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!

Airstream Camping 2025 - Lazy Days

As anticipated, we had a lazy day today, Wednesday. Well, mostly, and the car didn't move, which is always a bonus.

I was awake early, showered early in a surprisingly clean and sweet-smelling stall in the Comfort Station, and was just settling down to write some nonsense for this blog when I was seized by the idea that I should go for walk. So, at eight-fifteen I sauntered over to the beach, took my slides off and proceeded to walk along the water's edge for an hour. I had come prepared, though, with a wide-brimmed hat and a shirt with a collar that I could raise up to protect my neck from the sun, because even at that hour, it was getting warm. There was a brisk breeze coming off the lake that made walking quite pleasant, but it's that kind of windy weather that leads to sunburn, so I was glad of that collared shirt. 

I walked half-an-hour southwards, and then half-an-hour northwards to get back to my original position. The waves were noisy on the shore, but it didn't detract from the cry of the gulls and the shrill "peeping" of the Killdears (A subset of the Plover family really, but Killdear is the local name, apparently so named for their distinctive call. I'd always thought they were Lapwings, but the Internet came up with the full difference between a Plover and a Lapwing, and should you be having trouble sleeping then you can read all about it here.). There are about twelve kilometres of beach from one end to the other at Rondeau, and while I only walked about two kilometres each way, I still saw just six other people in the hour or so I was out. Once you get past the public beach access points, it's only those that live in the cottages on Lakeside Road that are close to the beach, which is probably why the place always seems so deserted, even in summer.

The lake water was warm, I think because it's quite shallow hereabouts, and is great for kids to swim in, assuming you can look past the fact that it's not necessarily very clean water. The sand is fine-grained, although it is filled with all manner of detritus from the lake. Unlike the beaches on the edge of oceans, there's no tide to take stuff away, so there are whole trees washed up, goodness knows from where. But, it's a great beach, and as I say every time I visit, we are so lucky to live close by.

Then I settled into the serious business of doing not much of anything. I was getting my book read, which was nice, but still spent far too much time tooling around in Facebook and Bluesky. When we're at Rondeau we use our cell phones as hotspots for our laptops, and given that we have masses of data included in our (pricey) wireless family package, we never have to worry about breaching our data limit.  Now that the screen hinge on my Windows laptop has finally given up the ghost, I took the Hewlett Packard Chromebook laptop this time, one that runs a version of Android as its operating system. Given that it was just a fraction of the price of a full-blown laptop, it performed very well. It's an odd little machine, though, and whoever designed this particular model didn't test it properly because quite often you can't read the grey letters and numbers on the silver keys. Maybe that was why it was so cheap?

Continuing with our rock 'n' roll lifestyle, both DW and I settled in for an afternoon nap; well, we are Seniors. The trouble was that it was past six by the time we woke up and we'd promised ourselves a joint run (walk, definitely not a run) to the beach. Still a bit groggy from the sleep, we staggered beachward and did make while still standing upright. The wind had died down quite a bit, and there were still a few people about, but it was still glorious on the water's edge.

After a supper of stew, a vegan-friendly stew, we sat out in the bug tent, under the string of coloured lights I'd rigged in there for Charlie, and chatted as the daylight disappeared. The park has been busy this week and I'd expected the campground to be noisy, but everyone seemed to be settled in by ten, and we were some of the later people out and about. We took a minute to view the stars, mostly because the light pollution isn't too bad on the lake's shore, and goodness, aren't they magnificent? Mind you, there seemed to be a lot of aircraft navigation lights in among the celestial bodies. 

Tomorrow, Thursday, is packing up day. I love being out in the Airstream, but it's always nice to go home, too. There will be a lot of work between now and getting home, and the weather is promising a scorcher, so wish us luck.

Airstream Camping 2025 - July Dry Days

Tuesday dawned, dry and sunny, and this despite a cooler night than we've had for a while. Being just a few yards from Lake Erie will reduce the temperatures a little, and it's good to be cooler at night anyway, and it brings no temptation to fire up Towed Haul's noisy air conditioner.

As is my usual practice when camping, I woke early (not that I wanted to), and sat outside with coffee and a book. I don't do that often enough at home, and I really should. The campground was quiet, strangely so given how full it is at the moment, but it certainly aided my concentration on my book. As the time ticked on, though, people started to move, and a steady stream of bicycles moved past our site.

