June’s Windshield View 2022

June 2022 and we are on site “J” at Country Maples RV Resort, still enduring the cold wet spring, we have only had one day the was over 20C (70F), I’m still finding myself wearing blue jeans most days and with few exceptions a sweatshirt just to stay warm. The photos I selected for this month was a shot I took looking back over the Mini-putt at the coach standing near the clubhouse at the park.

Our excursions from our site have been very limited, for a couple of reasons, first our work schedule has not worked to our benefit as we seem to have a lot of days where our schedule does not match, and its just been too damn cold and damp to see the true beauty of the island, although we did get the opportunity to drive across the island to Tofino which was breathtaking and got Laurie her first real experience with the Pacific Ocean. This is a hot spot for surfing in Canada but when I refer to hot I’m not referring to temperature as the Northern Pacific Ocean keeps this part of the coast very temperate. It is also an area with many resorts, the kind of place that the Prime Minister of Canada vacations at. So while beautiful not an area our adventure was a full day of exploring the villages, the tidal pools and of course the beautiful sand beaches. Below are some of the photos that we able to snap with our iPhones.

June 2021 finds Thunder and us still tucked into our site #217 at LHR (Lake Huron Resort), and just as last month, this photo was taken by Miss Laurie of an old, long grey haired, hippie dude, on the roof of our coach, from our site not the windshield as our windshield is now covered with our sun shade for the summer. While reviewing some drone shots it became very obvious that it was time to wash the roof, and perform some maintenance and realignment of the solar panels on the roof. The roof was very dirty, so I removed the solar panels to give it a good scrubbing. And decided to take the time to rework the solar panel mounting characteristics, to ease the tilting of the solar panels in preparation for boondocking this winter.

June 2021: Site 217 at LHR (Lake Huron Resort) work camping, with the pandemic lock down starting to be relaxed we are starting to gain a hope that the border will open by fall and we will be able to roll down the road. So we have started to prepare for the fall as you seen on the first photo a good roof scrubbing, we use truck washes as required on the road but roof cleaning at truck washes only consists of spraying the roof, no scrubbing involved. We will surely be boondocking this fall and tilting the solar panels can increase the output from the panels by 25% or more so is a necessity to fully enjoy all of our creature comforts. And what we learned from experience is that we want the sun on our drivers side of the coach, we used to think we preferred the passenger side but learnt that it adds stress to our refrigerator in the direst sun, and often if it is windy we can’t keep the awning out, so it can be too hot for us as well. So by tilting the panels the other way we can either sit under the awning or move to the drivers side for our sunshine. So the solar panel mounts is a project that I have just kept putting off, so long over do. The photos below show the difference from dirty to clean!

The above photos show our solar array, four 175 watt panels and two 210 watt panels for a total of 1.12 kilowatts. It seems to have sufficient output to keep our 600 amp/hours of lithium batteries charged while boondocking in Arizona, but to get the most from the panels they need to be tilted toward the winter sun. And of course it took us (me) about a year to realize that I needed to tilt them to the drivers side of the coach, to keep our refrigerator vents out of the direct sun. So now an important part of picking a camping site is what direction will the coach be facing, west is preferred, which puts the sunset in the windshield and shade on the our refrigerator.

I have to talk about the pandemic, as it has caused us to miss a winter of travel, as well as the lives of some very good friends. Today is the 18th of June and today Ontario has just today reached our required levels of vaccination for stage 2 of the reopening, and are only 5% away from the requirements for stage 3. We also learned that the land border will remain closed at least till July 21 2021, this did not come as a complete surprise but I had hopped to see some softening of restrictions and possible re-opening soon after Canada Day and the Fourth of July long weekend. But there has been a lot of discussion which is a good sign for the future. I have my second shot booked for next week, and Miss Laurie should be able to get her second vaccine shot early in July which is great news. And with the vaccine rate of people 12 years and older still climbing it is reassuring that even the antivaxxers are getting shots, I guess the fear of an agonizing hospital stay, isn’t the desirable outcome even after attending some anti whatever rally.

