Southampton, Ontario-Lake Huron

Ya, we made it without the trailer for 2 weeks. We left it at CanAm for some repairs but they were busy and we couldn't wait.....we hauled it out of there before they got to it and headed up to visit our bestie in Southampton.
For PETESAKE! it's summer and next week, a good friend we didn't get to visit in Seattle is coming to town, well, to cottage country in the Kawarthas so next weekend we'll spend the Civic Holiday in Sturgeon Falls. YAY!
     We live on Lake Ontario, and I have always had a relationship with this lake no matter where in Ontario I've lived. Even when I lived in New York, it was Lake Ontario I had to go around to get home and a couple of times I took a ferry across from Rochester to Cherry Beach in Toronto. (So sad they stopped that service)

Lake Huron is distinctly different. It's still a Great Lake so there's a similarity but it has it's own unique personality. I experience it as "wilder". It's further north so the vegetation in and around it is slightly differentand it is unfamiliar so that much more beautiful to me too.

The little town of Southampton is a cute seaside town with a lighthouse and an admirable dedication to preserving it's rich history.  Our friends are one of the early families native to the shores and we love to hear their stories of the lake, the town and the buildings around.

EDUCATIONAL POST: Things We Learned On This Trip

THINGS WE LEARNED ON THIS TRIP:


If you've been following us, you know that we just got back from a cross-country Airstream trip to California from Toronto. 
On this trip we learned a few things I thought I'd share.

*PUSH THE WATER FOR THE DOGS!-our dogs are new to traveling so they don't drink whenever they have a chance....they are used to having water always there and drinking when they're thirsty. I trained a "Drink" command so we can use it when we stop. If this sounds strange to you, you can read how on my Canine Health Basics Blog.
.....also for the comfort of the dogs, we taped this dryer vent to our air conditioning vent to direct the cold air to the back of our Jeep. One downside of using a small tow vehicle is that there are no rear vents and one downside of having black labs is they NEED cool air! More importantly, this fix allows US the comfort of not having to wear snowmobile suits up front 'cause they are a bitch to get off at a truck stop...OR a pit stop.
     OBviously, we already had those shade thingies in the side and rear windows and ...........WE WOULD NEVER LEAVE THEM IN THE CAR! in the sun unless it's winter or late fall. (And even then, I need to be able to see them.
(I have no photos for this post, so here's another cute one of our dog, Johnny trying to get closer to the Air Conditioning by squeezing through the two front seats. :-)

*We LOVE our new 12 volt FAN...(and for the same, but opposite reason, will love a 12 volt space heater, no doubt, when on the road in winter.) We bought the fan at the Airstream Center in the first week of our journey while at Alumapalooza even though it wasn't very hot yet in Ohio and it was fairly expensive (I thought I might shop for a cheaper one) but when we got caught in the 5 hour traffic jam in the desert in Nevada, without shore power, it was worth twice it's weight in Gold Bars! same goes for a space heater I'm sure, if you ran out of propane! Or to save propane for cooking and refrigerator and use battery/solar power for ambient temps.

* KOA- I know, I'm getting the impression it's not cool among the full-time set to use KOA's but we joined their VKR club (Value Kard Rewards) and it has paid for it's yearly membership price with the 10% discount we get when we stay there and we do, because we know, that although there may not be exceptional natural oohs and ahs, there will be a dog run, clean showers and friendly staff and usually a pool and a hot tub. (many times a bottle of red wine as well!) Sometimes you just feel like knowing that.
    On this trip we found out the card also accumulates points which gave us a further DEEP Discount. We paid only 12 bux for all the above on a water/electric site! (PS the Yosemite KOA has some pretty spectacular natural views)

*Join Flying J/Pilot truckstops, it's free, they have points for membership too and we get half price for a waste water dump event.....5 bux!!! As well they give members a couple cents per gallon savings on gas. No brainer.

*We loves LOVES Truck Stops-We love their showers, clean, usually great water pressure, excellent customer service and they don't mind that we share, so well worth the $10 for the two of us. We bring in our "roaming" shower bag and use our own towels which to me seems ethical since we are sharing.

*National Truck Stop Directory really IS the trucker's friend AND the Heirs'Dreamer's friend too! We camped 1 out of three nights and stayed at Truck Stops the other two when crossing the country. We found that we (and the dogs really need to hang out, swim, do laundry and usually have a campfire every three days. On campground driving day, we'd get off the road early too and treat ourselves in several small ways to be sure we were following the Aluminum Rule and "enjoying the ride".