Talking of bicycles, it's been a growing trend for people to use electrically-assisted bicycles rather than the traditional leg powered vehicles when they're moving around the campground. The bikes look bulky, often have big fat tires (a fashion rather than a necessity I think), and are equipped with disk brakes front and rear that wouldn't look out of place on a motorcycle. They are also undoubtedly expensive. The thing is, I don't really see the point of them. If you're unable to pedal a bicycle for some reason, then maybe they're a good thing, but the majority of people I've seen riding these bikes have looked perfectly capable of pedalling. Perhaps I'm being unfair and everyone who has an electric bike really can't pedal a regular one, but I'm not convinced. So if you can pedal a regular bike, why use an electrically-assisted version? Laziness? Fashion? Status? I don't know, it's probably a mix of all of those things, but for the able-bodied, for zipping around a campground, what is the point? Ah, it's just me being grumpy.

It has been very dry this summer, and despite constant threats of storms and heavy rain, Rondeau Park is looking parched. The threats, of course, simply have not materialised. Our little site here has turned to sand, which I've not seen before, and everything is dusty. I'd imagine that the standing water that is normally found deep in the woods here is still there, this spit of land is surrounded by water, fresh, non-salt water after all, but it is unusual for the non-wooded areas to look so dry. We have been here, even in summer, when everything has been wet and soggy, so I guess it's all cyclical, and I am enjoying having the awning out, unmolested by wind and rain. We leave on Thursday, and the forecast looks set fair up to and beyond that day, so I will make the most of it and enjoy the dryness. I will have to re-read this blog entry, though, the next time we're sat here in the Park and the rain is pouring down.

We chatted with some of our campground neighbours last night, and found out once again that the world can be a small place. Links were established over who knew who and what company did what, and it appeared that Mrs. Camper's work crossed over some work my brother does. As I said, it's a small world. We were also talking about what made Canadians Canadian, and Mrs. Camper came up with "Don't Insult the Butter Tart" if you're going to bond with a Canadian. That's as good advice as I've ever heard, and something I will remember, so think on if you're about to bond with anyone from Canada.

We spent a lot of our day at home when we should have been at Rondeau. Dear Wife had an appointment in town, and for various other reasons we didn't get back to Towed Haul until well into the evening. At least we were able to get some water onto the tomato plants, so it wasn't a complete waste of time. Please note the heavy use of sarcasm there.

I turned in relatively early again, but Dear Wife fell asleep on the couch and was snoring gently at 2:30am, with the lights still on. Such a rock and roll lifestyle. Tomorrow, Wednesday, is a down day. We are doing nothing that isn't camping related, and the car is staying put. We'll see how that pans out.

Airstream Camping 2025 - July Summer Days

Camping again, only this time it's in the summer holidays. We thought we'd given up rubbing shoulders with the family crowds now that we're retired, but a slot came up at our favourite campground and it was too good to turn down. I thought that we might be the only seniors around but no, the place is full of them, and not all are accompanied by grandchildren either. It seems odd that when you have quiet campgrounds in May and June, and again in September and October, that any retirees would opt to camp when the younger families are scrabbling for sites; it seems almost unfair. It's not unlike seeing all the old geezers grocery shopping on a Saturday when they, we, have had all week to do it. I don't know, maybe Ontario Parks should drop the Senior's discount for July and August to give the young 'uns a chance? Anyway, we're here, we're seniors, and it's very warm.

This past week we'd treated Towed Haul to a clean up inside and out, and she was gleaming. Or rather I thought she was gleaming. Being a total cheapskate, I'd used a pretend Chamois leather to wipe the water droplets off the skin of the trailer and it left horrible smear marks all over, which serves me right for being cheap. Not in my control, though, were the lovely birds that had crapped on the back of the camper; c'est la vie I guess.

Prepping to leave on Monday, we had set a departure time, but that disappeared into the Coleslaw Vortex. As I'm sure you know, the Coleslaw Vortex is when your thrifty wife decides to use up some veggies that are laying around to make a Coleslaw, when you should have been hitching up. Frugality is important, and leaving on time for a short run to Rondeau really isn't, so I'm not complaining, and we were only thirty-five minutes off schedule. These things happen.

