Here’s dreaming about getting to the RV in May

If there’s one good thing about this time of the year for me, it’s looking forward to May when it’s time to head back to our RV in a quiet seasonal campground a little north of Sauble Beach and a little west of Wiarton. It’s all about getting away from the routine and relaxing in nice surroundings.  Lots of trees.  A campfire.  Some music. Oh and, ah, TV.  Believe me, we’re not exactly ‘roughing it’.  This much is for sure–it’s a nice place to end up after a drive approaching 4 hours. Good thing I love driving. And a good thing we don’t have to drive through Toronto to get there.

Navigating the Big Smoke was something our family often had to do to get to provincial parks like Algonquin, in the years when we were on the move camping. My wife and I just loved Algonquin. It was always much nicer travelling closer to home to another favourite provincial park at Turkey Point. However, the very first summer we went camping in 1990, it was with a tent in a campground at Elora Gorge. It wasn’t always the most relaxing experience. The first time we were there, we took both our boys, 4 and 2 years old. The youngest one loved–oops—toddling toward the campfire, except when he had trouble standing up on the uneven ground. Oh, once he grabbed some eggs, one in each hand and well, I can’t recall if they stayed in one piece or not. The second time, we left him with Grandma.

The following year we bought a popup or tent-trailer and started venturing all over the place, from Turkey Point to Sharbot Lake in eastern Ontario, to Agawa Bay on Lake Superior to Algonquin. It wasn’t a big popup, but we were towing it with a Ford Tempo, which looking back, wasn’t the ideal tow vehicle. I remember heading up the 400 north of Toronto and having to get the gas ready for the next hill. For some reason in the first few years, we had our share of rainy days and it tended to be cool. One year was the worst–the year Mt. Pinatubo erupted–throwing debris into the air and helping cool the summer right off. We were at Oastler Lake provincial park in the middle of summer and it rained so much, we decided to head up Highway 69 to the next park, Killbear. I don’t know if were hoping that would magically get the rain to stop, but it did. Then it was just plain cold. I don’t remember the temperature that day, but it pretty chilly for a summer day. I was wearing a jacket and we sure weren’t making any plans to take the boys to the nearby beach. At night, I think it was somewhere around 8-degrees celsius.

Later in the 90′s, we bought a larger popup and every year managed to visit one of the parks we hadn’t been to before. However, I made sure we camped at certain parks every year, including Algonquin, MacGregor and Turkey Point. Turkey Point offered raccoons, who would sometimes sit high up in a tree as you sat around the campfire late at night. Algonquin had slightly larger mammals. Driving along Highway 60, you’d always hope to spot a bear or moose off the side of the road and more than a few times you’d see one. Once we saw a bear, except it wasn’t off in the distance, it was just yards away at a neighbouring campsite. Someone had obviously left food on the other site and with a keen scent, the bear knew exactly which site to visit. One of the campers sat on the horn, someone yelled “bear” and managed to convince it to leave. I must admit, it was a surreal moment seeing the bear standing there. Later, park officials wheeled in a beartrap.

Several years ago, it was time to move into a small fifth wheel for more room and comfort. I found it interesting that it actually easier to connect the RV to the tow-vehicle than the popups.  Our driveway had a slight slope, which made it tricky to make the connection. No problem at all with the fifth wheel, which also towed beautifully behind the long-box pickup truck we had at the time.

By this time, we were mostly going without the boys who were in their late teens. So we decided to park the RV at a seasonal site and take it easy. And so it goes.