“The Buchanan’s rolling down the road” are actually rolling down the road today, it is Sunday October 20th and we are leaving our summer job on the shores of Lake Huron. The weather is telling us it is time to move on as Saturday morning I was awaken to the sound of the furnace running, it was not running to warm the inside of the coach, it was the  thermostat in the wet bay that had triggered the furnace to warm up the basement. When the weather man starts talking about wind chill factors and temperatures in the minus numbers it is time to start our southern journey…just saying.

It was very calm Friday night and the temperature was only 1ºC or 34ºF so our little space heater was just able to keep the coach in the mid sixties ,which is great for sleeping, and I had just started the living room thermostat to run the  fans to make sure they are operational, the one by the entrance of the coach sometimes gets something falling out of the drawer above it so it will be noisy, but all was good now, no paper was stuck in the fan this time. And this morning was a balmy 7ºC or 44ºF which while being a lot better is still not our target temperature (70ºF or 20ºC) so the adventure begins.

Our first stop may be in Goderich  (Canadas prettiest town) for a Diesel fuel top up, this will be the first fuel add since April, but the fuel tank is the supply source for everything diesel, the furnace, the generator, as well as the big Caterpillar motor that powers the coach. So with the cold settling in we now have to keep the tank full as the furnace and the generator will not operate with less than half a tank of fuel. So our rule of thumb when travelling is to top the tank often, it simply creates less stress, nothing worse than getting low on fuel and being forced into a small service station that was never designed to handle a forty foot motor coach with a tow car. So at the three quarter mark we start looking for our next fuel stop.

Where we end up today is not totally decided, and that is pretty much how we travel, not a lot of hard destinations, this type of travel allows freedom to just go with what happens, so right now our travel date to cross the boarder to the United States is around November 1st, which will allow us three weeks to make it to Arizona. The route is little more right now than a direction, the ten days will be busy with appointments, visits, dinners, repairs, and just preparing for the 3600 km (2200 mile) adventure, hopefully our route will take us to meet ups with friends as we travel, so there will be lots of phone calls and planning as we prepare, we have multiple offers for so mooch docking or driveway surfing, so we will be moving around from spot to spot so as not to wear out our welcome.