At Rondeau, we hit a line of other trailers at the water fill station. It's not the best idea to travel with a full freshwater tank, not least because even with our little camper, that near-fifty gallons of water weighs quite a lot. So most people will travel dry, or almost dry, and fill up at the campground, at least at Provincial Parks that don't have a water supply on the sites themselves. There were two trailers ahead of us at the single water point, and it turned out that the one filling had only just started. We waited, with the car engine running to keep its A/C going in the heat, and we waited. While the first one was filling, another trailer not in the line pulled up on the opposite side of the water point and started to unfurl a hose. There is indeed a tap at the base of the water point, and he connected his hose to that while the first fellow was still filling and started to fill his own tank. While I applaud his ingenuity, he had both jumped the line up, and made a very slow water point run at half-speed for the guy still filling from the proper water point. That's not really cricket, is it? Still, there was nothing we could do. While we waited for the person in front of us to fill, I emptied the black and grey water tanks of the residue from last week's cleaning efforts, and we continued to wait. Goodness, that trailer must have had a massive water tank because it took absolutely ages to fill. All in all we waited a good forty minutes before we could fill, and by that point I'm thinking that one watering point really isn't sufficient. 

There was a reason for my growing anxiety, and that was the fact that Emma and Charlie were due on site, and we had effectively lost our whole time buffer. Trying to set up while Charlie "helps" isn't easy, particularly in the heat, so we were rushing around and getting ever more flustered trying to beat their arrival. Sadly, we didn't quite make it. Curses!

Charlie wants everything at once, of course, so we had to finish setting up with the whirlwind around us. We did manage to get him away with his mother for a while, which enabled me to finish up, but on their return, things were back into rushing mode.

We had promised Charlie a fire and roasted marshmallows, so in the heat of the afternoon, he and I built up a kindling tower in the fire pit, set it ablaze and stacked some logs on top as the flames built up. It was a good fire, even if I do say so myself, but in the very hot sun it all seemed a bit unnecessary. DW had prepared some baking potatoes, in three layers of tin foil, so I positioned those at the base of the fire, while Emma and Charlie did their marshmallow thing. 

Now here's a Canadian thing I don't fully understand, S'mores. S'mores are sweet campfire treats that people go nuts for, but I just don't get. Take a Graham Cracker, put a square of milk chocolate on it, stand a freshly roasted marshmallow on the chocolate, then cover with another Graham Cracker. Squeeze the whole contraption together and eat it. The cracker crumbles, the melting chocolate goes everywhere, while your hands and mouth are covered in the sticky and crumby goo. Emma loves them, Charlie thinks he does, DW spills their contents all down her front and I look on uncomprehendingly. As I said, I don't really get it.

The upside of the fire, though, was three perfectly cooked baked potatoes. If you plan to cook in a fire, though, make sure you double or triple wrap the potatoes in tin foil, and turn them regularly. Oh, and a perfectly set fire helps as well - all that training with the Scouts wasn't wasted.

Once our visitors had departed, things settled down. We tidied the site up a bit, put a few things away, poured some drinks and retired to the bug tent for the evening. I'd strung some coloured lights up in there and it was quite jolly watching the light fade and listening to the campground quietening down. Despite the number of people here, by nine it was pretty quiet and while we couldn't see them, the Raccoons were abroad, if the noises outside were anything to go by. I hadn't intended to have an early night, but I was in bed by eleven, which is early for me, and in the Land of Nod almost immediately. 

Tuesday is going to be a bit of an odd day, but with fine weather forecast, I'm sure we'll make the most of it.

Airstream Camping 2025 - To Conclude the First Trip

We awoke to dry weather. Again. This despite the dire warnings of storms overnight. I guess we've been lucky.

Packing up day is always a little sad as there's not enough time to do much constructive, but plenty of time to think about the end-of-camp process and all the laundry it produces. Still, the weather was fine.

The previous evening, a group of young people took over the two sites opposite. They had three tents, fours cars and eight people. I admired the precision with which they erected their tents and amalgamated the two sites for the group gathering, this was obviously something they'd done before. They were quite noisy, too, but it was just friends, or possibly family, having a good time, and celebrating a birthday, too. They were equally as noisy this morning as well, but to my great surprise they started packing up their gear (with the same precision they'd set it up), and I overheard one of them tell a passerby that they were packing up because of the forecast rain. I wondered if that was an altogether wise decision given the imprecision of the weather forecasts.

We had our lunch before starting to prepare to leave, and again I was surprised at how easily we do this now, especially compared to when we started camping. A place for everything and everything in its place is a good maxim. Hitching up is easier as well, and in no time at all we were easing off the site and making our way to the dump station. 

There was a bit of a line up at the dump station, but no one was using the alternate side to the dumping area. I went to speak with the person ahead of me and asked if he minded me going around him to use the other side. It turned out that he was waiting to fill his water tank rather than dump, so I suggested that he use the alternate side of the water point for that, too. So, I went around, and he followed, and the line up evaporated - more camping experience coming into play.

