Shaking Down at Rondeau. Day 2

The night had been stormy but the camp site was surprisingly water free on Day 2 of the great shakedown trip. We hadn't sunk into the mud, nor been washed out into the lake. Indeed, all was surprisingly normal.

Having had very little sleep the night before, we were sluggardly in our morning's progress. We cancelled the proposed visit of the tadpoles' grandmother and settled to celebrating the big tadpole's 12th birthday in our beloved Towed Haul. Asked what they thought of aluminum camping, the tadpoles said "We like tent camping better". Ungrateful little toads-to-be!

The rain had at least stopped and the temperatures were beginning to creep up. A little. There were quite a few other lunatics camping in their trailers, although we were the only Airstreamers that we could see. There didn't appear to be any leaks overnight and apart from not having some handy dandy stuff like gardening gloves (for hitching in the cold, not planting Marigolds), we seemed to have a working trailer. The shower was pronounced a great success , as were the Fantastic Fans (magical even). We road tested the DVD and TV system with a run through of the latest Harry Potter film that had been winged to us from Amazon, just in time for the trip; that was magical, too.

Rondeau Park was leafless but not without charm. We managed to see much of the area's quota of wildlife; birds of many descriptions with names that I do not know (Note to self: take birding book next time), chipmunks, squirrels and even one of the elusive Rondeau deer. The tadpoles did their usual beach combing, coming up with not just animal bones but a complete two foot long corpse of some raccoon sized animal. We couldn't be sure it wasn't a raccoon as it had no fur; it could have been a cat for all we knew. They had the good sense to leave the remains where they lay; I didn't fancy them being offered up for the barbecue! They did find some stuff that we all took to be lake washed coal, which we duly took back to toss on the campfire. It burned with a yellow smoke and smelled much like coal but it went all gooey when hot so I'm guessing it was very old bitumen. Whatever it was, it didn't enhance the taste of the burgers.


As regulations require, we strung out the fairy lights on the edge of the awning and whilst it was a touch too cold to stay out for very long, Guinness and wine were quaffed under the LED festive illumination.

A fine photograph, I hope you'll agree, all made with the aid of the tripod and a very long exposure!


That evening we all retired to Towed Haul and fell asleep almost instantly (once Harry Potter had set himself up for the final installment). No rain but still cold; thank goodness for a fine furnace and plentiful Propane. 


What would Sunday bring, we wondered? More rain? Warmer temperatures? Read on, dear reader, in the next thrilling installment......

Shaking Down at Rondeau. Day 1.

So, here we are safely returned from our arduous trek (35 minutes or more!) to Ontario's Rondeau Provincial Park for the Easter Weekend. We're sort of shaken down but with the tadpoles in tow it's difficult to know.


We set off on Friday afternoon on our very first aluminum camping trip. Towed Haul was running heavy with food, Easter eggs and birthday presents, not to mention that full tank of fresh water. The weather was against us; raining on and off all morning, temperature barely scraping 4 degrees Celsius and a keen wind to boot. Not an auspicious start but hey, we're crazy people!


The drive down was interesting, with the anti-sway bars howling like so many whales in labour and the webbing holding the extension mirrors tight vibrating in the cross wind like a jack hammer against the door. But Towed Haul stayed firm and true behind us, with the Sienna motoring along quite happily.


The big drama was getting into the park. Asked to park over by the office, I failed to notice the (very) large Stop sign to my right and dragged it along half the length of the trailer, it bouncing nicely off the awning supports and coming back to ding a foot long dent in one of the rear panels. Given the whalesong we were experiencing at the time, I didn't actually hear  the carnage against poor old Towed Haul and it took one of the tadpoles to point it out to us once we'd parked up. Now, a lesser family might have been crushed by such a mishap, and on the maiden voyage, but not the Toads. We have embraced our ding and now see it as a fine distinguishing mark, only to be removed if someone offers to do it for free!

Anyway, back to the camping. We set up, on a very slight sideways tilt, on a grassy site near the bath house. I couldn't correct the tilt because the ground was so boggy that I could not get the car to grip sufficiently to pull TH up onto the leveling blocks. Hey ho, they say you learn by experience. 


Unhitching was done in the rain and the barely above freezing temperatures, which was nice. Yet more experience I think. We didn't have a lot of time to settle (other than to get the furnace going) because we were due back in town at a birthday party later that evening, which with hindsight wasn't a smart move. We were at least able to check out the offending Stop sign at the gate and noted with a grim satisfaction that it was nicely bent.


Returning to the park after midnight, we drove through torrential rain and brilliant flashes of lightning. The car splashed across our camp site and we dashed out under the awning to get inside dear Towed Haul for a good night's rest. Ha! Not a chance.


The rain continued and increased in intensity, drumming louder and louder on the roof. Whilst trying to convince myself that the storm was a good leak test, we all of us failed to get much sleep until the din quietened down at around 5 am. Of course, the lightning was dramatic but it scared the tadpoles a little so we were a bunch of tired campers later that morning. I have to admit to thinking that we'd probably sink into the mud overnight or possibly float away in the inevitable flood but no, TH stayed on her slight list and there were no floods at all, which was fortunate because I have a feeling that Airstreams don't float.