Although we have not yet been able to get a good photo of the eagle that is patrolling our section of the lake shore, the general bird population has lessened since spring and the eagles arrival. Although the oriel population seems to be regular visitors to our site for their sugar fix. We haven’t had the chipmunks of last year, but we still have the occasional black squirrel visits and of course the hummingbirds are daily visitors, and the robin population appears to be growing.

The corn in the field behind our coach is more than knee high

Well its June 29th and I decided that I had better close out this blog today, we have just been through monsoon season, last weekend brought a huge quantity of rain and wind, the park suffered minimal damage, one branch down, so limited water damage from run off, but the majority was soaked into soil suffering from an extra dry spring. Now we are in the middle of an extended heat event that is seeing temperatures in the Canadian west that even surpassed Las Vegas yesterday at 47C (117F). I received my second vaccine last week with no side effects other than a little soreness in my arm, Miss Laurie has her second shot booked for July, and Canada is kicking butt with vaccinations now with 67.258% of all Canadians having at least one shot and 77.252% of the population that is eligible for a vaccine having received a shot. Now because Canada had suffered from a short supply of vaccine early we extended the time between first and second shots so now as of yesterday everyone eligible, can book for their second shot so as of today 32.951% have had their second vaccine, with Ontario sitting at 35.287% of the eligible population being fully vaccinated and we have exceeded the stage three requirements by more than 10% and climbing quickly because of more than a quarter of a million vaccines being administered everyday.

So tonight at midnight Ontario starts into stage 2 of the latest reopening plan, which means that Ontario can get their hair cut but still can not enter a restaurant to be served, that’s still at least 21 days away, it allows gatherings of 25 people with proper social distancing, but here at the park, I can only think of two or three sites that are large enough for that many to gather 2 meters (6 feet) apart. It allows groups of 5 to gather indoors with proper precautions, so now we can have overnight guests and restaurant patio service has increased to 6 per table from the 4 that it presently is. The retail stores can increase the percentage of capacity and I think that malls can now open with a limited capacity, it is very obvious that the people in control have been burnt by opening too fast previously. But no matter what some of the special people say, vaccines are the only path out of this, I had a good laugh they just announced a survey where 29% of the people said they had broke at least one covid guideline, I almost choked on my beer that number is in reality north of 79% as we have seen every day since they came into effect, the stay at home order was a joke as seen by the number of looky lous that drove a mile down a dead end road to tour through the park and when asked about the stay at home we just got the dumber than dirt look from most of them. Yah the 29% number probably should be 89% if there was a true definition of essensial travel, but I think because of the vaccine we are truly on the end of the pandemic here in Ontario, as we see Australia battling with another outbreak because of low vaccination rates, I have no belief that it is under control in the world, in fact I have my doubts about the States being protected from the fourth wave in the fall because of areas like Mississippi only being at 33% vaccinated, I’m just thinking it is a ticking time bomb.

So as I close out this blog, I am looking very forward to what July brings to us as, and we start to plan for October 20th and our trip south, we need to touch base with people, and start a route that will take us south through the Gulf of Mexico in Texas on our way to Arizona. I need to purchase a few items and get them shipped so we can pick them up on our way, one thing I do know for sure is that this is not going to be a fast trip and we are going to try to use a lot of spots on the Harvest Host network as we head south as well as hopefully a muuchdocking spot in Ohio for a few days. For those not familiar with Harvest Host it is a new work of farms and businesses through Canada and the United states that offers boondocking spots to members for free, just like a campsite you call and book a spot for an evening, it is usually the parking lot, there are no hook ups and all they ask is that you visit the buisness or farm and if you see something you like make a purchase. Now I know your wondering what kind of buisness and that answer is difficult to pin down, there are a lot of wineries, distilleries, breweries, fruit and vegetable farms, museums, as well as some attractions. The cranberry farm up in Bala Ontario, “Johnston’s Cranberry Marsh” is a Harvest Host, the photo shows a few of the near 2500 across the States, Canada, and Baja Mexico. It even includes some 400 golf courses, talk about a quiet, beautiful spot to over night and usually comes with a discounted green fee either the night before of the next morning, kind of a little ok … jus’saying.

