Planning first long trip in our Hi-Lo
 

Here's the plan. We are allotting about 5 weeks for a trip from Tennessee to Canada. Start date is set for the day after the Memorial Day weekend.

first stop---around Greensboro, NC for a quick overnight.

Then to visit friends in VA Beach, VA. Hopefully stay at First Landing State Park for 2 nights.

Hershey, PA for 2 nights to do a little site seeing.

Mystic, CT for 2 nights to see Mystic Seaport.

Freeport, ME for LL Bean 2 nights.

Mt. Desert Island area 3 nights to visit friends and eat Lobster.

Nova Scotia, 4 nights for sight seeing.

Riviere du Loop 2 nights for a rest stop.

Ottawa for 3 nights to see the area. (We did Quebec City fall 2013).

Cloyne, Ontario to visit friends at their lake cottage for about 3 nights.

Niagara on the Lake because Lou loves the place. 2 nights.

Then up around Georgian Bay with 1 night stop before Sioux St. Marie, and back to the states.

2 nights at Mackinaw City to see Mackinac Island.

Then it is on I-75 all the way home with 1 or 2 nights along the way.

Shoot holes in it if you can. Also any advice on things not to be missed will be appreciated.

Forgot to mention that there are 4 or 5 days of slack built in to slide the schedule.

When you do return, please post a recap of how your trip went and any additional sights you might have added on the way.:)

I am thinking about blogging the trip. If I don't get time to set up a new blog for the camper, I will do it on our boat blog. Hopefully, we will be snapping pictures along the way, and the wifi will be good enough to upload them.

Our last land trip to Canada we did Quebec City, and blogged it on the boat blog. Hotels that trip, so this will be a new experience for us.

In 2012 we did a six week camping trip through Alaska and portions of Canada, going east into Canada as far as Drumheller, which is east of Calgary. Gonna try to make it to some parts of Canada in August/September.:)

That sounds like a great trip. Did you do a write up? Pictures? I would love to see it.

Don

No, there was not any documentation, but my wife took a thousand or so pictures, most of them while we were on the road. I did have the pictures categorized in folders by events, but at some point when my computer was updated all the pictures dropped out of the folders and I have not gone through them again. IF I had documented the trip in detail, it would be an easier task getting the pictures back into the proper folder.:mad:

We did a 6 week trip in 2012, Montreal, Quebec city and around Nova Scotia. Prince Edward Island was neat. Be sure to do the loop around Cape Breton island. It is beautiful. We left the HiLo in the RV park and did the loop in just the pickup. Be sure to go to the Alexander Graham Bell meuseum while on Cape Breton. You may think you know what he did but as a hint, Canada says he was the father of aviation. He invented many medical instruments and Helen Keller said he was responstable for her being able to communicate. There is also a restored/rebuilt fortress in eastern Cape Breton that was great to see. We went east from Quebec city on the north side of the St Lawrence river. The rosd Atlas said the ferrys were free to cross to the south side. When we got to the ferry landing we found out the Canadian Gov was no longer substadizing the ferry and it cost us aprox $250 to cross. If you plan to use any ferrys check the prices. Its a great trip, have fun.

Thanks. Great info. We definitely plan to do the Cabot Trail. We may have missed the A. G. Bell Museum, but now will plan on stopping. If there is time we will do PEI. We plan to be on the south side of the St. Lawrence until we can cross by bridge. Thanks again.

Don

Sioux st Marie has a neat little bush plane museum. If you got a couple extra nights I might run up north along Lake Superior. pretty country. And check out the locks.

Thanks. The bush plane museum sounds worth seeing. We did the U. P. and south shore of Superior a few years back. Lou has never been to Mackinac Island, so we wanted to spend some time there. It will be interesting to see how the pooch reacts to all the horses.:)

First camping in our new to us Hi-Lo
 

Finally, after buying the trailer in November of last year, we are camping. I bought it in Ocala, drove it to Tennessee, and winterized it. This is a sorting out trip, kind of a shake down if you will, before our planned 5 week trip to Canada.

It is going extremely well, and the upgrades done over the winter are working out well. As I type this at 10:30 pm sitting on the patio under the awning, I can't get over the beautiful spot we are in. We are in a Bartow County campground over looking Lake Allatoona and the dam. Quiet and very private spot with no neighbors visible. Water and 30 amp electric power for 12 bucks a night. What a deal. The cheap prices will be over as we start north.

Hopefully, some pictures in the next couple of days, but for right now we are very pleased with the Hi-Lo. Thanks for the advice and knowledge to be found on this website.

Don

Here are the photos promised.
 

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The dam across from out campsite.

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great looking spot. And I am jealous of how shiny you got the sides of that trailer.:) I've been interested in that lake as I my daughter and granddaughter are in Atlanta. You did a nice job of squeezing in there. thanks for the photos.

rick

Thanks, Hilltool. There are several campgrounds around Lake Allatoona. One of the best is Red Top Mountain State Park. It is beautiful with great facilities at about $35.00 per night. RTMSP can be booked up, especially on weekends. I would suggest planning ahead for that. We are in a smaller county campground at a third the price, and just as nice. The only thing to watch for here is the gate closes at 10pm and opens at 8am. That could be a problem for you. If you are interested in this one, let me know. It is not much on the radar screen. I will give you directions to get in here.

Moon, wouldn't mind having that CG name also, as my oldest daughter lives right near there in Cartersville. We've camped at McKaskey Creek CG. And they accept the Senior Pass, $13 a day. Nice, quiet and spaced apart. Same type set-up as you have in the pics.
Thanks ahead!
Tree

[QUOTE=Treeclimber;29742]Moon, wouldn't mind having that CG name also, as my oldest daughter lives right near there in Cartersville. We've camped at McKaskey Creek CG. And they accept the Senior Pass, $13 a day. Nice, quiet and spaced apart. Same type set-up as you have in the pics.
Thanks ahead!W

Tree, Bartow Beach Campground. If you go down GA20 Spur past where you cut off for McKaskey Creek CG T/L on Bartow Beach Rd. Follow it to the end, and you will be at the gate.