So, after one night we were all tired. We hadn't floated away or sunk into the mud. The furnace and water heater was working as was everything else, thank goodness. What, I wondered, would day 2 bring?

What a surprise!

As intimated in the earlier post, we'd ordered Towed Haul last September and managed to keep it from the Tadpoles all that time.


To watch their faces as we rolled back onto our drive after the basketball tournament was just priceless. Towed Haul sat proud (if not particularly level) and the Tadpoles just said "Is that ours?"


On climbing inside, the wide eyed looks were followed up with "Can we keep it?"

Logistics didn't allow us to sleep the night in there but we did the next night (despite the cold weather) and both exclaimed that they thought Towed Haul was wonderful.


We're all off on our first shakedown trip over the Easter weekend, down to our local Provincial Park at Rondeau. Despite the weather forecast (cold and wet), I'm know that we're all going to enjoy it.

Towed Haul has arrived

There is the long awaited rig, all set up and rearing to go on the dealer's lot. Yes, that does look like some great advertising but CanAm RV has looked after us well.

I took the Sienna up to London the day before handover so it could be fitted with a hitch. I don't know exactly what work was done in fitting it but I'm certain that the Hitch Maestro himself, Andy Thompson, ensured that it was set up properly.

For the handover walk through, our friendly salesman JW had found us a native Brit for us, Ray Price, just in case we were flummoxed by any Canuck vocabulary or pronunciation. Ray was great, even if he was a Manchester United supporter (do any of them live in Manchester?). 

The workings of the trailer were no great mystery for us because we'd done so much research, but it was really useful to go through the hitching and unhitching procedure with Ray. For the technically minded, we have an Eaz-Lift torsion bar weight distribution system with two friction sway control bars. It was quite a shock to see how high we have to lift the end of the car to release the tension on those torsion bars, but it all works so I just do as I'm told (whilst looking really quite worried!)

Our initial test run was down to the Ford Plant at St Thomas where Ray took us into the big empty parking lot so I could have a go at backing up. Hmmmmm, that's going to need some practice I think.

I drove back to CanAm, feeling the car pulling the weight but not struggling with it. What was perhaps the real test was the wind; blowing across our path and gusting up to 65kph, it was pulling at the trailer as well as making the extension mirrors vibrate furiously. But there was no sway at all, it was all very sure footed indeed.

The slight issue we had was with the shiny new friction sway control bars that howled with protest at every sideways movement. Of course, being new, they will do that, but it's disconcerting for the novice. Ray likened it to whale song! We have been assured that with use, the sway bars do quieten down.

With some final adjustments to the mirrors, we set off for home, having to pull out onto the very busy London-St Thomas road. As a gap eventually opened up I squirted the gas pedal a little too hard and the front wheels span for a second before gripping. That wasn't a problem but the Sienna's Vehicle Stability System (VSC) didn't like it and decided to offer us a lovely warning message. I did wonder whether or not to stop and check it out but everything was running fine and I really didn't want to have to pull out into the traffic again, so I pressed on down to the highway and headed west for home. I've had spurious warning messages on other cars and, as this one merely advised that we have the system checked, I didn't feel that there was any reason to abandon the trip.

Once on the highway we had the wind behind us (sort of) so the mirrors quietened down. The trailer stayed rock solid behind us and we arrived at 100 km/h in no time at all, pulling easily then staying in 6th gear comfortably. Certainly that road is flat and the wind behind us helped, but the car had plenty of power and most importantly there was no sway at all. Of course the fuel usage readout was scary viewing; 8-10 litres per 100 Km unladen, 17-19 with the trailer. Oh well, we did know that was going to happen.

After about 35 Km, we pulled off at a service centre (more for me than for the car and trailer) and felt very deviant parking out back with the real trucks. Everything looked fine, despite the VSC message, so we set off for home in good spirits.

I have to admit to a little bit of nervousness at the thought of backing up onto our drive. It didn't help that the City has the road up outside our house and that I had to approach from the other end of the street, but I thought that I'd be having to get this thing into some tight camping sites so a big wide driveway would be OK. One thing we did invest in was a pair of walkie-talkies, just cheap things from The Source, but my beautiful spotter guided me in and I just listened to her loud and clear instructions. Perfect positioning was achieved on the third attempt!

It was still really windy, and cold as well, but I needed to sort the chocking systems out (one time adjustment, thankfully) then unhitch on our slope. All was going well when the fuse to the power jack failed with the car half way up! I had no spare, and it was getting dark, and we had to be at the basketball tournament, so I learned how to use hand crank.

Unhitched, I jacked her up (by hand), connected the electricity and that was all we had time for.

Of course, the kids knew nothing about any of this.........

A Real Sneak Peak

Our friends at CanAm RV let it be known that they had taken delivery of Towed Haul from Jackson Center and it was on their lot undergoing PDI. Naturally, we hotfooted it over to London (Ontario) to get a look at our baby, albeit on the pretext of buying a fancy patio mat.


We offer a big vote of thanks to JW for letting us preview the beast, some two weeks before the hand over date. Needless to say, we were chuffed to little bits. 


Here's the sneak preview:

Excited? Just a little!