made good time to a pit stop at the service centre at Woodstock. While at the Service Centre I abandoned yet another attempt to buy a cup of coffee from a Starbucks outlet after my presence at the counter wasn't acknowledge by any of the four employees behind the counter, let alone any of them actually offering to serve me. It's too bad, it really is, especially as I had an identical Starbucks experience at Toronto Airport a few months back. Why do these places employ people who have no idea of how to operate in a customer service role? Oh yes, I remember, pay minimum wage (which is minimal where the job involves gratuities) and get the worst of the worse. 

Back on the road and feeling a wee bit slighted that I hadn't been able to get coffee, we made even better time getting to Aldershot Go Transit station, where Charlie and Emma were going to board the curiously slow Go train into Toronto. Now here's a funny thing, especially if you're a Brit. The Go Trains outside of the Lakeshore East and the Lakeshore West routes only operate in the rush hours. There are stations at Niagara Falls (well, a few miles away from Niagara Falls), and Hamilton, but none of them offered any practical service outside of the morning and afternoon rush hours. I mean, Niagara Falls is one of Canada's biggest attractions, but you can't get there by train from Toronto (or anywhere else) during the week unless you travel in the early morning or late afternoon. It's absolutely bonkers. There are a couple of trains at the weekend, but vast swathes of the Go network shutdown for most of the day. I just don't get it. The upshot of all this was that we were dropping the kids at Aldershot on the Lakeshore West line, where there were two trains an hour, and they were heading up into the Big City to ride the TTC, that is the Toronto underground system (also buses and streetcars). I still struggle with the fact that it takes seventy minutes to cover the 58 kilometres from Aldershot to Toronto, which averages out at less than 60 kilometres an hour, or 37 miles an hour. It doesn't compare well with the speedy British trains we had used earlier in the summer.

Anyway, kids dropped off, DW and I made our way first to Bloomers Bakery in Burlington to stock up on vegan doughnuts and to get me a cup of coffee. The shop was on a very busy road, with only minimal on-street parking, and I wondered just how all the businesses along there ever attracted any customers. Having fed our faces, we made our way to the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW), the expressway between Toronto and Niagara, for a run into St Catherine's, not far from our intended base for the next few days at Thorold. Unfortunately, the QEW is one of those roads that runs almost at capacity for most of the time, and even the tiniest issue creates four lanes of backed up traffic in no time at all. We found a couple of issues this Tuesday afternoon and ended up in stopped and crawling traffic for miles. It's interesting to watch all the people who were in a hurry lurching between lanes and racing, as far as they could, up dead end lanes and then having to fight to get back into the traffic, all to advance six car lengths up the road. I guess I had been like that once, or at least a bit like that, but not any more, it's far easier to just go with the general flow.

We did roll up into St Catherine's with enough time to get some lunch, but the trip took us about thirty minutes longer than planned. As soon as we left the QEW and dropped into St Catherine's, all was peaceful and calm, and while it's a busy little town, it seemed so much less fraught than being on the highway. We found the restaurant, Rise Above, and sat to enjoy some plant-based lunch. We seemed to hit the rush, but the young woman serving was super-efficient, and was getting everyone served quickly. As a counter to the awful service in Starbucks, she saw a woman come in the door and immediately called over "I'll be with you in a minute"; see, that's how you do it.

Our lone server wasn't perfect, though. She didn't write our order down and forgot that I'd ordered a side dish (and that's becoming a thing for me, too). But unlike the nonsense in the pizza place in Manchester where the server not only forgot my starter, but then said I hadn't ordered one, this server recovered brilliantly and said "Oh yes",  scurrying off to get the missing dish. She was tipped well.

After lunch we motored over to our accommodation, only about ten minutes away, and checked in. The Inn at Lock Seven is dated, that's undeniable, but it does occupy a commanding view over Lock Seven on the Welland Canal, and all the rooms have a patio or balcony on the canal side of the building. It's a North American, 1960's concrete monstrosity that they can't do much about, but it's clean and reasonably priced and I'd take it over some of the overpriced but more modern places in Toronto any day. We settled in, took in the view and readied ourselves for a run back along the QEW, to Aldershot GO station, to pick up the kids.

It was rush hour, and there had been a collision on the QEW, so it was a long crawl again, although the frequent glimpses of Lake Ontario certainly made it more interesting than looking all the other vehicles stuck in the jam. By the time we made the station, we were running about thirty minutes down again, and now we had to deal with all the seriously stupid people in their cars who had come to pick up their loved ones from the station as well. There's a multi-lane drop-off point but no, the entitled numpties here had to park in the Fire Lane and part way across what was left of the access road, so effectively the entire drop-off area was blocked and locked solid. It's rank stupidity in my book, and I can't imagine having to do that every day.

Despite the look of the traffic on the QEW, the alternative routes didn't look great either, so I opted for the straightforward option, and headed back to Thorold on the QEW. The traffic had, thankfully, abated significantly and while not the quickest run I'll ever do along there, it wasn't stopped or crawling along.

