On the road at last!

The Trip

The plan:

As promised in the previous post but with several days late here is the plan...

After talking with Jo and André, we bought into the idea of spending a whole month in Naples, Florida. I have already reserved for mid November to mid December. When I called, I was advised that it is a park for 55 +, I said that I looked over 55, not too sure if the person believed me. Because we will be visiting that park for a first time, there is a special for a month the price is $189, that is cheap! The most attractive bonus, there is NO snow... oh ya!

We left home on October 19 (I'll come back to the first day later), so it should take us about a month to get to Naples. We only  planned for the first stop which is Cortland, NY. Following this, it will all be improvisation and discovery.

After our stay in Naples, we will fly back home for about 3-4 weeks. We are still negotiating... Before we leave for home, we will be store our trailer and truck in Florida.

Upon our return to the land of oranges, we are not sure of anything. This is just too much planning in advance and it sounds like w-o-r-k to me, hahaha

Day 1

October 19 - Val-des-Bois

We spent 2 days at home with our daughter.  We bought some grocery and prepared a batch of spaghetti sauce for her.  We also took the opportunity to do some more shopping.

We left around 06:45, in the darkness. We went back to our camping site to pickup the trailer. We drove on the same road and at about the same time as we were used to, to go to work! We had a thought (just one and that was a really short one at that :) ) for our ex-colleagues, knowing that their day at the office was about to start.

Our camping in Val-des-Bois is about 100 KM (60 miles) from home . When we arrived, Jo and André were getting ready to go. They were not expecting us to show up that morning nor were they aware that we were about to meet them later at the same camping, the first night on the road. They might never share again their plan with us!  Hahaha

We hooked up the trailer, and left around 09:30. An hour later, after travelling, 200 KM, we did a planned short stop. At this point, we were about 25 foot from home... we had to go back to drop something off for our daughter and pick up more stuff :)) One of my task at home was to drop the garbage... which of course I forgot to do (they were in the bed of the truck).

Finally at 11:30 we were really on our way and increasing the distance between us and our home. Our daughter had made us sandwiches for lunch, which we enjoyed while still in Canada (thanks Caroline they hit the spot).

We realized at the time that we (I) had forgotten the garbage in the truck bed. We were about to cross custom and we didn't want to be caught with garbage that might contain something that was not allowed... I am always nervous when crossing custom and do my best not to have anything that might get me in trouble! I ended up throwing the garbage bag at a McDonald.

We crossed customs at around 14:00, the officer didn't pull us over, nor started to do a strip search (fiou!), he pretty much only asked if we had Alcohol and Tobacco. We didn't have any, and he wished us a good trip. This is ONLY my thought but why on earth would someone try to smuggle alcohol in the US, the alcohol being over priced in Canada is enough to prevent any want-to-be smuggler, no? I might understand the smokers who want to have their brand, and even then, I just don't get it!

The next exit was close to Syracuse, we stopped at a Walmart. To cross the border, we had NO meat, no vegetable or fruit, no eggs. In the fridge and the cupboard we had a lot of "no" that is what I'm trying to say. So it seems a lot of people in our lifestyle (RV style), stop quickly to replenish the food supply when they get to the USA.

Before going back on the highway, I wanted to fill up the truck. I stopped at a gas pump, got out, put my debit card in, entered my pin (which I will not share with you hahaha), and pushed 'yes'. I got a message saying that it was not the right pin. grrrrr I couldn't see a way to re-do it. So I thought that because it was a Canadian bank, it would not work at this pump. So cash in hand I went inside, waited for the employee to hand her some cash. But, she told me that she couldn't do anything the pump was still waiting for me to do something (she could have told me what exactly but it seems like customer satisfaction is not her strong suit). I went back to the pump thinking that I was just going to drive away... and I noticed a very useful 'cancel' on the display. After I cancelled, I re-entered my debit card, entered the right nip, but this time instead of entering 'yes' I entered 'correct', and by a miracle the pump started. I was soooooo happy... for about 2 minutes. At $50. it stopped, I had enough hassle and just drove away. I wanted to fill up the truck and didn't even get half a tank... and with that, the gas station lost money!

We stopped for supper at a Cracker Barrels. They are RV friendly, you can stay for the night in their parking space and they also have spaces only for bus and RV.

We finally arrived at the camping around 18:30. The office was closed so today I will go and pay for our site. Even though we were the last team to arrive, we didn't get eliminated... oups I must have been watching too much TV :)

The two teams

 

Oct 20 Morning at Cortland Where are the RVs?

 

Total distance yesterday : 575 KM (345 Miles) It was a long day, we will slow done someday!

Today, we might stay, we might drive away, we don't have a plan, but we know that we won't be going north!