Well we welcomed the month of October starting off with some summer like weather, in fact weather way too good for Ontario at this time of year. Here on the eastern shore of Lake Huron we are still waiting for the first frost of the season, you know the first frost that kills off most of the annual flowers and plants. That frost that starts turning the leaves on the trees those beautiful colours. That make you start thinking of the fall harvest and a Thanksgiving turkey dinner with all the fixings. But we have had none of that, no we are still running around the park in shorts and tee shirts, while thinking it is way too warm for October. Oh I’m sure that we are in for some fall like weather in the very near future, but I’m going to enjoy this weather as long as I can.

Today is the 2nd of October it was on this day way back in 2017 that we moved from our house into our coach to begin this lifestyle of full time RV living so as we start into out seventh year our only regret is that we didn’t start this a decade sooner. The past six years have brought us so much joy, we have been to places and done things we could only have imagined. The people we have met on the road, some of which have touched our lives so deeply, and have changed our life in an unbelievable fashion. Oh we have met our share of total whack jobs on the road as well, and I mean all types from the “flat earth” people to a multitude of conspiracy theory people and of course the pandemic brought many of them to the surface, led by leaders that seemed to be just simply four bricks short of a five brick load, if you know what I’m saying. We have met hero’s and zero’s over the years, the advantage of having our home on wheels is we can move on if the environment is not of our liking. Over these years we have met and lost people from our “RV family” we have formed bonds that are both beautiful and amazing, many to this day have become precises pieces of our life. We have travelled from coast to coast, we have drove up mountains, we have crossed borders, we have seen beautiful gardens, as well as the harshness of the deserts, but no matter where we go we find people that enhance our lives as we go, so as we have a quick toast here is to the next six years!

This is time of year that we have to say good bye to so many friends here at the park. and it is heart warming that so many people go out of their way to say “we’ll see you down the road” as we try to never say good bye anymore, it’s just “till we meet again“. This is the final week that the park is open, and by five o’clock on the nineth of this month the last of the stragglers will be headed down the road till next spring, and we will actually miss a few of them. But this is also the time that we get to start some serious planning our fall travel, and we have a few neat things planned for this winter travel season. It may not be a crazy as last year’s twelve week vacation down the U.S. west coast and Baja Mexico, but it still has a few interesting adventures just the same.

Of course before we hit the road there are some coach items that need attention, today is Tuesday October the 3rd and I’m tackling a problem that showed itself over a year ago, the coach has a hydraulic fluid leak that has been dropping fluid while we are driving and the air flow is carrying it to the front of the toad. It took me longer than it should have to locate the source of the leak and when I did, it appeared to just be a loose hose clamp on a hydraulic fluid return line which I tightened, but to my chagrin the leak continued, it had appeared to be a loose hose on a fitting, but it turned out to be a loose fitting where it threaded into the fluid tank. In fact the return hose that I thought was turning on the fitting was actually the fitting turning that freely in thread pipe gusset that is welded into the tank.

Pipe thread is known as a tapered thread, that is how it seals so that the fluid won’t leak by the threads there are no sealing neoprene rings or machined surfaces to seal the fluid so the addition of some Teflon tape onto the threads should reassure a good seal. The addition of the street elbow on this repair just keeps the return hose tucked up and out of harms way, the clamp seemed to be ok so I have reused it but now it is all galvanized steel fitting as opposed to the previous nylon fitting that was leaking because it could not tightened. I have added 15 liters of new fluid and topped off the tank with some used fluid ($115 worth of fluid) the steel pipe fittings were actually the cheapest part of the repair at less than $15, and I only ruined one old tee shirt in the repair process.

It’s Wednesday morning, and we will fire up the coach’s diesel engine today, to circulate the hydraulic fluid through the system after my repair, I will also run it long enough to warm the engine up as we have not started it for a number of months, and I should also start and run the diesel generator, as it may be needed on our trip south. And we are starting to look forward to the next adventures, as we start into our seventh year of full time RV living.

But first we are heading to the beach this morning, I haven’t been down for a walk for a number of weeks, there is a stiff breeze out of the south west which has the lake a bit rougher today but the temperature is also 27ºC (80ºF) which the forecast claims is coming to an end in the next few days with cold rainy weather hitting us by the weekend.

Well the weather people were correct as Thanksgiving weekend rolls around the temperature has dropped like a rock and the wind and rain have hit us like a gut punch after the weeks of nice weather. Now all of a sudden the people that closed their units last weekend are looking pretty smug … as now it is down to choosing which day will be the better day to winterize to avoid getting soaked to the butt?

And as always we are bombarded with questions that someone qualified to winterize their own unit wouldn’t have to ask. At least it is cold and wet enough to keep me in the coach so that I’m not outside and handy to be asked those questions that the answers should be obvious. The staff has started to winterize already some of the fifty plus that are on our list to do and the weather is looking much better early next week so that is when we will finish off our winterizations. The shutting down of the electrical system will start on Tuesday as we also have a couple of water line leaks to locate and repair before we can winterize the water system.

