Rondeau in June (3 of 4)

 

Wednesday

It’s been quite a bit warmer today, but that didn’t stop us from being slothful in the extreme again, and not really doing much of anything. The bugs have been particularly bitey during this trip, so we sat in the Pleasure Dome for a while, but the sun was up and it was getting a wee bit warm in there, so we repaired to the Airstream where we had some moving air (Aren’t Fantastic Fans fantastic?).

We spent quite a long time scoping out another trip, not Airstreaming, on our computers before realising how quickly the day had slipped by. Donning shoes and hats, we shuffled slowly through the campground, on the lookout for more turtles, but also checking out the other trailers, their equipment and their occupants. If you’re a people watcher then you’ll appreciate what fun that can be.

We saw another Airstream parked up, bigger than ours and looking quite shiny and new. Their truck had a US license plate, but I couldn’t make out from which state at a distance, so I might have to go and have another look later.

We didn’t see any more turtles, but the Chipmunks, Squirrels and Rabbits were thick on the ground. Coyote food I’d imagine.

We did get to have a little walk along the edge of Rondeau Bay, the smallish lake (comparatively speaking) kept from the main part of Lake Erie by the spit of land that is Rondeau Park. It’s shallow, normally very sheltered from the worst of the wind, and is therefore a haven for all manner of boat-related pastimes. There is a little “yacht club” that only operates in July and August, and loads of kids get out in little dinghies to learn the rudiments of sailing in the relatively safe water of the Bay. This being June, there was no one about, and the club’s portable dock structure was still out of the water. North Americans are not overly excited about dinghy sailing, so they seem happy to limit the club to the summer months only, but I couldn’t help thinking that if this was Europe, the dock would have been in the water as soon as the ice had gone, and the Bay would be filled with dinghies every weekend. Ah well, this isn’t Europe.

We did find a lone turtle, sat quietly in the shade and looking for all the world like he was going to cross the road. He didn’t move, though, so we took it that he was indeed resting and building up the energy to strike for the woods. We kept looking back as we walked away but no, he was definitely having a rest.

I’ll skip over the bit where we bought yet another ice cream from the Park Store and move onto the bit where we had a delightful afternoon nap, baked potatoes for supper and watched the darkness draw in from the bug-free environs of the Pleasure Dome. As the light faded we were treated to the sight of a small Raccoon snuffling around the site, and even trying the edges of the Pleasure Dome, that was until he heard our voices and scuttled off into the undergrowth. It was a reminder for us not to leave anything vaguely edible or drinkable in the gazebo because those cheeky critters will be in and trashing anything that gets in their way when they’re in search of an easy snack.

This fine evening, we broke out the TV and watched a film that I had on my laptop. It was the 1960s classic Georgy Girl, starring Lynn Redgrave, Alan Bates and James Mason. I slept through too much of it to be able to recount the plot, but I was content that I hadn’t seen it before, not even through closed eyes. We rarely watch the TV when we’re camping, which I guess is a good thing. We have a retractable TV antenna built into the Airstream that we can extend should we want to watch broadcast TV, but I can count the times we’ve used it on one hand, although that really speaks to the dreadful quality of broadcast TV as much as to our disinterest in the TV when we’re camping. I was reminded why we don’t have a TV in our bedroom at home as we deployed Airstream’s sofa-bed platform and I watched, or tried to watch, the film from a semi-prone position. Of course, I can sleep standing up, pretty much, but being prone like that made the act of actually nodding off so much easier. A TV in our bedroom would be better than sleeping pills, if I ever needed them.

The morrow would be our last day, and we had a much warmer night to enjoy, but we still didn't turn in until much later than we should have. Again, the pleasures of retirement are many and varied.

Rondeau in June (2 of 4)

 

 

Tuesday

Yes, it was a cold night, for June anyway. As is usual, I woke up at 5am, tossed and turned a little and decided that I wasn’t going back to sleep without some form of assistance. So, I grabbed by earbuds and fired up my audio book. I was dozing for a while, then the book finished so I selected a podcast to listen to and almost immediately went to sleep. I woke up at ten past eight with the podcast still playing, which surprised me. Each episode of the podcast was only sixteen minutes long, and I’d been asleep for an hour and a half, so that was quite a few episodes I’d slept through. Still, I’m not complaining because falling asleep to a podcast is preferable to lying awake and staring at the ceiling.

