2014 Vacation: Sandbanks/Driftwood

Friday
Starting two weeks today. This year, rather than a big road trip, we have decided to spend a week in a couple of our favourite provincial parks. We are heading to Sandbanks first, followed by a second week at Driftwood. We have been road tripping the past four years, and although those are great holidays, we have yet to spend a longer time in two places.

Nice drive down, we took Hwy 7, then 41 which took us to a brief ride on the 401, then onto 'The County', as Prince Edward County is called here.  Being in the County is our ultimate favourite place to be, the dunes, the expansive long white sand beach, wineries, rural scenery and country roads,...can't be beat.  A nice plus to our yearly trip to the County is meeting up with long time Ottawa friends, Helen & Paul, who make yearly trips there to spend a few days together, and old friends (Geoff and Joey) who moved to the County a few years back.

Before we left I half-filled the black tank, to let the road movement give it a good clean. I noticed that the fluid level monitor was giving an incorrect reading, when it was definitely empty. That is a sure sign that a little extra cleaning was needed to clean up those sensors. Levels in tanks are determined by a series of vertical electrodes, which use the fluid to create electrical connections between them. The more sensor in the circuit, the fuller the tank. If those electrodes get "gummed" up, this can also create a circuit, and provide false readings. Some have suggested to dump a bag of ice cubes down the toilet before heading out, so the cubes can scrub the sides of the tanks. They then melt and get drained. Have not tried that yet.

Pulled into the dumping station and ahead of us was a newish looking R-Pod. The guy came over to speak to me as he was having trouble draining. This was only their second trip out, and he was clearly frustrated. I had a quick look and he was doing all the mechanics of the process correctly, but a look from the toilet view showed the tank was totally full. We had a similar problem last year, so I suggested he drive around a bit to try and loosen things up, then drain again. If that did not work, he would need to get a toilet snake a do it that way. This is how we fixed an earlier problem.

Pulled up to our site and it looks excellent. Did a quick walk around and decided where to situate the Alto. Backed it in exactly where we wanted it, bit of an angle to the road, looks great. The site is awesome. It is huge, has a bit of a driveway in from the road, and we are surrounded by tree and shrub covered dunes. It is the valley of some dunes. We have total privacy and literally can only see the very tops of our neighbours tents of trailers.

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A Kayak Cart Build

Not really a mod of the Alto, but given the number of kayakers amongst our Alto friends, I figured sharing how to assemble your own kayak cart would be a nice little project to share. Even though kayaks are relatively easy to transport, sometimes you are faced with an extended haul to get them to the water. Take for instance our favourite site at Sandbanks. To get to the waters edge, we would either have to drive them to one of the beach parking lots and walk from there, or haul them up and over a sand dune, which is actually the shortest route, but there is the dune to deal with. Wanting a solution, retail or otherwise, I turned to the internet for a little research.

There are many retail options out there, but from what I saw, they tended to be a bit pricey. I then looked at homemade versions, knowing I would not be the only one looking for a cost effective alternative. Sure enough, lots of different styles were being offered up. Some more elegant than others. Most featured use of PVC piping to create a cart the kayak would ride on, with straps and wheels. Some of these it seemed the builder went a little crazy with the tubing, turning what should be a simple cart into a complex maze of pipes and joints. Not going down that road. The other disadvantage to a PVC solution was the storage. Just where do you put it in the car? A few had models that broke down into pieces...a few too many pieces in my mind.

Then I came upon it. A simple and elegant alternative. I first spotted the retail version, and soon discovered its rather lofty price point started at $150 bucks. That's some serious coin. I then discovered the home built knockoffs, and once you see what is involved to make one, you will understand the sticker shock.

The parts list consists of:
a length of rubber heater hose
2 PVC connectors, sized for the hose
1" electrical plastic conduit
1/2' aluminum rod
V shaped boat trailer keel roller
stainless steel washers and hitch pins (or cotter pins)
golf cart wheels

I went with the wide soft plastic golf cart wheels, as I figured these would be best to roll across sand. The first step is to determine how wide apart the wheels need to be to suit your kayak. this measurement is somewhat universal, as the design allows it to sit really anywhere towards the rear of the kayak. Assemble together the keel roller, axle and the wheels. sit the kayak on the keel roller in the position where you think you would like the kayak to ride. Move the wheels out along the axle, allowing enough room to clear the heater hose, which will eventually be sitting inboard of the wheels. This now becomes your axle length.