June 2020: Site 89 at LHR (Lake Huron Resort), work camping, because there was no travel involved, as well as the Covid-19 pandemic, again I have decided to just make a collage of phots taken at the park during that period.

June 2019: Site 217 at LHR (Lake Huron Resort), work camping, because there was no travel involved I have decided to just make a collage of phots taken at the park during that period.

June 2018: Found us at Fifty Point Conservation Area on the west end of Lake Ontario, this was our second month here and while we had to change our site because of booking issues was more of a staging area as we prepared for our journey to the east coast in July. So lots of things were happening, the purchase of our Ford SporTrac and setting it up to tow four down, selling the tow dolly we had just purchased eight months earlier, the purchasing our kayaks, installing a kayak carrier on the roof of the SporTrac, and a bike rack on the hitch of the SporTrac.

And while much of that sounded quick and easy it was not without lots of problems, most of which were with the prepping of the SporTrac to be towed four down. Because we needed to be able to put the four wheel drive transfer case into neutral to avoid damage to the transmission. Because it is all controlled by switches and an electronic control, we needed a kit from Ford to allow this to happen, well the issue was while Ford still showed that the kit as available but there were none in the Ford parts system. So with a little research I discovered that the kit consisted of a micro switch and a led lamp, the micro switch mounted in the shift console to ensure the shifter is in neutral and the led would light to indicate the transfer case was in neutral. The real kick was that kit was $248 and we quoted another two hundred to install it. So when the Ford dealer we were purchasing it from couldn’t supply the kit, I got them to reprogram the transfer ECU (Electronic Control Unit) to accept a neutral signal, and I found a micro switch and a led lamp at an electronic shop for $12 and installed it myself, and it has worked well ever since.

I was able to get a used Roadmaster tow bar with a brake control that saved us over a thousand dollars, and all I had to locate was a set of towing plates from Roadmaster to bolt onto the SporTrac. And after multiple phone calls the mounting plates were located in British Columbia and were shipped to us in Ontario with time to spare. Roadmaster has been a leader with towing equipment for years, and while this would be a new experience for us it was also such a quick process hooking up and unhooking when needed, obviously a huge improvement over the tow dolly. The tow dolly allowed us to move a vehicle that we already owned but the loading and unloading was such a task that it had stopped us from seeing some sites and visiting places that we would have liked to.

June 2017: Five years ago we were still in our sticks and bricks, but were preparing heading out on Thunders (and our) maiden trip, So our house was going to be listed for sale the end of this month, and we were planning a four week shake down trip that would start the last week of June and run into the first three weeks of July. It involved an international Lions convention in Chicago, a Scentsy convention in Kansas City, as well as some exploring and learning time for us.

As we planned for this little adventure which would teach us so very many things and one was about trying to book campgrounds, which we learnt quickly that travelling in the United States in the summer months camping areas were difficult if not impossible to find. And of course now we know that booking campgrounds any where at any time is a time consuming and frustrating task. That is why we also decided a couple of things on that first trip, we learned boondocking has many advantages and that most campgrounds are quite crowed and tight, at least for a forty foot coach.

Miss Laurie enjoying a cocktail while boondocking in downtown Chicago.

It was here that we first found out how little we actually knew about boondocking, and camping in general, but it also helped us learn the difference between “location” and “destination” camping.

This was obviously a “location” camping spot as we were able to walk to the Lions convention from our boondocking location. And really this photo doesn’t do this spot justice because we were actually a short bike ride to the Lake Michigan shore, the Bears stadium, and many bike trails running all along the lake. This was actually a truck staging area and had lots of trucks rolling through at all hours, and while not being in a great part of Chicago, we had no issues. This spot was not free as we paid $28.00 per night to boondock there, but we were able to Uber to many different attractions and also had a great view of the July 4th fireworks display along the lakeshore.