When you’re camping, there’s rarely a schedule to follow, so I was fashionably late when I slouched over to the Comfort Station for a shower. The shower water wasn’t as warm as I’d have liked, and even after hiding my flipflops around the corner, the splash back from the crazily designed stall had still soaked them (yes, I know I say this every time). It occurred to me that perhaps I should hang the flipflops onto the coat hooks in there to get them up and out of the way, but that would be far too sensible an idea after so many years using these showers. I think my timing was a bit off today, too, as the nice young woman who cleans the comfort station was outside waiting for me to finish. I say nice, she gave me a nice smile and wished me a good morning, but she could have been fuming that I’d held her up. Who knows? These are things that go through my mind when I’m not occupied with more pressing matters.

We skipped breakfast and went straight to lunch, which was swiftly followed by rest, relaxation and a quick nap, such is the whirl of activity that we enjoy when we’re camping. Actually, it was all in a good cause because Emma and Charlie came to visit later in the afternoon, which was a couple of hours of excitable chaos. After some supper, we walked over to the park’s store and had ice cream, which was all the more enjoyable for the fabulous afternoon weather, which was clear blue skies, bright sunshine, but not too scarily hot. I did have a bit of a run in with a Barn Swallow when I stood too close to its nest. It decided to swoop at my head a few times, and close enough for me to feel the whoosh of wind as it went past. Those birds do fly close to people anyway, but this one kept going at me until I went and stood under the store’s awning. That’ll teach me not to be so nosy. Still, a close up of a barn swallow coming at my head is a memory I shall cherish.

It's turtle season here at Rondeau, and we weren’t disappointed when we saw one scuttling across our camp site, heading for the lake I assumed. They come onto the land from the water to lay their eggs, and as there are plenty of turtles in Rondeau Pond, they’re fairly easy to spot making their way to or from their egg laying sites. One of our camping neighbours called Charlie over to have a look at one on their site, and even though it was probably the same one that we had seen earlier, Charlie was dutifully enthused.

Crazy is as crazy does, so when everyone was ready, we all piled into our respective cars and headed back to Chatham because, well, doesn’t everyone go home halfway through a trip? Emma and Charlie had to go back so they could go to bed, of course, but DW and I had to do some plant watering, given the lack of rain and the number of new plants we’d put in the garden over the past few days. It’s amazing how quickly they dry out, so we doused them with water from the rain barrels, and gave the new trees some sustenance as well, as they are particularly vulnerable to drying out. Before heading back to Rondeau, I made the obligatory stop at the Liquor Store for some Liffey Water, and it wasn’t long before we were back in our little Rondeau bolt hole to resume our rest and relaxation. The evening wasn’t quite so cold as the previous one, but we wimped out didn’t stay in the Pleasure Dome for too long, preferring to stay a little warmer in our aluminium cell. One of the big advantages of an Airstream over other travel trailers is the big windows. We can sit inside with the widows open and it’s almost like being outside. All the windows are screened, too, so you’re safe from the ever-present and pestilential biting bugs. See, glamping at its finest.

The weather was looking set to be calm overnight, so I left the trailer’s awning deployed and fell into bed after another strenuous day (!). There were no plans for Wednesday, thank goodness, so I was looking forward to another non-busy day.

Rondeau in June (1 of 4)

 

Monday

We’re back on the road. When I say road, I mean the road to Rondeau Provincial Park, just forty-four kilometres away, but it is still a road.

Rondeau again, site sixteen again; goodness, we don’t like change. But why would we want to change? A short hop, hardly any driving, and a beautiful park to enjoy, there are all the ingredients of a nice couple of days away, and without too much effort.

We’d booked this trip in April, wedged in between a run over to Michigan, and Charlie’s birthday, and it’ll be our last trip before the schools finish for the summer vacation. We tend not to camp in July and August, partly because that’s the time working parents get to take their kids away, but also because we never plan far enough ahead to be able to book a campground during the school holidays, such is the demand. Anyway, I refuse to be up at midnight the day the sites are released for booking, just to fight with a load of eager beavers who block book sites and then don’t use them (some 46% of booked camping sites in Ontario Parks are not occupied, despite them having been paid for in advance).

This trip was somewhat lacking in its preparation. Indeed, at 0930hrs this morning I hadn’t even opened up the Airstream, let alone packed anything in it. To complicate matters we had decided to keep the trip from Charlie as he tends to get a bit “helpful” when we’re prepping, and just to make it interesting I had to attend a doctor’s appointment mid-morning. Ah well, there’s no real rush for us retired peeps.