As I was dumping our tanks out, I started to chat with a man who was using the regular side of the dump facility. I detected a British accent, but failed miserably when I accused him of being English; he was was, in fact, Welsh. I apologized profusely, because that's an awful mistake to make, although perhaps no worse than people accusing me of being Australian. Anyway, he turned out to be from Swansea, and he lived in Chatham, so we bonded over the poop as it flowed into the underground vaults. Nice to meet you, Anthony.

So relaxed was I as we headed home, north up Kent Bridge Road, that I didn't realise I was only doing 60kph, and not the 80kph limit. In these here parts, speed limits are the minimum speed you drive at, and I'd collected quite a line of cars behind me, so I thought I'd better step on it a bit. It was windy, too, although still hot and dry. I was glad that I'd firmly tightened the anti-sway bars because the crosswind was tugging at us a fair bit. People always assume that towing uphill is a problem, when in reality going downhill is harder, as is driving in any kind of strong wind. The Airstream is more slippery than all other travel trailers, but you can still feel crosswinds and headwinds quite markedly.

Back home it was hotter than at the lake, and it was seriously sweaty work unhitching and unloading, but you have to do what you have to do. 

We went on this trip to unwind from the excitement of a month in England, and I think that aim was achieved. We were also quite glad to be away from the campground with the Canada Day weekend upon on us, there wouldn't have been an empty site in the whole place. The weather looked set fair for the eager campers, so, Happy Canada Day one and all! 

Airstream Camping 2025 - Still Here at Rondeau

Thursday dawned, still dry, still storm free, and this despite every weather forecast known to man saying we were in for a deluge. I'm not complaining of course, and I think we were very lucky to avoid a big one today after everything went misty and quiet for a while in the afternoon, which is a sure sign of an impending storm. But no, the mist lifted, the wind picked up a little and the sun continued to shine. Excellent.

It was another quiet day. Reading, tooling around on the Internet and generally recharging our own batteries. Lots of people left their sites today, and for a while it was comparatively deserted here on the South Campground, but come the witching hour of 2pm they started rolling in, all set for the long weekend. We've long known that folks like to arrive for the weekend on a Thursday, which is great if you can get the time off work I suppose. I'm still wondering how we managed to snag Site 16 for the week that included the Thursday night. When you camp here, you're supposed to put your camping "ticket" on the post at the entrance to your site, and that says when you're leaving. I've been quite surprised to see so many people here at the start of the week are booked through until after the long weekend. They either have massive fresh water and waste water tanks on their campers, or they're using the campground's facilities, because we can only practically go three nights without a top up and a top down. I'm grateful that Ontario Parks have a stay limit of two weeks, otherwise the selfish people among us would book these places solid for the summer.

We did take a couple of run-outs, though, one to get some crisps from the convenience store at the park's gate, and another to drive up to Craves Poutinerie in Blenheim, for what is known in certain parts of the UK as a "Chippy Tea". Chips (fries) and Poutine, eaten in the car while we idly watched the people watching the baseball in the park opposite. Actually I liked the idea of a chippy tea, not only because I like my chips, but because it was all so spontaneous. Of course, the not very defrosted Gumbo in the fridge also influenced our decision. We can have that tomorrow.

This being the Canada day weekend, it stirs up some mixed emotions. We're not flag wavers and never have been, despite both being naturalized citizens of this country. I like it here, and I'm happy to be a Canadian, but this nation was formed on the backs of the native people, under colonial rule which, to this day, marginalizes the indigenous nations within Canada's modern day borders. Treaties are still broken and land still stolen, so it can be tough to celebrate around the flag. But this past year, our orange friend south of the border has done a great job in uniting Canadians, including us, against his ridiculous imperialist claims over this country. Even Quebecers, not normally great believers in the nation of Canada, have slipped in behind the flag and are presenting, at the moment at least, a united front on all things Canadian. So this year, while not flying the flag, we may just have a thought or two about being Canadian and about how fortunate we are not to be the 51st State.

The day ended in an odd way for me. I was feeling a bit sleepy, so at about 8:30 I went to lie on the bed and read a while. At just past midnight I woke, feeling seriously groggy, and discovered that DW had done the same thing on the sofa. What a pair. Still, I guess that's what this trip is all about.

Packing up tomorrow, and heading out before the serious rush. Happy Canada Day!