Find the spot on the axle which is straight down from the widest part of the kayak. This is where the heater hose will reside on the axle. Using the hose, hold one end against the axle on one side, then loop the hose up and over the kayak, to the matching axle position on the other side. You can see what I mean from the photos. It loops a little above the deck of the kayak. This becomes the length of the hose. It is not an exact science, and can be adjusted afterwards. The plastic conduit really only serves as spacers to keep all the parts in position on the axle. these can be fine tuned as well. A free tip for you! Buy a cheap PEX tubing cutter. These look like pliers, but have a knife edge on one side, and a pipe holder on the other. They cut through plastic pipe like butter, much faster and easier than a hacksaw.

Now drill a hole in the aluminum rod for the hitch pin. You will need to find the centre of the axle for the keel roller, and mark both sides where it ends up on the axle. The heater hose needs a bit of work now. You can just drill a hole in the hose, but I figured it would be better to insert a hose connector first, then drill the axle hole through both the hose and the plastic joint residing inside. I cut the connector in half first, before installing it into the hose. This makes a tougher joint with the axle. The plastic conduit is cut to make up the spacers needed to position all the pieces in the right spots. The order of assembly is:

hitch pin
washer
wheel
washer
spacer
hose
spacer
washer
keel roller

Follow back up the list for the other side of the roller. Once the wheel is in place, you now have the assembled cart. A little fine tuning is possible if you do not make the final cut of the axle length. You can then sit the kayak on the cart and adjust as neccessary. I did a bit of this, shortening or creating new spacers as needed. Once satisfied, mark and cut the axle, drill the hole for the hitch pin, and you are DONE!

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2014 Trip 4: hard to get any better than this...

Rollins Pond S.P. - June 2014

Friday

Off to one of favourite parks this long weekend, and it is a bonus weekend of 5 days. We mostly camp at Ontario provincial parks, but Rollins Pond NY State park is also a fave. Rollins is a great place, a quiet lake with most sites on the water, and no ski boats or jet skis. Perfect for paddling, which is exactly what most people do.

Nice drive here, only about 3 1/2 hours, through some nice country. We cross at Ogdensburg, make a standard stop at the Walmart which has more trailer gear than Walmarts do in Canada.  

We pick up our food in Tupper Lake, which saves having any hassles at the border with the customs food restrictions. There is also a great hardware store in Tupper, which we always wander through. Arrived around 3:00pm, the park is slowly filling up. We have a nice site on the water, and it looks like we will get some sun throughout the day, real important to get our solar panels recharging the battery. We are here 5 days, so it will be a good test for our upcoming vacation, which will be totally without power for 2 weeks. After slowly manoeuvering around some rocks, we were able to line up the Alto on the site to take full advantage of the lake views. We have come to the conclusion there there is nothing better than having a site right on the water. The weather is supposed to be excellent all weekend.

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2014 Trip 3: a nice weekend away

Silver Lake P.P. - June 2014

Friday

Headed out after work, looks like the weather will be great this weekend. Nice to get out again, as it has been a couple of weekends since our last trip. Traffic is light, although getting past Kanata always eats up time.

Not many in the Park when we arrived, but a few trailers did roll in a little after dark. We have been on this site before, which is not surprising as we reserve sites based on our master list. Most campers develop a list of preferred sites, spending a little time each trip eyeballing sites and writing down numbers.

I was a little concerned with the braking of the Alto after our last trip. I noticed that the brakes did not seem to be adjusted correctly, after the wheel bearing job I did. Before heading out on this trip I jacked up the wheels and adjusted the brake shoes a little closer to the drums. This made a difference, with the brakes now engaging more like they used to. You can really feel the improvement, as last trip I sensed right away something was not working as well as it had in the past. Perhaps they needed one trip to re-seat themselves correctly, and then a fine tune adjustment. 

As I as backing in the Alto, a couple of the warning lights started to flash on the Santa Fe. The all wheel drive and the stability control lights were blinking, not something I have seen before. I checked the manual and will need to bring the car in for service. As luck would have it, we have an appointment on Monday at the dealership to have a leak looked into, so now they have a couple more items to investigate.