It wouldn’t be a holiday weekend without a little drama, a phone call Sunday morning from some residents to say they had no water pressure had me out in rubber boots in the rain to diagnose the cause of the complaint.

You know it had to be bad when after a night of heavy rain and with surface water laying everywhere I was easily able to locate a not so small water feature where some campsites were located just yesterday. This is a major water leak and as I prepare to start to hand dig at the obvious source of the water flow I call Richard because I know this is going to be a big job and I may need some help. Richard had went to the other park for Thanksgiving and I felt bad about calling, but I knew this leak was going to be around four feet deep and it was going to be an all day task with out a little help. I was nearly two feet deep when Richard got there, I had uncovered the septic line at the 24″ depth and was digging under and around it now, but with it exposed then our only other worry was the electrical power lines. We decided because we had an vacated site adjacent to maneuver in, that the back-hoe would speed up this operation so we proceeded to dig a trench to allow the excess water to be pumped out as we dug deeper by hand, next we found the electrical lines litterly just laying in the dirt at around the 36″ depth, I was surprised that it was just wires, not in any conduit or anything, but when they were installed the electric codes were totally different. Now the digging was more cautious because of the power lines but the next foot brought us to a water line and the problem area, a one inch water line broken clean off at a splitter connection for four sites. A quick trip to town to a plumbing supply store and we had enough new hardware to make this repair and get the water back on to the north end of the park hopefully by one o’clock. It was a major task but we had won this battle and we decided that we would deal with the clean up after the rain relented, I headed for the shower to clean up as well as get warmed up, and Richard headed back to his Thanksgiving celebrations.

The fact is that situations like that that can arise at any time of day or week and we are always concerned about having someone from the staff on site all the times. And it’s at times like this, that we just go a do what ever it is that needs to be done, were not worried about the hour of the day, or whose day off it is, or how many hours it will take, it’s just a simple get at it and getter done.

On Monday the 9th, Thanksgiving day we watched as the last of the campers were leaving the park, the rain had eased but it was still a windy and cold day, and by late afternoon there were only a couple of stragglers left and by five o’clock I drive to the road and locked the gates at the end of the lane. The first night after the park closes is an eerie time, as the constant flow of cars has suddenly come to a halt, there is no smell of campfires a constant from opening day until the bitter end. There are still some solar light glowing around the park that somehow gathered enough power even on a cold overcast day to shine for a few hours. Tomorrow will be the start of the beeps and squeaks as the power gets shut off to the park and all the battery backup systems start to fail, of course there will be alarms from smoke detectors over the whole winter as people always fail to remove those batteries and as the cold temperature zaps the power from those little batteries. It has amazed me over the years how on a quiet day a failing battery on a smoke alarm can be heard over the whole park, and the next couple of weeks will be a symphony of failing alarms.

Now the next couple of weeks there will be a flurry of repairs and maintenance getting done on a number of fronts, trailer winterizations will be our first priority, followed by locating and repairing some water leaks, followed by the draining and winterization of the park water system. Extras like tree removal, because as lots become vacant at the end of the season we always take that opportunity to remove any of the dirty poplar trees that are left in the park as well as any others that are causing an issue. There is a well inspection scheduled, which involves pulling the submersible pump from the well casing, and then sending a camera down the casing and through the rock boring into the aquafer. The casing is inspected for corrosion, and the stainless steel pump in cleaned and its performance tested, and while everything was good the decision was made to replace the well pipe, this a plastic pipe that supports the pump and is the pipe that brings the pressurized water to the to the surface. The pipe had been updated from galvanized to plastic years ago but the new pipes are plastic with stainless steel fittings allowing for easier disassembly.

The tree work is happening and it will be a full and busy day, a number of big poplar trees will be removed and a number of other trees will be trimmed to avoid any issues in the future. The crew from Bayfield Tree Service are qualified, experienced, professionals that at at home working in tight conditions, this video shows how little time it takes to drop a tree with qualified people.

Because poplar wood is a softwood and because it gives off an odor similar to the smell like someone peeing on the campfire the majority of the trees are just put through the chipped to be turned into mulch. The video below shows how long it takes to mulch a poplar tree.

The team has been working well, and we are quickly checking items off of the “close down list” with vigor, everyone can see the end is closing in quickly when we will all be headed off in our different directions, we will be heading south, well I guess technically we are all heading south, but we are headed back to Arizona, Mark is headed to Peru and from what we have been able to gather an engagement, Rich & Bonnie are off to the Dominican for some sunshine and warm weather. and by the sounds of it we will likely be the last ones to leave the park. We have been unhooked from the water system for over a week, I have used the blue boy to empty the black tank, so the only thing left to do is finish packing up, unplug the power supply, and head down the road.

Our projected time to be done the closing process was the 20th of the month, but we were done ahead of schedule so it was on the seventeenth that we said goodbye to Mark and on the twentieth to Rich & Bonnie, we needed to delay a few day before crossing the border so we decided to stay for the weekend and pull out on Monday the twenty third.