* There's an app for that! I just downloaded Allstays Camp and RV to our IPad. I haven't used it yet but it claims to store a bunch of info on your device that you can access without Internet which would have come in handy in the Sequoias, Yosemite and Kings Canyon National Parks and for sure will be worth the 5.99 I paid for it.

* Stupid Facebook For IPad App: Need it because you can't share a photo from the Safari regular version, but you can't include a description and you can't comment on it; you have to go back to Safari and re-open FB after closing it out on the Ipad version. You can only post one photo in an album unto it's self at a time and you can't share. DOH, Facebook, get with it, we are on generation 3 of IPad with another rumored on the way already. 'Kay, so that was more a whine than a learn, but WTH, it burns my assetts....and I know, I know, it's bad form to complain about something that's FREE, but still. whiiiiiiinnnnnne.

Wine Country, Baby!

Of course we watched the movie, Sideways and therefore drove up to wine country with unrealistic romantic notions of what a trip to Sonoma and Mendocino Counties would be like :-(  However, the quaint country roads and the many signs offering wine tastings every few hundred yards was enchanting.
      Since the 1990's in NYC, I have had a fondness for a wine called Fetzer; their Cabernet Sauvignon specifically, although I've also had their Chardonnay. Before the "organic" status was the rage it is today, it was rumored that Fetzer had refused to pay the then "new" licensing fees to advertise their organic and sustainable business practices. They were a fairly priced bottle of wine, and remain so, even in Canada. (We found it for FIVE dollars in a Walmart in Indianapolis on this trip! and will be filling the Airstream with it on the way back!)
      If I couldn't get Fetzer, I had found in the past few years that another organic, that HAD obviously paid for the right to call it's self that, also had a lovely Cabernet Sauvignon and did not cause a "hangover" if ACCIDENTALLY over-consumed. :-)
      Somehow, in discussing my passion for the two, some Liquor Store employee somewhere, told me that Fetzer also owned this licensed upstart, Bonterra, so I was psyched to find out how this had all played out.
      I scoured their website for information about tastings and their address but could find nothing saying where nor when, but also nothing saying that there wasn't one. I was getting worried and also while reading of their many awards, their Blue Heron preservation site etc, well, you can read it all here if you want: FETZER WINERY

   In the end, we just drove up there, I eventually found a telephone number, though confusingly it was also the number for another vintner called CampoVida. I'll spare you all the gory details, but it seems that the Fetzer family business was sold after the death of the patriarch and is still run by an arm of Concha Y Torro from Chile who bought the vineyard and continues to run it with all it's high standard practises. One of their sustainable practises is to have this guy take the weedeaters to the grape vines. They weed and prune and then he takes them all back at night. >>>>>>>>>

There was no Fetzer/Bonterra tasting room but the lovely Rosanne at CampoVida took us through a tasting list of their selections and we bought two bottles of their Red Blend they call a Cuvee.

     It was disappointing but we did find this GREAT radio/cassette player for the Airstream at a fantastic Vintage Collective on the way back!

We just love it, and hey, it plays Cassette Tapes!!!

Elisa, a co-owner at the shop, The Vintage Collective, in Geyserville, California took our picture in front of the Airstream in her parking lot and posted it to
 her Facebook Page.

We SO wish we lived closer to this great.

Hot Air Balloon Ride-Calistoga CA

     After a couple of glasses of wine, everyone is fearless, I guess, and my retired Cop husband tells me that this is why the blood alcohol limits for drinking and driving are seemingly low; it's because, after just a couple of drinks you make irrational decisions about how fast and reckless to go in your car and if driving the Internet, you might book and pay 5 LARGE for, a HOT AIR BALLOON RIDE when you actually have a fear of heights! AND book it at 6 frickin' A.M.!
   

 Fortunately, I do not actually wake up for a couple of hours after I'm walking about anyway, so the balloon was already getting inflated before I started trying to come up with strategies for getting out of the commitment; and by strategies I mean, ones that would get us our money back without going on the ride.

 At the same time my fear and anxiety was, not completely disarmed but reasonably softened by the slow, steady and competent ways of our Pilot, Jim. He looks like John Denver, which was also quieting to my mind (beCAUSE I forgot he was killed in the crash of a small private plane he was foolishly in!)
     Jim and his team of 3 Mexican men barely had to speak to each other as they methodically prepared the alarmingly small amount of equipment for our ascent above Sonoma Wine Country. There was only one other couple joining us and neither seemed afraid so I ACTED cool. About half an hour into the ride and after many conscious attempts to breathe all the way into my diaphragm and relax my muscles, I began to enjoy the gentle floating motion. ( as long as I did not look straight down).

