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Flamboro Valley Camping Resort (August 18, 2007)

(A picture of our vehicles lined up at our site, including the tricycle! The pics in this article are all from my cellphone, as the camera was at home)

Flamboro Valley Camping Resort is a family-run campground located near Guelph, Ontario. It is actually run by two families, and is a relatively new operation. As such, there are a number of new buildings and facilities that really give the campground a modern look. The other advantage of being newer is that there are not as many seasonal trailers, so there is a wider variety of other campers who are on shorter term stays.

The first thing that impresses a new visitor is the little valley itself, which you can see from the front gate. The gate is on a rise, and down a road to the woods you can see the trailer sites in the distance. There is a large cedar and pine stand on the one side of the woods, and there are fantastic tenting sites throughout the trees.

We booked the site unseen, and were a little surprised when we arrived. It was a bit of a disappointment only because we were in a central lawn with no trees around on a corner lot. Well, what do you want for a last-minute booking. The site did have full hookups, which we are starting to appreciate more now that we have the bathroom running properly in the trailer (another article about that coming up soon).



For kids activities, there is a playground area with swings, a well-kept outdoor pool, and a small arcade in the main building. Adult activities were actually far more extensive, and while we were not able to break away from the 3 little ones long enough to participate, we did see a lawn bowling competition, a horseshoe tournament final, a church service, and an evening dance on the Saturday night.

We have been to a few campgrounds that in my opinion were a little nicer in terms of the sites and the scenery, but one significant thing that Flamboro Valley has going for it is the sense of community.


(Sausages anyone?)

On Saturday afternoon we had a visit from Michael and Melanie, and there daughter, which was quite fun. At this point things were a little hectic, as the kids were all worked up and we all did not sleep very much the night before as the baby had been crying throughout the night, most likely due to teething. So I am sure we were all a sight for sore eyes when our visitors arrived. Anyways, we got to work setting up a dinner which turned out really nice. Smoked sausages, corn on the cob cooked directly on the grill (ask me how to do this, you will be surprised), and lots of desert. And it was nice to see that the kids were in to the healthy food first, and desert later.

Keeping the kids hemmed in to our campsite was a bit of a challenge, as we were in a wide-open area without any real boundaries. Nicholas fell off of his bike a few times on the gravel roads, but no major damage. And Patrick found that it was too difficult to ride over the gravel with his tricycle.



The kids had a great time running around and playing with all of the stuff kids find on a campsite. The bugs were an especially big hit.

After dinner, Michael and Melanie joined us for a leisurely walk through the campground, weaving in and out of tenting sites. Oh yes, and I think the kids were there too.

Flamboro Valley was not the nicest place we have visited this summer, but activity-wise it was the most active. While it was not a bad place to play for the kids, I think we will be looking for a more nature-oriented location.

Valens Conservation Area (July 13, 2007)

Nicholas' Birthday Party!

Well, Nicholas waited an entire year for this one. He had been saying throughout the year that he really, really wanted to have a party. But when we asked him what kind of party he wasn't really sure. So Amy suggested a camping party, and he though that was a fantastic idea.

We went to Valens again.



This is a picture of the Chinese paper patio lanterns that I purchased from JYSK. They were nice enough, and not very expensive. And they also used Christmas mini lights. Unfortunately they did not survive the weekend rains. The light from them was very nice reflecting off the trailer.



I took the two boys and the trailer to our site as kind of an advance party. The remainder of the family and friends were due to show up the following morning. It is an easy trip as it is only a few minutes up the road, and we have to pass a Tim Hortons on the way, which is really nice as there is a large parking lot there with lots of room to maneuver the trailer. Here is a picture of the site once we had figured out how to back the trailer in and set up. On our previous excursion to Valens, we had camped in the cedar forest. As you can see, this area is more of a hilly grassland with a few young trees. The ground was packed dirt and small rocks, and not very well suited to bare feet. At least there was a decent fire pit, and large rocks had been placed at a distance around the campfire pit to keep the grass out of the area.



Imagine our surprise when we pulled in and parked next to this '80s Airstream Excella. We were the only two Airstream trailers on the entire campground, and ended up on adjacent sites. It was a young family and their young uncle, all down from somewhere near Kingston. The trailer belonged to one of their parents, who did not use it very much. They were nice folks, and you could tell they did not drive this trailer much as there was a lot of slow work to get it unhooked and on the road at the end of the weekend. They did not want to damage it on the narrow roads.



Here is a shot of the trailer once everything was finally set up for camping. The boys had a difficult time at this site as there was not much to do, until they discovered the 6 teenage girls beside our site, and a foot long garter snake. Things really heated up at that point. Surprisingly, our 5 year old was really in to making friends with the girls, while our 3 year old was trying to play with the snake. In both cases our neighbourhood girls and snakes tried to show polite patience...