We’re off on our Fall adventures stay tuned

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Day 2213

The park starts to slow down after the Labour Day weekend, some of the slow down is because of the restarting of the schools here in Ontario and as the teachers and students report to classes, it is also a time when many people have to start reporting back in to their offices as the summer (slack off) season comes to a close. The day to day operations of the park continue on as normal, as next years site contracts are due by mid month, and all the rain from August has kept the maintenance staff busy mowing the lawns and trying to stay ahead of the weeds. And as the number of people in the park during the week reduces, I have had the opportunity continue my work on many of the individual electrical breaker panels for the mapping project, part my ongoing summer long project.

Oh yah, we also have that whole wedding thing happening in the park in the next week or so. The labour day weekend festivities featured music from a live band, with lots of fun events like the annual Halloween decorating contest, trick or treating for the kids and this year there was a haunted house set up by one of the campers which was a huge success. Only one food vender made it to the park this weekend and did a great business, I think many of the food vendor are thinking we have a limited amount of people at the park which is true, but there is also no other vendor competition for the spendable dollars, and I think they are missing out.

Yesterday a large white tent has been assembled on the playground common area, it will serve many purposes while it is up. It will host a birthday party, a wedding rehearsal dinner, and then the wedding reception with appetizers and beverages before the dinner which will take place in the rec hall.

The week after Labour day has seen a flurry of activity with lots of preparation for the wedding on the 9th of September, the rec hall has being transformed into a reception hall, camp site # 10 has been transformed into a wedding site with arches, chandeliers, and white sheers, and of course enough chairs for the hundred and twenty guests. Last minute touch ups being done as required, a pot or two of flowers being moved and then moved again. And all of this being done with little or no real inconvenience to the campers, no the only change to the campers was the shutting down of the playground and washroom area on the afternoon of the wedding.

The Sunday after the wedding there was a huge crew of helpers, and amazingly everything just seemed to disappear, the tent was disassembled, folder and packed away, the rec hall was stripped of the rental items and they were all loaded on to a trailer to be returned on Monday, Floors were washed the store which had been the staging area for the caterers to prepare the dinner, was reassembled and prepared for reopening Sunday afternoon to be able to accept contracts.

The next week seemed very quiet as all the wedding visitors have now left the area, and all the well planned and appointed items have been returned to their original locations and homes, and all the rental items has been returned and accounted for. The park itself is in great shape after all the pimping and pruning from before the wedding, the pool has been closed for the season as the temperatures are cooling off too much at night to warrant the expense of trying to keep it heated. But as much as the nights are cooling off we still have not had any frost so all the flowers are still blooming.

We just have had some new Bridgestone tires installed on our toad as we are starting to prepare to head south for the winter, we also took the 14th off to sneak in a round of golf at the Woodlands golf course in nearby Clinton, a course just a few miles from the park, we also went out for dinner with Mary and Julie to the Park House to celebrate my birthday.

Next week may seem like a long one as we will be on duty for over seven days in a row, as Rich & Bonnie are taking some needed vacation time on the Canadian east coast. There are no major projects on the go right now and as I’m getting close to the completion on my electrical grid mapping project, the quiet time is allowing for some panel maintenance and updating, as a number of oddities are turning up with more in depth exploration. The electrical grid in the park has endured many years of changes, patches, and expansions so there have been some surprising discoveries, some have even left Rich scratching his head as there seems to be no logical explanation for what we are finding or why it was done. I have been repainting some faceplates on electrical boxes to allow new labeling as some panels had multiple labels added over old labels for the same breaker, leaving everyone confused.

As September is coming to a close, the weather has been far better than expected with warm sunny day and nights that are cool but by no means normal for this late in September. This is a time of many mixed emotions for us as we are start the dreaded process of saying goodbye to many friends, with our Canadian Thanksgiving celebration falling early this year and because the Thanksgiving Monday is the park closing date, some patrons have decided to close their units this last weekend of September. It is also a time when we start looking forward to our winter travels as this fall as we make our way south to our adopted winter home in Arizona and our group of Winter friends that we left way back in April.

There have been a few surprises at the park with a few long term residents deciding to leave, but as life happens, so do people’s plans change and as surprising as some of these changes seem we have learned over the years that that is just real life. And as sad as some of the departures are for us, we now just look back at how lucky we were to have had those people in our lives at all. As I walk around the park and see flower beds being cleared out in preparation for that killer frost that still hasn’t happened, there are just a few trees showing fall colours sporadically around the park. And we are also realizing how very little time we spent down on the beach this year, which is normally a popular spot for Miss Laurie on our days off, but we seem to have been playing catch up all year.

We have started our goodbyes as we prepare for our winter adventures, so trying to stop and see family before it’s too late. we have ventured off to the Stoney Creek and Woodstock areas but will miss so many important people this year it is sad. We need to plan next year more carefully to visit everyone that we missed this year as we will be better prepared to enjoy more family time, it is obvious that our priorities need to chance next year, as life did throw us a couple of curve balls this year that we were not expecting.

Fall is officially here but still no frost!

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Day 2189