Be strong, Stay safe, & keep VACCINATED!

Week six @ CMR

Sunday June 19th to Saturday June 25th 2022

Sunday and I’m back on the afternoon security shift this week, so I have till four o’clock before I start my shift. It is father’s day and I have the urge for some beef, we have been struggling through some of the food prices here on Vancouver Island, but in reality the price of beef has been getting stupid for some time, so other than some burgers and ground beef we have not had a steak or a roast of beef for some time. But today after securing a small personal loan I purchased a $29 sirloin tip roast, it was on sale for only $13.10 a kilogram ($5.95 a pound), and while not a cut of beef that I would normally buy, done as a pot roast in the Dutch oven with onions and carrots on the barbecue it will be just fine. I also had the urge for some French fries, so Miss Laurie cut up some russet potatoes and cooked them up in the air-fryer, no grease fix but still made for a great dinner break

Todays shift is only from four till nine, there are usually some projects that need to be accomplished in the shop, tonight it was the removal of a broken down fence by the play field near the pool. I soon realized it was a tractor job and still had difficulty removing the metal stakes that had been holding it in position. But with the leverage of the tractor the removal became a lot easier, but here we go again, as I realize the spot where the fence is is quite low and before the new fence is installed should have some fill to build the area up. So do I suggest that, or just put up the new fence? We all know the answer, of course I recommend the filling of the low area, so it has to be ran up the management flag pole for approval, and now I wait. The rest of the evening is quiet, I close the pool and the clubhouse, and do my security lock checks and finish my shift at nine o’clock.

Monday and because today is an afternoon shift, I’m going to venture down to the river again today, the water is still moving fast because it has continued to rain every couple of days. The walk down the hill is steep, but this slope has a rope to help people down and up, and I used it both down and back up. Here are a few photos of the Chemainus river I snapped.

On my afternoon shift today I had to finish assembling a barbecue for the rental trailer that someone else had started, of the 35 steps they had got to step 7 before they had to conveniently leave, it is always difficult taking over projects. So after I’m done the assembly there are five screws left over, never a good sign, but I found where three of them went back at step 6, now I just have two, and even after re-reading the picture directions, they still don’t have homes. Site 80 has a electrical issue, it appears to be the 30 amp plug, it is intermittent so I loan the guest a 50 amp to 30 amp dog bone adapter and make a note for a repair tomorrow. Again the pool and clubhouse closure, and my security checks and the evening is done at nine o’clock.

Tuesday morning and I’m back on a day shift, is is another cloudy day, cool enough that I’m still in a sweatshirt, I open the clubhouse before heading to the pool which seems to be the morning spot for the maintenance crew to meet, and discuss the days tasks. I’m chosen to repair the electrical issue on site 80, we all suspect the 30 amp receptacle so I will change it out, I will also finish off the picnic table rebuild that I started last night, move a couple of repaired tables out of the shop and get the next table ready to be worked on. Then a noisy golf cart pulls up and I’m elected to replace the muffler, not a difficult task, but there is no new gasket for the mount so I’m told to use muffler cement, now here is a product that I have not seen or used for forty plus years, in fact I was amazed that some company was still making it let alone people were still using it.

Lunch was a quick hot dog, Miss Laurie is working today in the office so I’m on my own for lunch and a quick nuke of a bun and weiner and lunch is served, this 30 minute lunch is a little difficult but it is a paid lunch so I will make the best of it. After lunch I know there is a water valve that needs to be replaced, but I was never officially asked to get involved so maybe I should have just stayed in the shop delivering the occasional bag of firewood, but there again we all know that’s not my style.

So first of all I need to say it’s always great that there is often a plan for a repair like this, and at one time that would have been a good thing. Back when we used to have quality parts that we made repairs with. But now everything is cheap, poorly designed and built, and imported from China. It is a shame but it is near impossible to buy a quality built water valve that is made in Canada or even North America for that matter, but enough of this tangent back to the plan.