Lou is a retired teacher in Bartow County. If your daughter went to school there, she would probably have heard of her.

Don

Sounds like a great trip! We are from Mich, now living in Phoenix. Our friends had a cabin in Tobermory Ont, on Georgian Bay and spent many summers there. So much to see and do in Tob. We would then take the ferry from Tob to Manitoulin Island and Drive to the Soo, and on to Mackinaw city. Not sure which way your going to go across, but this route is really worth the trip. Terry

Thanks, Terry. We had planned for a quick overnight stop at Sudbury, but your route sounds very interesting. It may even be worth an extra day. I will be checking into that. With that and the Bush Plane Museum added, it's definitely worth an extra day. Hopefully, we won't be stricken with a bad case of gethomeitis that would cause us to miss it.

Don

Don't miss Digby, Nova Scotia, site of the very best scallops in the world! Not to mention Minas Basin Nova Scotia, site of the highest tides in the world, sometimes as high as 50-55 feet.

Digby is a great tip. I am hoping to get some really good pan seared scallops. We plan to see the tides roll in at the Bay of Fundy. I am starting to get really pumped about the trip. Thanks.

Listen, how about you take Brenda and I along with and we'll do the driving and cook a little? We won't be a bother and we don't take up much space.....:D Shoot fire, we're not even going and I'm excited for you. Be sure to treat yourself to one of the pasties in the UP after you cross over in Sault Saint Marie. It is a meat pie of sorts that originated in Cornwall, England.

I know about pasties too, Jim. They were popular in Grass Valley, California, where I was born among the Cornish miners that were there. A pasty is a great lunch to take down into the mine. My Mother learned how to make them and we had them many times.

- Jack

A couple of small stowaways that will cook and drive sounds like just the ticket. When are you available?

Don

Don, did I say "small?" Uh, maybe too much of Jack's pastie. Anyway, be sure to let us know how your trip goes.....:D

Starting Out
 

We are ready to roll. Bearings, brakes, and tire pressures are checked out. The trailer is hooked to the Suburban. We will put the top down when we switch the refrigerator over to propane tomorrow morning.

The plan is to leave about 0930 hrs to hit Atlanta after rush hour. Then up to Greensboro, NC for a quick one night stop.

We plan to blog the trip, but there was no time to start another blog for the RV. So, we will post it on the boat blog. A link to it was added at the bottom of the signature line. If it doesn't show as a link copy and paste into your browser. Give us a couple of days to start posting there. You can find it on the home page on the right hand side titled "2015 RV trip to Canada". Just click on it.

Of course, we will do some updates on this site. Wish us luck!

Have a great trip but a question first: Are you planning on running the fridge on propane while towing the HiLo?

Yes, that is the plan.

OK, my understanding is that due to the telescoping design of the HiLo, it will not vent properly when running on propane in the down position. I know there has been some discussion on this forum about that so maybe some others will chime in.

I checked out your blog- very cool! I'd like to start one myself but don't know anything about how to proceed so maybe you can advise me!

Hey Gregg, there is nothing hard about starting a blog. Pick out a host, pick out a format, set up the pages, and away you go.

I use Wordpress.com for my host. No charge unless you do the advanced series. Google has one I think called Blogger, and there is another I think titled My Trip Blog.

The problem is that the host will sometimes change formatting, and some photos will not show. I have to go back and clean up some of that. If you want to see some more pictures click on the uncategorized link in the links at the top of the page. I don't know why some will show there, but not in the blog page. Just something else to do.

Good luck with the refrig on propane while towing. I have driven all day without any type of power to the refrig (pleasant outside temps) and arrived at my destination with the frig still cold and freezer compartment items still frozen. When we did our Alaska/Canada trip I was running the frig off the battery and I always arrived at camp with a dead battery. Learned from the forum you can't do that, though that is the recommended procedure.

Thanks and have a safe trip!

Greg, as long as you are moving, running on propane isn't a problem. It's when you stop and there is no airflow that you have a problem. One other thing, it's probably not the smartest thing to stop for gas while you have the propane going....just sayin'.

Thanks for clarifying, Ruben!

So Far So Good
 

We arrived at Greensboro Campground about 4:45pm. Good day on the road. The campground is good for an overnight stop. There is noise from I-40, the staff is accommodating, but it could use some freshening up. Great tiled showers. There was a big rain storm, but we turned on the A/C, and it covered all noises. Sleep was good. This was more of a pit stop. They put us in a level pull through. We didn't even unhook.

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Then it was north on I-85 and across US 58 to VA Beach to First Landing State Park Campground. 2 nights here. Our friends Norm and Kathy brought dinner to the campground. Then we did some exploring, Norm is a retired Navy capt., so we had access to the bases. We are camped right up against the dune line at the mouth of Chesapeake Bay. Here are some pictures of some sights not normally seen by visitors as they are on a restricted base.

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The original Cape Henry light house is the second oldest in the U. S.

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The monument commemorating the spot of the first landing of the original Jamestown settlers in 1607. The landing party erected a wooden cross near the spot.

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The French Admiral de Grasse. De Grasse saved our *** in the Revolutionary War.

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Those are all the pictures for today. We plan to do the Mariners Museum at Hampton tomorrow. The Monitor exhibit will be of special interest to me.

We are moving right along. Mystic CT tonight heading for Freeport Maine and the LL Bean store tomorrow. We have been updating our blog on a new page for anyone interested.

https://moonstruckblog.wordpress.com...logging-again/