Quite evening, listened to a bit of radio then hit the pit early since tomorrow we will be up late tomorrow. We will be heading to Helen and Paul's cottage to spend the afternoon with them, probably doing some boating and a BBQ. Every year we try to see them while staying at this park, since their cottage road is only 5 min. down the highway.  A nice treat to camp and see good friends at the same time...

Saturday

The boys were rambucious early this morning, especially Riley, who was up and about at 4:30. After being ignored for a while, he finally settled down again.

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Why is the pump running???

We noticed late last season that the water pump would cycle on several times over a short period, for no reason. We kept an eye on this and it was a pretty regular event. It was like there was a small leak somewhere that was allowing the built up pressure to fall, and requiring the pump to come on. I checked all the lines and taps but all were good. After a little internet research, I discovered there is a tiny check valve inside the pump head, which prevent the water that is under presure from draining back into the fresh water tank. When this starts to wear, this is exactly what happens, the water hads back from where it came, and the pump starts up every so often. As this was becoming more regular, it was time to fix.

Individual parts for these Shurflo pumps are readily available, and I was first aiming to just get a new check valve and change it, until in my parts search I discovered a spot that was selling the entire pump head for only about $15 dollars more than what it would cost to get the check valve. So, I ordered the whole head, which would be easier to change.

Three screws hold the pump head, although as is usually the case, getting at these is the hardest part. The water lines need to be disconnected, and I needed to take the pump off the floor to allow it to swivel enough to remove those three simple screws. Off with the old and on with the new, problem solved.

While I was doing this, I took the opportunity to change the water filter. The stock version is pretty basic and not very friendly to clean the filter. I swapped this out with a model that is much easier to clean.

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2014 Trip 2: it's a long weekend, that means rain!

McLaren's Campground, St Lawrence Parks - May 2014

Friday:
Sure enough, nothing but rain leading up to the long weekend as is generally the case. It is sometimes a little odd heading out when the weather is less than great, but this is made easier by the fact that we know we will be snug as a bug, and the whole point is to get away.

We've never been to the St Lawrence Parks group of campgrounds, so we plan to check out the options while we are down there. If it turns out to be a good area, it will be real handy as it is only a little over an hour to get to.

Very overcast with spots of rain, as we are now heading towards the band of weather that is moving east. Nice drive, through some great looking farmland and some great looking farms on them. Some serious dairy and beef operations in this area, one place had a big herd of long horn bulls, all of them just laying around, as cows tend to do in the rain. Pretty impressive looking beasts, those massive curved horns just scream...'don't mess with me'.  Nice looking campground, at least what we can see through the rain. Pretty open, but lots of trees and it seems well laid out. Our site is nice, with a gravel entrance and trailer pad. We are surrounded by lush, well maintained grass. Campground is almost full, and we have seen that some of these site are definitely seasonal, but not in our true definition of what we call seasonal. There are no additional sheds and other such structures, just perhaps a simple deck.

Spotted a rare sight as we drove in...another Alto. We have only ever seen one other in a campground. This one is the bright yellow model, making it doubly noticeable, beyond its distinctive shape. We will no doubt be wandering over there tomorrow.

Drizzling as we got set up. We have 30 amp and water, so they both will be put to full use this weekend. When the weather is crappy and cool, having electricity is more important. It means you do not have to worry about the draining the battery while generating heat, and it gives you the option of both the heat pump and the little oscillating heater. After our dead battery weekend last year, we are now much more aware of our 12 volt consumption. Got the boys settled in, as usual they explored their new home and then relaxed a bit.

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2014 Trip 1: our fifth season begins, time sure flys

Cedar Cove, White Lake - May 2014

Friday:

The much anticipated first trip of the season. We think about getting back out in our Alto most of the long winter. Pulled it out of storage last weekend, and spent the week putting all our gear back into it.

Everything wintered well, although the only thing unexpected would have been mice, but we have never had those guys. The Alto is pretty well sealed, so I suspect it would be challenging for them to get in. The weather recently has been a little iffy. Fortunately we had a few breaks in the cloud and drizzle that allowed us to get backed in and set up no problem.

The boys are with us, Barley and our new guy Riley. We are most curious how Riley reacts to being in the Alto, as he wil be a bundle of energy in a confined space. We are going to be very careful with entering and exiting, as he has proven to be a bit of a door darter. We have even brought his leash with a harness for use on him inside, while we are both outside. This will make it much less stressful for us getting back into the trailer, knowing he is secured inside. 