Airstream Camping 2025 - The Camping Continues

A warm night. OK, a hot night, tempered only by the occasional rumble of the air conditioner on the roof, but I slept reasonably well. I’m going through a phase of waking ridiculously early and not being able to get back to sleep, so I was up and about outside the trailer before seven, making up some coffee and reading my book.

Despite the dire weather forecast there had been no storms, not even any rain, so I brought the awning out again, having put it away the previous evening. The Zip Dee awnings on Airstreams are great, but they are not good in windy weather and have a tendency to break their support arms, so it’s always wise to stow them if the weather looks a bit suspect. The way we’re parked, we’re in the shade in the morning, but putting the awning out makes it feel like you have an additional room in your trailer, so out it came, if only to create an atmosphere.

I did eventually make my way to the “Comfort Station” – toilet and shower block to you and I – for a shower, and that’s one of the treats of Ontario Provincial Parks. We have a shower in the Airstream, but it’s small, and it uses up both fresh water and space in the grey water waste tank, so I make use of the Park’s facilities. I’ve spoken before about the curious design of the shower stalls, made to wet anything within range, and the fact that the authorities have saved money by getting rid of the cleaning contractors in favour of letting the Park’s own employees do the task, reluctantly and not at all well. But even a slightly grimy and sand filled shower stall doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of privacy and copious amounts of hot water. I always feel better after a park shower.

I do find it odd, though, that people feel the need to drive to the Comfort Station from their sites. It must have taken me three or four minutes to walk, in the glorious sunshine, yet my camping neighbours, on the two sites to the north of us, felt the need to drive. Each to their own, I guess.

Talking of walking (I’m a poet and I didn’t know it), what is this thing with electric bicycles? People haul a pair of big electric bicycles with them on camping trips, then scoot around the park on them, and I don’t know why. Not the scooting around, but why the need for electric motors and batteries? Everyone with these bikes looks more than capable of using a regular person-powered bicycle, especially here as it’s as flat as a billiard table. I suppose they go a little faster than a regular bike, but it seems a bit pointless to me. Again, each to their own.

The day was then spent doing the square root of nothing at all. Well, not quite. I caught up on blogging, wrote a couple of notes to people, read a third of my book without falling asleep, so maybe it was a productive day. The main aim of the trip, though, is to recharge a little after the big UK trip. A holiday from the holiday. In that respect, all aims were being achieved.

I say it every time we come to Rondeau, but we are so lucky to live close to such a wonderful place. It’s a spit of land jutting out into Lake Erie, has 12km of sandy beaches on one side, and a captive, shallow pond, Rondeau Bay, on the other. It’s also one of the last vestiges of natural Carolinian Forest left in North America and is home to an amazing array of flora and fauna. The bay’s turtles have done laying their eggs, but they’re still around. The snakes, though you rarely see them, are about, and the rabbits and chipmunks are legion. Indeed, so legion that I had one little cheeky chipmunk try climbing my leg as I sat reading my book. The surprise was enough, but DW has seen the event unfold and failed to mention the impending assault. As I’m sat here writing, under the awning again, the chipmunks are skittering around my feet. The little buggers.

Birds are the real draw here at Rondeau, though. As we sat out in the afternoon, we watched Grackles and Red-Winged Blackbirds bouncing around our patio mat. A blue jay sat on the fire ring not eight feet away, and the Mourning Doves and American Robins were everywhere. We saw an occasional Baltimore Oriel, and some Yellow Warblers, and high above the tree canopy, the Turkey Vultures circled on the breeze. There are many birds you can’t see but can hear, and that’s where the Merlin bird call phone app comes in, listening for birds and suggesting what type of bird it’s hearing. It all great stuff and is what makes Rondeau such a wonderful place to visit.

It was baked potato and beans for supper, plus beer and wine, and a squiz at an old movie to wind down in the evening. Our film was “Went The Day Well”, a classic British wartime movie about a failed German invasion in rural in England during the Second World War. I don’t know how I’d never seen it before, and I may have to watch it again, because I managed to fall asleep during parts of it, and that takes me all the way back to the beginning of this post, when you wake early, you end up falling asleep early. Still, who’s complaining?

We’re here until Friday, it’s a long weekend in coming up in Canada, and so far, we have had great weather, despite the forecast. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Airstream Camping 2025 - We Start Again

Our first trip of the year in Towed Haul and an auspicious start it may turn out to be.