Things really improved the following morning once Grandpa showed up for the birthday party, and confirmed that he was going to camp overnight with us. The kids thought that was great, and so did I. Not just because there was a lot to do and I was the only onsite adult.

I took the boys out to the fishing bridge on the first night with their new toy fishing tackle, and a basic reel setup that we had picked up a few weeks earlier. This weekend was the annual fishing derby. I have never seen Valens so busy. We were on the bridge for about an hour, and there were about 50 other people along the bridge fishing as well. I could see about 10 fishing boats on the lake. We did not catch anything, and there was not much biting, but we did see a little girl pull in a small sunfish on her Dora the Explorer rod and reel.

We went back to the fishing area briefly in the early morning, and there had already been a lot of fishing activity, and in fact the first place and second place fish had already been caught before the sun was up.



Amy showed up with the party items, and we found a couple of tables near the beach to set up. It had been threatening rain, but we decided to press onwards and see if we could beat the forecast. Patrick discovered a number of caterpillars crawling between the trees beside the road, and the two boys played with them for quite a while. Until one of them got stepped on, but that is another story.

Once all of the party goers arrived, we started a BBQ and got cooking. We had lots of gourmet food for the grill, and Amy had prepared much of it. Our guests also brought some fantastic summer food, and we all ate happily as we watched the clouds roll in with wary eyes. The kids went down to the beach to get in some "swim time" while we cleaned up the cooking site, and at this point the rain began. We decided to relocate everything back to our house, since we live just up the road.



Uncle John agreed to take care of little Grace while we were getting people settled. The party actually turned out really well, as we all gathered for cake and ice cream and the kids got a chance to take a real shower before we headed back to the campsite.



We sent Patrick home, and Nicholas had his buddy Christian over for a sleep over at the trailer with Grandpa Lang. It was a little bit of work keeping up with these two, as they have both turned out to be quite curious and love exploring - with and without adult supervision. The next morning we went for a walk through the Valens forest, and then went to the lookout over the wetlands. Here is picture of the kids up at the lookout.



The walk through the forest was a lot of fun. Both of the boys had not seen many of the plants and fungi from the area before, and were very inquisitive about what lives in the forest. I was swarmed by mosquitos, but the kids did not seem to be very bothered.

Silver Birches, Ipperwash (June 30, 2007)

Silver Birches Family Campground is a privately owned campground near Ipperwash Ontario. It is beautifully set in a Carolinian forest that extends up towards Ipperwash Beach. We could tell on arrival that there was something different about this campground, which I think can best be described as a comfortable "homey" feeling. The air under the forest canopy was gentle and warm, which was particularly nice at night. And the other campers were very nice and friendly.

We booked over the phone without having seen the sites, and there were a couple of surprises once we showed up. Our site was located at a four-way intersection in the middle of the campground, which at first was a concern, but did not turn out to be as noisy or busy as we first expected. Parking the trailer was a bigger issue, as I had to back the Airstream in between two trees that left about a foot clearance on either side. A lot of real slow maneuvering, and setting cues to help with distance estimation, and I managed to get it properly situated. A couple of minutes to get the power, water and sewer hooked up and we were in business.

One issue with camping in forests, as we learned earlier this year, is that it is not uncommon for the campfire smoke from all the fires to collect closer to ground level, which can make for a very smoky environment later in the evening. Fortunately for us, there were some strong winds over the weekend that blew a lot of the smoke away.

We took a short drive on the first day and went to the cottages that the rest of the family were renting for the weekend, right on Ipperwash beach. Andrea and Richard rented a one bedroom cottage



The kids immediately jumped out of the truck and ran for the beach with their cousins. It was partly cloudy, with strong winds and low 30s C temperature, perfect for the beach. We all set up some umbrellas and chairs and played with the kids in the surf.



The kids had a great time building sand castles on the perfect sand of Ipperwash beach. The water was a little cold for me, but the kids thought it was the best beach ever. Amy went out with the boys and they all frolicked in the surf for a while. It was perfect weather too, partly cloudy with moderate winds and waves.

Erin, Scott, Jacob and Melissa drove up from London and joined us on the beach for dinner and a rather large fire. The wind was quite strong, and the kids busied themselves with the sand castles as the adults watched the sunset.



The next day we took a drive up to Grand Bend and had lunch along with a tour of the beach. It was very busy, but we managed to find parking in the lot near Ken and Helen's cottage. We had lunch at Coco's, and walked the strip and the beach. It got quite windy, so we returned back to our site.



After we returned, we were joined by Ken and Francine, who also had a nice visit with Fred and Dale at the cottage. We then went over to our campsite, where we hosted a steak BBQ for everyone, and played charades. The kids call the game "Guess What I Am", which I suppose is the whole point.



The kids had a chance to play at the campground play area, which is quite large and in good shape. Pipi Ken gave Patrick a ride on the swings.

This was one of our favourite trips this year, and also one of the nicest campgrounds we stayed at.