No rain this evening, but very windy about 30 km winds. This is a great site by the water, but you can really feel the wind off the cold water. Inside, the heat pump easily took the chill off. Nice to have a variety of heat sources, the heat pump being just one of them.  

First pull of the trailer with the new tires on the Santa Fe. Needed to replace the original Bridgestones, after only 65,000 klm. Actually, not even that many klm considering it rides on winters for almost 6 months. Pretty poor longevity.  Settled on a set of Michelin LTX MS2. They got mostly good reviews and should have a treadwear lifespan of 115,000klm. We shall see. So far, so good, they run smooth, little road noise, and seem to track well over the pavement.

Saturday:

Nice evening, not cool at all. The boys were good last night, sleeping up on the bed with us. Sunny morning with a few clouds, but the wind is quite strong and white caps on the water. Sun always helps though. Coffee started the day, then a little reading. Nothing nicer than to just take the time and relax in the morning. The weekdays are busy enough, real important to take advantage of the opportunity to slow down a bit. 

Cleaned and bleached the water system in the morning, one of the startup tasks that should be done every spring. I also cleaned the windows then applied a treatment to all the rubber seals on the Alto, which cleans and keeps the rubber moisturized. Given the number of seals all over the place, it is an important activity to do a couple of times a year. I also checked all the propane connections with leak detector fluid and cleaned the burner areas. Like they do with bar-b-ques little spiders can have a habit of making homes in these parts, so a little extra attention is important.

Barley once again has discovered my clothing bin under the bench, and was well ensconced in there all afternoon. Dale walked around the campground in the afternoon. Being a campground primarily for seasonal trailers

As the wind was howling, we opted for a simple meal inside. I did walk over to the camp store for a couple of ice cream cones for dessert. Watched a couple more episodes of Mad Men, then that was the day. Sky was very clear, and the moon almost full, a nice evening.

Sunday:

Woke up to a beautiful morning, very clear, the wind has calmed down, should be a good day. With the wind calmer this morning, there are zillions of little tiny winged bugs around. Not sure what they are, not mosquitos or black flies,...could be noseeums?  They cover and stick  to everything, and are annoying in their own right. These little guys seem to fly right through our screens so going to look into changing the screen material in the trailer to something with a finer mesh.  

Dale's parents are heading out to visit us this morning and we are going to the park restaurant, Lakeside Grill for Mother's Day breakfast. Afterwards we then started to pack up and headed home. Nice to know the Alto is once again all ready for another season.

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2013 Trip 11: another season draws to a close

Oct 2013- Cedar Cove, White Lake

Friday
An absolute beautiful fall day today, and the forecast calls for the same all weekend. Dale had the day off and I took the afternoon off work to be able to enjoy as much of this weather as possible and to get up to our site early. This was our close up weekend, where we prep the Alto for winter.

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Beefed up dolly

The little dolly was taking a beating as it was rolled into the garage. The combination of the tongue weight and the concrete driveway took their toll on the relatively light weight construction. We have replaced these guys a couple of times now, so it was time to beef the dolly up a bit.

I found some larger wheels to replace the tiny plastic ones, drilled them out of the frame, then bolted in the new ones. To stiffen the dolly itself, I made aluminum bars to tie together the wheel bolts, and thus strengthening the frame. As you can see, it looks and is much better. Worked like a charm this year, and I suspect many more years to come.

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Extra Security

Over the years we have stayed in a few unsavory spots. Not intentionally mind you, it just turned out that way. Looking closely at the door, it is somewhat lacking in robust security. Once inside, the only lock from the inside is a little deadbolt mechanism integral to the latch set.  Turning some thought towards improving this, I figured some srt of rod could be used to slide through the door flange and into the wall. I came across a nice looking hitch pin at a local hardware store, so I figured I would give it a try.

I drilled a hole through the head of the pin and weaved a split ring through, making a nice loop handle. I then drilled through the aluminum side flange of the door, and right through the wall. A nice stainless steel washer finish off the hole in the wall, and once inserted, makes the door a lot more secure, for those times that we think it a good idea. There are actually 2, one at the top and the bottom. A simple and handy little mod.

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