So you may remember Bob and Irena from earlier in the summer, they came to visit us back in July, we gave them the tour of the park and we looked at a couple of sites that were coming up for grabs at the end of the season. You know the kind of tour I would call a kiss and giggle tour, no serious talk just a lot of what ifs, we spoke of the parks amenities, and the virtues of seasonal as opposed to being transient, but it was just some light discussion over a few cocktails, and this is not the kind of thing you jump into without some serious fore thought.

So the next thing I know, they have put a deposit down on one of the sites to hold it for next season, when Miss Laurie told me I was about in shock, I mean yes it’s a great park and all but this was a pretty serious commitment, one visit to the park, never had been seasonal, always just booked a few days at a time, and now you move to seasonal.

When we started this journey I could never understand the draw to a seasonal parks, until we were able to made such great friends at every park that we have settled into for a month or more Why Arizona our first park brought us Ralph & Jenny, Jerry & Cindy, John & Lynn, the list goes on and that was a one month stop. At the Codroy Valley last summer in Newfoundland, we met Robert & Susan, Dennis & Alice, Jason, you might be seeing a trend developing here. And then last winter in Florida there was Butch & Betty, Ray & Karen, Gilles & Francine, so now I’m really starting to understanding the draw to longer stays, but that only works if you are going to be social, if you avoid the events or don’t get involved you are going to miss so much. Many people spend the winters or summers with the same people, at the same park year after year every year.

We have not made that kind of commitment yet, still way too much country to see, but in the next breath we are trying to decide how to see as many members of our new RV family this winter as possible, as we bounce around Arizona. As we try to plan we have Bob and Shari near Ehrenberg, Gilles and Francine near Yuma, Ray and Karen near Phoenix, a long list of boondockers in the desert around Quartzsite Larry, Brian and Susan, Craig and Bonnie, John and Val, Ron and Julie, this is a group we met boondocking at Three Lakes wildlife management area in Florida last November, and we haven’t been able to track down John and Lynn and where they will be yet but want to hook up to talk trash about the state of our Canadian politics. And we want to wander by a little town in Ohio in early November to catch up with Butch and Betty as they will be in Florida this year, so would like to spend a day or two as we pass by on our way to Arizona.

This list of people is the reason why we need a mix of long and short term spots, we met (Brian, Ron, Craig and John) “the soggy bottom boys” in Florida at a twenty day boondocking encounter, they instantly accepted us into the community and even trucked fresh water for us, I guess what I’m trying to say is living life to the fullest is what it is all about, making new friends with similar interests has become a much bigger portion of this new life style that what I was ever expecting, the amount of people living this life style is way beyond any expectation that I had. These are relationships that wouldn’t get a chance to grow when you are just overnight campers, so it is with pleasure we welcome our long time friends Bob and Irena to Lake Huron Resort for the 2020 season, and I hope they embrace of the great community that already exists in this park as it is a huge part in choosing a seasonal park. Every park has water, electric and such, but not every park welcomes you in as a long lost member of an extended family, the way this one does, the amenities are such a small portion of the seasonal experience as they will soon learn.

Well that got a little long winded, but I just can’t explain how much our life has changed by choosing this life style, and I also cannot explain why it seems so easy to make such great new friends, we lived in the same house in a small town for seventeen years and did not make as many friends as we have made in less than two years on the road. And that is all I can say about that…at least for now

So this last weekend Bob and Irena spend time prepping their new site, levelling a deck, cleaning up debris, pruning overgrown trees, laying some gravel at the back of the site and planning a small garden. Then on Tuesday I gravelled the site and set their trailer next to the deck, so it’s official…welcome to Lake Huron Resort Bob, Irena, and Alex the proud new holders of site 167…for 2020.

It is the last few days of September, the weather has been beyond great with beautiful sunny warm days in the mid 20’s or low 80’s and cooling off nicely in the evenings to make sleeping easy. But as we are closing in on October the crispness of the fall season is just around the corner, so its time to start preparing for our departure from the shores of Lake Huron. We have no major issues that need to be addressed before we start our next adventure, we have scheduled a little time in Gino’s body shop for a couple of small repairs, oil changes and chassis lube and we should be good to go.

It may sound silly but I miss hearing the big diesel come to life, the rumble of the C12 Caterpillar engine is pretty unmistakable, the whole park knows when it is running as the deep throated exhaust does leave quite an impression. But for now it is about loading the basement and the towed. I have just updated Thunders daily log, this is where I daily track miles covered, fuel consumed, run time of the Hurricane Heater, generator run hours, and the like. I also record our costs of camping and what hook ups we had, if we are boondocking where we were and  how much power the solar produced and most importantly the state of charge of the battery bank. There hasn’t been much to update for the last few months except some run time for hot water and of course the solar keeps producing to top up the battery bank.

This will be the longest that we have sat in one spot ever…in fact just a few days over six months…we have watched the trees come to life, the buds, the leaves opening, the rich greens of summer, to the colours of the fall season, to being raked and bagged for disposal. The whole growth cycle for a year, we are expecting some brilliant colours in the area soon, but have not experienced a frost yet, which could be happening anytime now. It is usually after our Thanksgiving (which is the second weekend of October) that we see the weather turn and the possibility of that four letter word (SNOW) becomes very real, not that it will stay but we usually get our first taste of it before Halloween.

None of the packing process is difficult, its more like working a big jig saw puzzle, as we need to find a spot for everything, but try to have items available in the order that we will need them so it take some planning and some trial and error. The more we pack in the towed the less that needs to make its way to the basement. So I try to pack both with the least used items packed the deepest and with the most needed easily available. Now that does not always work but I’m getting pretty good at it just the same, and if things have to be moved for access of an item I try to make it as easy as possible.

I ran the generator today first time in a few month, it started fine and I ran it for about twenty minutes just to bring it to temperature. Did a light check also and I have a couple of lamps that need attention, will be replacing some marker lamps with new LED units as they flash when the directional signals are on, and if that helps with merging it’s a good investment. I had replaced one in Florida with a cheap LED, it only had 3 LEDs inside but the cover fell off of it on the way north, I know you get what you pay for…so the new brand name ones have 13 LEDs and good fitting lens. I’m going to town today to try to find some new lights for our mirrors, one fills with water and quits working, so it’s time to upgrade.

I will be checking the fluid levels on the diesel today and will most likely fire it up just to check everything, as I start preparing to roll down the road. Our travel is slow and methodically, so we try not to be rushed, we like the ability to sit for a day if the weather is bad, no deadlines if possible and when we have a booking we will try to be in the area a day or so early. This slower pace puts less stress on both Thunder and myself…I tell everyone I’m not on the road till 10am and we are off the road by 2pm and usually stop for a lunch break and maybe a small nap. So 150 to 300 kilometres (100 to 200 miles) a day is pretty normal so Arizona will take about a twenty days if we move every day which we won’t, as there is always something we will want to explore. In fact usually the weather is our main pushing influence, trying to avoid the real cold spots, and bad weather either snow or just heavy rain and we don’t turn a wheel.