Bronte Creek (April 19, 2007)

Bronte Creek Provincial Park is run by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources, and is located in Oakville. Visit the friends of Bronte Creek website here We were on Prarie Campground site 134.

Finally, our first trip in the new trailer. It was cold, darned cold!

We have had the trailer home for quite a while, and had worked on it a few times in order to figure out what we could fix, and what would need to be repaired at the shop. Now it was time to take it out on the road and figure out how this thing works! So, I packed the boys up for an overnight trip, and left everyone else at home. This basically means that I hitched 'er up, gathered some warm clothing, and tossed some food into a cooler. At this point, we are not really sure if the fridge is working properly, as it has not been hot enough outside to notice a difference.



Here is a shot of what the campground looked like on first arrival. Take a look at the beautiful photo at the top of this article for an interesting comparison. It was end of day, in the dreary days of April. I towed the Airstream very slowly down Hwy 5 to Bronte, watching how fast I was accelerating and braking, trying to be as gentle as possible. I pulled up to the front gate of the Provincial Park, only to see that the gate is up, and they are now following the honour system, ie. they are trusting us to pay and park properly. I am guessing because the one park staff had something else to do around 6pm.

So, I drove around and around the various circular driveways until we found our site. Which didn't matter much, as none of the trees had leaves, so there wasn't much to obscure us from the other sites any ways! I let the boys out, and they went foraging.




As you can see, they seem to enjoy bringing back firewood. And it keeps them busy!

Anyways, backed the Airstream up between 2 trees that left about 2 feet of clearance on either side, into a relatively flat location, put on the blocks, dropped the jacks, and ran inside to figure out how to heat the place up a bit. I found it a lot easier to do once I had the power connected and the lights on. The kids seemed to enjoy that more as well.




Anyways, the wind picked up, it got really cold, we tried for about 5 minutes to start a fire, and then we all settled into some pajamas and food cooked on the stove in the kitchen. Which was a lot of fun.




After supper, we all agreed to have a dance party. So, we turned on our new recently outfitted radio, and danced the rest of the evening away. I was a little crowded, but there were no major injuries.

The facilities at Bronte Creek were first rate - extremely modern and well-kept washrooms and showers, as well as excellent laundry.

The next morning the kids went over and explored the kids playground.



Quite a lot of fun!

We finally packed up in the early morning and towed everything back home. We all learned a lot about the trailer and trailer camping, and had a new list of things to do. And the kids really enjoyed it.

You meet the nicest people with an Airstream...

Believe it or not, some of these girls are camping in an Airstream at the annual Burning Man event in the US Southwest. No, not all Airstream campers look like this. At least we are not all retired couples.

This picture comes from "williamhenshall", who is a forum member at the Airstream Trailer Knowledge Sharing Forums.

New Trailer

Finally brought our 1973 Airstream Overlander home. It is a 27' trailer, which due to it's age I believe now qualifies as a vintage model.

I found the trailer in an online ad at a trailer dealer near Ottawa. Inspection at the dealer was a little surprising, as it was not in the shape that the ad stated. Bringing it home was a real adventure, as it was the dead of winter and there was a winter storm underway, with lots of crosswind. The dealer was very good at helping set up the trailer for towing, which was helpful as it was really my first major tow. Fortunately I was able to take it slow all the way down the 401 and through Toronto traffic to get it home.

All of the appliances generally work, although I am not too comfortable about the original propane oven. So, the oven will be the first that has got to go. It has also been in some sort of accident on the right rear, given the denting in the upper panel. Best guess is contact with a tree.

Once I had the trailer at home, I built a list of major repairs that I felt needed to done immediately:

- Rear end sag. The rear skin was separating from the frame, resulting in the dreaded rear end sag. Basically the trailer was coming apart in the last 2 feet and around the back. A common issue with vintage Airstreams with a lot of miles on them

- Axles. At this point they were effectively run-out. No shock absorbtion. Every bump was being partially absorbed by the tires, with the remainder transmitted to the trailer directly.



I took the trailer to Trailer Center in Dorchester Ontario. Brian has many years of experience on Airstream trailers, and was very helpful with both advice and repair expertise. He repaired the sag by opening up the back, reinforcing the plywood, lifting the rear, and reattaching a C channel to hold it all together. A textbook repair.

Brian also replaced the axles. After much research, I agreed to replace the original 34 year old axles with Dexter axles with modified mounts to fit the AirStream chassis. They matched specifications, and were also cheaper than the original axles.



After the major repairs, I started ripping out a number of items including the front Gaucho, the streetside table, a couple of chairs, and the propane oven. This actually cleared out a lot of room, and also helped get rid of some of the odors left over from storage.




We had a couple of family meetings where we discussed how things we would like to do.

To do:

- layout of the front room.
- additional storage locations
- plumbing
- radio
- furniture
- kitchen layout
- sleeping arrangements
- a good exterior polish

Let's see how much we can get done before the season starts.