The experience further clarified my theory that it isn't an actual fear of heights that I have developed in middle age, but more a dependence upon having control. Once I felt that Jim was in complete control and that I could trust him, I relaxed and enjoyedtheride. I have always especially enjoyedwarching a team of humans working as well together as Jim and his crew do and watching them, under the stress of a wind shift that had us headed for a landing in a vineyard, complete with young STAKED plantings, had them running about below us like purposefeful ants! Renaldo, a man of about 60 ran like a gazelle having chosen the correct row between plants that we would float over.

     The ground rope was tossed, Jim worked the fuel fire and while the one obviously very strong man held us in place, the other two ran and hurdled and ducked under planting lines until all three had the rope and dragged us to a safe landing. It was as exciting to watch as the ride was it's self. Afterwards, we celebrated with a champagne breakfast.

Since it was only 10 am by then and we were already started, we headed up country to our favorite sustainable/organic vineyard, Fetzer-Bonterra in Mendocino County.

Little Truck pulls perfectly up US Hiway ONE!

This is our tow vehicle, my Jeep Liberty 6 cylinder, 3.7 with 4 wheel drive. It's been a great little truck and we are never without people to talk to everywhere we get out of it with the Airstream (25 foot Safari SS which weighs 3 tons withOUT all our stuff in it) The secret is in the towing package designed for our specific truck/trailer combination by our hero and the man who made it possible for us to have an Airstream and begin our dream of travelling North America and to eventually live in it and travel full time, Andy Thompson of CanAm RV. He deserves an entire post unto himself but with the addition of a Hensley Hitch,  a reinforced attachment to the jeep, a transmission cooling fan, McKesh mirrors, and a few pointers on driving, it has performed beautifully and it fits 2 of us and 3 labradors comfortably.

We drove up Highway 1
from San Luis Obispo to Carmel and Monteray.

The visuals are just amazing, as you can see below, but at one of the vista points we stopped at, we encountered a german tourist feeding these squirrel thingies.
They look and act a lot like Guinea Pigs if you ask me but also look like a modified squirrel. Not sure what they are called but they sure were cute, and TAME!

It's just non-stop with the beauty all the way up Highway 1. Three quarters of the way up, coming upon yet another stunning vista, I remarked fasceciously,
"OH what?!?!? more trees, bluffs, rocks and sea surf? that's it?"
   Truly, magnificent. Awe inspiring. Freezing cold water!

 The driving was a bit hairy, although much better because we took a friend's advice and drove it south to north. If we did it again, and I'm sure we will, we would set out earlier so as not to drive into the sun as well.
  There are plenty of turnouts so we didn't hold up traffic too much. We were very considerate of course but I gotta say, I don't feel too badly slowing people down on roads that are that tricky to drive, let aLONE that beautiful!
   Stop and smell the sea, people.

 Rick, my husband and "exxxxxxxelllent driver" just retired from 37 years on the Toronto Police Services. We had a good laugh going over these passes, cliffs, driving into the sun and after he impulsively decided to pull over and cross a lane on the downgrade at too fast a speed over gravel.....can you say HOLD YOUR BREATH! while we sway skidded to a stop perched on a bluff overlooking the Pacific?!?
    After a respectful silence, I asked, "So how relaxing is it Staff Sergeant McKeown since you left your high stress high risk behaviour job?

<<<<<<<-----------Check out the path laid before us?

Big danger=Big FUN!

Sequoias, people!

Since the beer induced nap in the desert at the Nevada/California border, we took a detour and ended up driving towards Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. We just got a hankerin' to see some big trees. Little did we know the impression they would leave on us....we LOVED them, no, we fell IN LOVE with them. For the first time I understood what all the fuss is about the magical forest. Those freakin' giant sequoias and redwoods are UNBELIEVABLE!!!! breathtaking....like, seeing them caused me to take a deep breath and pause before taking another. Really! something otherworldly, their vibration, sorry to sound like such a treehugger, but....

o'kay, I'm speechless. Just look at them.

    We were aimed at Lake Kaweah, which turned out to be a man made lake, made by the creation of the Terminus Dam and no doubt, the flooding of the valley where the town of Lemon Cove now is. When we arrived at Lake Kaweah Campground, there was a big sign saying it was closed, although the road to it was not.
  Fortunately, we did not do our usual doubting act and go down there, because we later found out, that it was closed because "THEY" let too much water out of the dam and into the valley causing Lake Kaweah Campground to be UNDERWATER!!! It's interesting how you can tell when you look at it that it's man made. There was something eery and not quite right about it...not including the fact that there are full grown trees half-submerged and the Lake Kaweah Beach that seemed to be a parking lot is now submerged...no doubt half of the former parking lot to the beach, is now, ya, you got it, submerged and so the footing to the new beach is the parking lot. Still, it was beautiful, in a man made kind of way.