The plan was dig down to the waterline, uncover the valve, then remove the top of the valve, and exchange the broken working parts from the old valve from the new valve. A good plan if the valves are from the same manufacturer and today that is just a guess, as the Chinese don’t build these valves to be repaired, and the manufacturer usually doesn’t even put a name on the valve, now that’s true pride. The valve being used is what I would call a full flow blade valve, when fully opened it offers no restriction of flow and to shut off the flow the valve literally pushes a wedge into a couple of machined surfaces that stop the water flow, this valve was defective, probably from the beginning had allowed the blade to go past the machined surfaces, impossible if it was properly machined, so most likely no go when new and certainly had no form of quality control, but this valve was installed last winter and only worked once, so was obvious junk from the start. Now that we know it is junk we need to replace the whole valve, not an easy task on a 75 mm (2”) line that is buried, difficult but we were able to dig back far enough to accomplish the task.

The only issue I could see is that we were going to have to reuse a couple of plastic pipe fittings, not something that I would normally recommend or do, but remember I just do as I’m told, so after the repair and the water was turned on again we had a drip, and I guess we all look a a drip differently. I see a drip as a leak, plain and simple, if any water connection in your house dripped you would agree with me, but we were instructed just to re-bury the water line, it’s only a drop, and it might stop, and my thought is yes it might, but my heart says it will never stop and will be a problem down the road. It is times like this that make me shake my head and head to the liquor cabinet.

Wednesday my Saturday, it is a much better day, I’m off today, but Miss Laurie is working from 10 to 4 in the office today, according to the weather dude on the television, we are in for an extended dry warm spell in British Columbia. I will take it, if it actually happens, Laurie and I are both off tomorrow and we have a road trip planned, it is a large adventure and one that is long overdue. But today I’m catching up on this blog, and following up on a number of other items, one being our nomad internet, a quick check shows that they received the hardware back on June 4th, but as of yet has not credited my account, the web site says 14 days and it now has been two weeks, but I will give it one more week. I just received a notification of an Amazon package at the local post office so I will pick it up, it should be the new drawer slide hardware so next weeks project is coming together. Lunch today was a roast beef sandwich, and after returning from the post office I’m enjoying a vodka and tonic in the Clam with Mr. Sam. I just tried the propane fire pit as it would not light when I moved it into the Clam, but it fired right up, I’m going to assume the sparker finally dried out, we don’t need the warmth today but I just wanted to try it, because it had worked flawlessly in Arizona but would not work a couple of weeks ago when I tried it.

Dinner tonight is going to be burgers we are making the transition from U.S. burgers to Canadian burgers, there is no noticeable difference, we just haven’t been able to go to Costco since getting on the island. And the second issue was that Costco Canada was using a MasterCard from Capital One, and our card was comprised when we first went to the States last fall, but because Capital One was being replaced by CIBC here in Canada, Capital One never even bothered getting us a new card so we went all winter without a Costco card. Capital One obviously has been an issue, for Costco to dump them and I must say their customer service has been none existent. And again I’m off on another tangent, and then I can’t understand why it takes me so long to write a blog … duh.

Thursday our “Road Trip” day, and it seems like a very long time since we were just able to go exploring, our trip today is to the west coast of the island, should be a scenic day with lots of precious views. We are going to get Laurie to the Pacific Ocean for the first time ever and me for the first time in more than forty years. I will include a link below to that blog if you have not yet read it.

https://wordpress.com/post Tofino day trip/thebuchanansrollingdowntheroad.com/7074

We made it back to the coach to find a destrot Mr. Sam as we were hours past his dinner time, but a couple of hours before bed was a welcome break, as it is back to the grind tomorrow.

