Monday 12th June – leaving Toronto

Time to head off on a road trip with the In-Laws!

Once fully packed and vaguely awake, we ordered an extra-large taxi to ferry the four of us and all our luggage to Char’s aunt’s house to rendezvous with the RV.  I’d realised mid-weekend that in our haste leaving Harvey on Wednesday evening we had failed to turn off the master battery switch under the bonnet. We had also been using our power pack for phone charging and failed to keep it charged up - We shouldn’t be such rank amateurs after eight months on the road! Therefore, having retrieved the keys from the house, we then needed Char’s uncle to rescue us with jump leads as the main engine battery of the RV was completely flat.  It can’t have been dead for long as the remaining items in the fridge-freezer were still chilled… just not still completely frozen where necessary!

For this section of the journey, Simon and I have vacated the master bedroom with en-suite for his parents to stay in maximum comfort whilst we enjoy the over-the-cab double bunk bed.  Allowing some time for all of us to get unpacked and to become accustomed to our surroundings meant that it said pm on the clock by the time we set off and even then, it was to travel about 5km to the nearest Walmart to stock up for the week!

Rather than having our first lunch on the road in a supermarket car park, we opted to drive a distance out of the city up to Waubaushene on the shore of Georgian Bay on Lake Huron which meant that Simon and I had visited 5 out of 5 of the Great Lakes!  We had, however, missed the moment we surpassed 25,000 miles on the road in the hubbub whilst leaving Toronto. 

The huge expanse of Georgian Bay and Lake Huron

Proof that Ann and Ray were there too!

As we got further north away from the City the scenery began to improve as we’d hoped and we arrived at our first Provincial Park, Grundy Lake, about 5pm.  Straight away there were two issues – mosquitoes attacked us as soon as we were out of the RV and instead of having an individual electric outlet for each campsite, there were shared ones, many which were out of range for our electric flex.  We had limited bug spray left on board - this was the first time we’d had any bug issues for months, but I’m not sure that Ann and Ray believed us. However, we made do and I changed into trousers which I tucked into my socks – with that many mossies around I was not bothered about looking ridiculous! The other issue we overcame by going to see the camp hosts and asking to swap to a site with an electric post we could reach – no problem.

This lake is a different one to the picture above.... honest

I’d be lying if I said that Simon and I weren’t a little disappointed.  Compared to other State Park experiences on our trip, this had started off a little negatively.  But we went to look at some of the scenery and, most importantly, got the BBQ going for everyone to enjoy dinner ‘al fresco’.  We’d leave our first group outdoor activity for the morning.

Simon and Ray relaxing by the camp fire.