We managed to get back to the hotel in time to watch one of the big bulk carriers negotiating the lock in the canal just in front of us, which was odd because it had just started negotiating the locks below lock 7 as we were leaving for Aldershot, so it had taken a long time to get up the mountain (which is canal-speak for negotiating the locks up the escarpment). Maybe they stopped for dinner. 

Then fairly soon afterwards, another bulk carrier started down the mountain, using the full lock of water the previous ship had left behind. It was getting dark(ish) by this time, but it was great to see the ship all lit up, descending into the lock as the water was drained out.

We had, of course, been using mobile apps to track what ships were likely to enter the canal, and we'd taken on a newer and better one than we'd used before called Marine Traffic. With the free access you don't get all the information that you could, but it beats the constant stream of ads we were getting on the other app. I noted that there was a ship out on Lake Ontario and given that its destination required it to transit through the canal, I hoped we'd see it in the morning. The canal is, of course, a 24/7 operation, but I didn't want to be getting up in the wee small hours to watch the ships, so I didn't look to see if anything was due through. 

Then it was bed time. As I said, a long and busy day, but interesting for all that. Lets see what tomorrow brings.

Airstream Camping 2025 - Last Day (This Trip)

I had a bit of a rough night, and realised that the temperatures outside, and in, had suddenly shot up. DW had the A/C going at some time past two in the morning, and I awoke at four, but just couldn't get back to sleep. I retired to the couch at the front of the Airstream, set up a podcast on my phone, stuffed some earbuds in my ears and settled back for the final instalment of the Fidel Castro story. I awoke an hour later having missed the entire episode, but it was nearing six o'clock by then so I felt decidedly happier about my sleep, or lack of it.

It was hot, too. I went over to the Comfort Station and found that my elation at having a clean shower stall the yesterday and the day before was to be short lived. The floor of the vestibule area was clean, but the shower pan was full of sand, and there were the ever-present hairs and smears on the walls. Standards have been going downhill for a while, ever since the park ditched its contract cleaners and left the hygiene work to the kids they employ as uniformed park staff. I sent the Ontario Parks HQ a complaint form after the last trip, and thought things were on the up after seeing clean stalls earlier in the week. But things had not improved, at least not by much. I get it, uniformed teenagers who think they're going to have an exciting job in the park really don't want to be cleaning the Comfort Stations. I put the blame squarely at the feet of Ontario Parks and their abysmal attempts at cost cutting. I wouldn't mind so much if the parks were free, or a bit cheaper, but we pay serious money to camp in the park, and I reckon the paying customers deserve better. 

Still on the weather, the forecast had some rain in it, so I dismantled and stowed the bug tent, its chairs and its mat, in the car. I didn't really want to be dealing with it while it was wet. But, as has been the pattern this summer, the rain did not materialise, although the air was very hot and muggy and I was wet with sweat after what was only minor exertion.

The rest of the morning was spent doing a slow tidy up inside and spending an age deciding whether to stay right up until the 2pm check-out time. By the time we committed to actually preparing the Airstream for travel, it was almost one o'clock anyway. As I've said before, we are getting much better at setting up and breaking down our camp, and it seemed like no time at all that we were hitching the Toadmobile to the front of Towed Haul. I had occasion to use my shiny new aluminium step ladder that I had brought with me. Securing the awnings for travel can be done from the ground with the long pokey rod that's supplied, but nothing beats climbing up on a step ladder and working on the securing mechanism close up and with my hands. It's only taken fourteen seasons of camping for me to finally get a lightweight ladder for the purpose.

Hitching up is getting traumatic these days because our hitch receiver on the car is seriously rusty now and I don't know who long it'll take the strain, and it is a strain with the tongue weight of our camper; thank goodness for the weight distribution system. It's all been OK so far, so I keep my fingers crossed when hitching, but I probably should have had the whole thing replaced long ago. I will keep a close eye. There's a reason that I haven't replaced the hitch receiver up until now, and that may become apparent in the medium-term future. Watch this space.

Hitch worries aside, we dumped the tanks as usual and also as usual I was bitten by the myriad bugs that hang around the poop tank area. It was hot, too, which makes the already unpleasant task all the more nasty, both in the concentration of the inevitable smell, and in the general sweatiness.

The drive back was notable for the very strong wind, one that had been barely noticeable while we'd been tucked away in the campground. I could feel the crosswind tugging at the trailer when we were at speed and was relieved to think that I'd tightened up the anti-sway bars properly. People look at our tow vehicle and imagine that we can't do hills, or go fast, which is not the case. What we do struggle with is wind. It'll trash the gas mileage if you're driving into it, make the engine and the transmission get very hot, and if there's a cross wind, you thank your luck stars for a decent anti-sway setup. When we bought the Airstream, we were told by those that know that driving into a headwind all day is going to tax your tow vehicle far more than hills will, and they were right. Fortunately our run today was only forty-minutes.

Our next jaunt in Towed Haul isn't until late August, so we have a few weeks of non-trailering. There are a few days booked in hotel in St Catherines before that, so I'll probably document the trip here as well. Until then, happy camping!