When cleaning her out, I discovered a soft spot or two in the floor, just by the couch by the door. A gentle press with my fingers resulted in a muted rustling sound beneath the vinyl floor covering, and a definite dip. The dreaded rotten floor, caused by some unseen leak of water under the vinyl. Repairing that is a major task and I don't think we have will, or the money, to fix it. Maybe we'll call this our last season and sell the old girl on as a project for someone else. It's a bit annoying because it's all happened unseen, and therefore we've done nothing about it. Interestingly, the noise from the floor is giving off dry vibes, but maybe I'll check it again after some rain. Who knows?

Back to this trip, and it's the usual three-nighter at Site 16 at Rondeau Provincial Park. Almost as soon as we'd hauled the old girl out of storage, we legged it to the UK for a month, so my first job in returning to Canada was to clean her up, inside and out, check everything was working, and sanitize the fresh water system. To my surprise, the good people at CanAm RV had filled the fresh water tank, so after draining it, refilling it and adding a little bleach, I had quite a bit of stinky water to clear out of the internal water lines. CanAm had cleared the anti-freeze, but water in the lines, sat there for a month, needed to go. It's worth pointing out that we don't drink the water from the fresh water tank and lines, we always bring fresh in another container for that, but no one wants to shower or wash their dishes in stinky water. The bleach (3/4 cup for 45 gallons), by the way, works well, but you do have to flush it through properly.

When we loaded up and prepped for travel, the weather was being silly. Temperatures around 36-37C and blazing sunshine, plus some humidity, and I was wet through with sweat. The onboard fridge and freezer was complaining as well, struggling to keep cold. But, being the troopers that we are, we hitched up, checked the lights and brakes and hit the open road. Well, we had to inch past the badly parked cars fifty yards from our driveway first, but then we hit the open road.

Our hitch receiver on the Toadmobile is rusty, the result of thirteen Canadian winters. I fret that it will break as we're towing, and perhaps I should have had it replaced. But, it's been modified by CanAm RV and is pretty sturdy. When we hitch up we use the Airstream's jack to lift the car, and I reason that if it's going to break, it'll do it then. Today it was all good.

It was hot driving towards Lake Erie, and windy, too. The gas mileage was moderate, but you could tell that the wind was coming into play. But the Toadmobile took it all in its stride and in no time we were wheeling into the park and making our way to our personal site. It's not really our personal site of course, but it feels like it.

Setting up was another sweat-inducing chore, although the temperatures were seven or eight degrees down because we were on the lake front. Site 16 also allows us to set up in the shade, which was helpful. The forecast was for thunderstorms, and the sun was in and out of the clouds. There was a few spots of rain, then a short shower, and the occasional rumble of thunder, but that was all. The sun came out and the temperatures went back up, and everything was summery again. 

Someone came by and stopped at the site opposite and expressed amazement that it was still dry in the park. She had been caught in a storm just a couple of miles away, and yet we knew nothing about it. It's a good job that thunderstorms are so localized.

Of course when it gets hot, we have to power up the cold air in the Airstream. It's good to have, essential actually, but it's noisy. DW, though, did a fine job tuning it so that it was come on and go off at reasonable intervals, which is what we needed if we were to get any sleep.

The afternoon was hot and we did very little, apart from drive out to the convenience store just outside the park's gate and stock up with beer and nibbles. Then we went back to the store to exchange one of the boxes of cookies we'd bought for a non-dairy type. Gawd, pick up the wrong ones. 

Barn Swallow

Tree Swallow

As the evening set in we enjoyed some of DW's homemade vegan stew (which is really very good), before setting off on a short walk to have a look at Rondeau Bay. The little park store was closed up for the night, but the Barn Swallows that live there were busy, as were the Purple Martins and the Tree Swallows. We watched a pair of Tree Swallows feeding their young in a nesting box that had been installed by the park rangers. At first we stood too close, which made the male fly around us in wide circles, and the female sit and wait. We took just a few steps further back and then the feeding commenced, with the female flying off to get insects, and the male sat atop the nesting box, on guard. There were a ton of other birds around as well, as our Merlin bird call app registered around ten other species of birds, just from their calls. This is why we love coming to Rondeau.

It's not yet school summer holiday time yet, so the campground is occupied most by old geezers like us. It was very quiet last night, and I think many had turned in for the night by 10pm. We campers are pure rock and roll. How we will sleep with the "air" on I don't know, but hopefully it will seem like background noise. Still no thunderstorms, but I put the awning away, just in case.