It looks sort of normal until you notice that the trees are half under water....the vegetation on the surrounding landscape looks a little weird too.
You can read the history of Lake Kaweah here: Lake Kaweah/Sequoia National Park I found it very interesting, myself.

See the parking lot/beach? Bizarre.

The best part was that, necessity being the mother of invention, we found Lemon Grove/Sequoia Campground, simple without any wifi or cable but sweet, and friendly and nestled up against the foothills of the Sierra Nevada and the night entertainment was howling coyotes and a few mountain lion roars. We got home very late and during dinner (at nearly midnight) at the picnic table, I caught the eye of one travelling quickly through the campground. No doubt, it considered our steak for a split second. Phew.

These are oranges. We didn't actually SEE any lemons in Lemon Grove but the oranges were good and we had one with some Raw Milk cheese for breakfast on the way out. The peel made a great car air freshener too. (cause the only thing better than dog smell in a car is orange flavoured dog smell.

Bravo Farms....BRAVO!!!! we could not resist the succession of witty, wistful highway billboards as we approached the exit for it. It was so promising of all manner of things fun, and we found even more than that!
mmmmmm, artisan Sage Cheddar cheese!
It was only noon and technically the cheeseburgers deluxe we had, were our breakfast, so we couldn't face a winetasting, but the farmers market, fresh local produce and KEEEEEYUTE gift shop were SO much more than we expected.


........and LOOK at these miniature donkeys!

   

   

Overturned Tanker on I 15

     About an hour into our  6 hour drive to California....heading to Big Sur, (but we planned to take it easy,) we encountered traffic. BIG traffic. What is it? we wonder, is it construction, we query, this is ridiculous! oooops, an ambulance goes by on the shoulder, then a fire truck and the police, then the news....okay, thinks we, we are in for the long haul. And of course I had shamed Rick into not stopping for gas at the last exit and now we are looking at....what? the desert? bumper to bumper on grades, to overheat or run out of gas and have NO AIR CONDITIONING?!?!?! We remained calm.                            

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It was kind of interesting to watch (for awhile) People started to drive on the paved shoulder, then on the gravel shoulder to that shoulder, to get around cars on the paved shoulder that were being too cautious about the pylons that had been put there and THEN several people just went down off both shoulders into the actual desert and started driving off in clouds of dust! Of course, the rules of the road had been suspended and it really was chaotic out there once anarchy had taken over.  People encountered ditches or impassabilities out there in the desert, so they'd have to circle way around or head off at right angles to the road to God knows where. I guess they were locals and THEY knew where but it sure looked wild to us.

We, decided to take a pass on the whole deal and pulled off the road (legally) at the first exit, exit 1 Nevada and the last chance Casino.

Rick and I saw no potential for exiting the truck-stop/casino once we were in there and had gassed up, as it was full of big rigs waiting to get back onto the road. Since the Aluminum Rule, (courtesy of Antsy McLain and the Trailer Park Troubadors) is "Enjoy the Ride", we crawled back into the Airstream,  put on the Fantastic Fan, opened all the windows, had a beer and a nap in front of our supplementary 12 volt fan. (PS No A/C when you're not plugged into shore power but our trailer batteries stoked by the Solar Panel run the fans)

Two and half hours later we HOPEfully peered out the window to see the traffic still bumper to bumper for many miles into the desert.

Eventually, we arrived at our breakfast destination! Peggy Sue's 50's Diner, usually a couple hours outside Vegas on the California side of the State Line. No worries that it was dinner time, it was fun ad look at all the cool stuff there was on the walls and everything. 

What was it, you ask? a freakin' moron tanker truck driver rolled his rig over and caused a HazMat spill. THOUSANDS of people were inconvenienced, easily tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of dollars in gasoline wasted and public resources  ambulance, fire, towtrucks, and Hazmat response...allllllllll wasted! If I were my friend, Judy, I would have presented him with an invoice for our time once we FINALLY arrived at the scene. THEN, there should be costs for Pain and Suffering owed for all the compassion I had to summon up for the people in the northbound lane as we FINALLLLY drove past Moron's overturned disaster to see miles and miles, literally 30 and counting, no doubt, of people driving unsuspectingly towards Vegas on a Friday night, to spend at least a day in that traffic jam. People were considering ducking and diving out on the paved shoulder, and in the northbound lane there was no second shoulder and no nice flat sandy desert but I know some would have eventually 4 wheeled it into the rough terrain as well to gain some headway or just even to change the scenery. The desert. DOH!