Friday and I’m back on a day shift, actually this is a special day, because we move to our “summer schedule” so from now to the foreseeable future both Laurie and myself have a schedule that will give us two days off together for the summer. Wednesday & Thursday and as a bonus I get every Tuesday off for the summer so I have a day shift on Fridays and work afternoons Saturday, Sunday & Monday so around 30 hours per week, and lots of daytime to work on my many projects. But on Fridays I’m responsible for opening the pool, which usually involves a vacuum, test the chemicals, and cleaning the skimmer socks, it eats up the best part of an hour so has to be started by eight o’clock to have the pool open by nine. After that there is an hour to kill before receiving the departure list for sites to be cleaned. Today I refuel my cart, top off the oil, it uses some oil, but is one of the quietest carts on the fleet, and I’m one of the only staff members that puts around the park at the 8 km/h (5mph) that is posted everywhere.

Todays departure sheet has only four sites, three are marked as priority, and the only one not priority is empty so I start there, then the manager call and asks for a site to be done first, and I’m half way through that site when my supervisor calls and says some one is waiting for another priority site. So in my most tactful voice I ask over the two way which one is the the real priority, knowing it ends up being manager against supervisor, then the response from my supervisor is that they are both high priority, as I know he is in the Managers office. Oh well, I just continue doing what I’m doing in a timely manner, but never even responded to the last comment, because what I wanted to say if they are both so important get off your ass and do the other one yourself! But I didn’t say a word, Miss Laurie later congratulated me on biting my tongue, but I explained it wasn’t worth even responding to.

My afternoon was a little bit lazy, as I had expected some sort of an apology from my supervisor, but as none came, I just figured, I would work equal to that level of respect, so I wasted over an hour staining four boards, for a project on the rental trailer. After that I went and helped Bruce level some newly expanded tent sites, in between backing a trailer into a site for a lady, and checking a full septic tank and calling for a septic truck that most likely won’t show up till Monday. And that was how I filled my afternoon. Landing back at the coach by four for a cocktail, before barbecuing some sausage and watching the local news followed by some mindless television.

Saturday and I’m on the afternoon shift, Miss Laurie is in the store this morning so I’m working on a blog before heading to Duncan to pick up a few items for the drawer repair. The supports for the drawer were made up of 19mm (3/4”) plywood, screwed together, which meant the weight of the drawer was held by literally two screws, should have been four, but obviously some one got lazy twenty four years ago and only installed two. But the location will allow me to support the drawer on the subfloor, eliminating the need for four screws to support the heavy drawer. So here I’m in a Home Depot on Vancouver Island in British Columbia and I had hoped to find a fir board to make the support, none available, the selection of pine boards was just sad, so I ended up buy a laminated board that was from Romania, I’m here in our lumber province buying a board from Romania, what’s wrong with this!

I have made the initial cuts, and now just need to trim the boards to fit, the weight of the drawer will now be on the subfloor, and the metal brackets just hold everything square, now to mount the drawer slide and road test the operation. It’s lunch time so I’m making a roast beef sandwich, along with a large vodka and tonic for a lunch break in the Clam with Mr. Sam. After lunch the drawer is in and operating, I need to secure the new boards in place, but it is working better already, and I get cleaned up just in time to head out the door for my afternoon shift.

This afternoon shift started as most with a few little projects, then the firewood run, being nicer weather I sold more firewood, restocked the wood shed and reloaded the truck, and by then it was time for my dinner break. The time for closing the pool has been moved back to nine o’clock, which really makes no difference to me, but it means the clubhouse doesn’t get closed by nine as well. For a beautiful warm weekend everyone seems well behaved, and with no issues I’m headed to the coach by eleven o’clock to sit and relax before turning in.

Well another week in the books, the park has gone less than a week with no rain and already some areas have turned into a dust bowl, apparently we are the only park in the Holiday Trails RV Resort system that does not have paved roads, The way the water lines break that may be a good issue, but for dust control it does not help at all, I understand that they spray the roads with water when it gets too dusty, so from dust to mud in one easy step, maybe they have never heard of calcium for dust control. Oh well that would be a management call, way beyond my control, have a great week.

Look at that, it’s only six months till Christmas!

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Day 1726