We were ready to roll at twelve, but decided to hang around for lunch, and to re-water a load of new plants in the garden. A keen north wind had brought the ambient temperatures right down, so I wasn’t my usual sweaty mess as we exacted a surprisingly slick hitch up process, which was a real bonus. At a little after two, I let the emergency brake off the Toadmobile and we rolled gently into the road, you remember, the one I mentioned in the opening paragraph. The first thing I do as I roll onto the road is to check the manual override on the trailer brake controller, just to make sure the binders are working. The brakes on Airstreams are old fashioned drum brakes but are operated electrically using the car’s brake pedal at one end, and a series of magnets at the other. There’s a lot of scope for things to go wrong in that system, so a pull on the manual override is essential before heading out. Yup, the brakes were working.

Actually, there are a lot of checks you should do before hauling a couple of tons of trailer onto the public road, and I’m pretty disciplined at doing them. I did forget to connect the emergency breakaway cord last time (it’s a device that if your trailer gets separated from your trailer, the cord pulls a pin out of a control box and the brakes are automatically applied to the trailer’s wheels). It was all good this time though.

As well as being quite cool for the time of year, it was also quite windy on the drive down. Side winds will make the whole combination, trailer and tow vehicle, feel like it’s being pushed off the road, although it’s comforting that both vehicles act as one and it’s easy to compensate for with a little tweak of the steering wheel. Head winds are the real problem, even with the slippery shape and low frontal area of the Airstream. The car has to work so much harder when towing into a headwind, and goodness knows how the less slippery and taller trailers cope.

Down at the park we took on water and drained down the waste tanks, although all they contained was a small amount of liquid from my efforts at cleaning the shower, sinks, and toilets. Obviously we drain our waste tanks down before leaving the park, too, because you don’t want to leave any nasty stuff in them. Once drained, we drop a bit of water in and add some tank treatment to neutralise any bacteria, and to make sure they don’t smell. There is a huge debate in the RV community about what you use to clean and/or neutralise the tanks, ranging from gallons of bleach to Dawn washing up liquid. We have used an enzyme-based treatment since the Airstream was new and have never had the dreaded “smelly tanks”. The enzyme-based stuff is also kind to the joints and seals, unlike bleach, so we’ve also not had any leakage issues.

Checking in at the campsite office, I took great pleasure in seeing the significant Seniors’ discount applied to our camping fee; being sixty-five can have its benefits. No one has yet challenged me to prove my age, so I guess I don’t look as youthful as I think I do. At Ontario Parks, they always ask if they should let people know our site number if they should come looking. I always say, “Only if it’s not the Police”, but I suppose it’s a genuine thing, and you may want to remain undisturbed should someone be looking for you, much like in a hotel.

Given that this was a Monday, the campground was looking quite full, and while mostly old farts like us, there were a few young people around. Ever since COVID hit, camping has become extremely popular. We’re surrounded by nice new RVs in the park, and it gets ever harder to get sites booked, but I’m not complaining, while its nice to have a quiet campground, it can be quite nice to hear people around and smell the smoke from many, many campfires. The air pollution might be terrible, but at least people are (sort of) getting back to nature.

Like the slick hitching procedure earlier in the day, the parking and unhitching was similarly slick, and again the coolness of the weather was a real boon. Then we had to erect our little portable gazebo, The Pleasure Dome, and things went sharply downhill. It does “pop up” quite quickly, but the floor mat we use doesn’t match the gazebo’s hexagon shape, and we spent an age just moving the gazebo and the floor mat to get the best position. That took longer than the unhitching.

Anyway, all set up and in preparation for supper, we had a nice walk around the campground (trying to stay in the sunshine for the warmth), and sat on the beach for a little while, just enjoying our surroundings. I keep saying it, but we’re so lucky to have this gem of a park right on our doorstep.

The evening in the the Pleasure Dome was shortened a little as the air temperature dipped down to 11C and we were getting a little chilled. Still, we were happy listening to the bird song, and watching the Chipmunks go about their business. Back in the Airstream, we did fire up the furnace for a few minutes to take the edge off the chill and broke out the duvet to put on the bed. The temperatures looked set to go down to 6 or 7C overnight, not really June weather, but Towed Haul is reasonably well equipped to deal with any weather, so we turned in prepared for a cool night, but looking forward to a few quiet days.