Ottawa, Canada

Today I did two things that have all of a sudden made this adventure seem more real and imminent.

One thing I did, was to make arrangements for the payment of my travel trailer. (More on the change of plans on this front later.)

And the second thing I did was to pop into the local CAA office to add the trailer to my CAA coverage and pick up maps for the 9 provinces and 20 states that I will be travelling through on my adventure.

“Maps”, you say, “when online maps, and GPS are so readily available?” While I am an early adopter of many digital tools, there are some things which I find the analog versions still work best. One of them is maps. Of course I’ll use all sorts of iPad apps and my GPS for finding RV Parks, specific routing, etc, but the maps will be along for the ride as well. Am I the only one that still likes to pour over maps on the dining room table while planning a trip? There are some great apps for finding RV parks that I’ve found: Allstars, and Book Your Site are two. If you have any favourites, let me know.

I’m also using a packing iPad app called Packing Pro to try to keep track of the millions of items to do and remember to take on my adventure. Well, maybe not millions, but I’m at 401 so far, and instead of the list shrinking as I accomplish things or acquire items, it’s often going up as I think of things I need to do or buy. Sigh.

http://www.quinnscape.com/PackingPro.as p

Anyway, as of May 13th I will be the proud owner of a Prolite Plus S. As you may recall, the original plan was to buy a 13′ Scamp trailer from a Minnesota company, but when I found this 15′ Prolite at a local RV show I decided that it better suited my needs and I am able to support a Canadian company which I’m happy to do.

If you’re really interested, here is the link to a video of the trailer. It’s pretty darn small, but how much room does one person need.

https://youtu.be/GXIYaL-vxPI

Ottawa, Canada

Travel has always been an important part of my life. My father was a school teacher so we spent the summers of my youth travelling and camping throughout our home province of Manitoba and from one end of Canada to the other and back several times.

During married life, travel stayed an important part of my life, but starting a business, having a family, immersing myself in politics, building a cottage in northern Ontario, and later moving to Ottawa and 2 years working for the government meant travel had to take a lower rank among the many other priorities. Those other things were important and I wouldn’t have changed any of the important decisions I made along the way, but it is now time for me.

I retired on Oct 17, 2014.

Now that my only priority is time spent with my awesome daughter Gillian, and her husband Phil, along with my many family and friends across the country, it’s time to put travel back up near the top of the priority list along with getting and keeping myself healthy and mobile so that I can, you guessed it, travel.

One of my happiest places is when I am driving down a secondary road, not knowing what is around the next corner. So, when my brother-in-law mentioned a small travel trailer that his brother had bought that my CRV could tow, the plan started to gel in my mind.

Today I took a major step towards one of my dreams. I ordered a 13′ fibreglass Scamp travel trailer. It will be ready to pick up at the end of April. My plan is to spend the spring/summer travelling in Canada and then in the fall I’ll head south to Florida, across the southern States to California and north up the coast to BC to arrive there next spring.

I have often said that the planning and anticipation of a trip is at least half the fun. So I thought I would start this blog here on the day that process begins in earnest. Many of you aware of my plans have said you would like to come along on my journey, so this blog is a way for you to do that.

Let me know if there is anything you’d like to hear about along the way!

NOTE: After this posting, I attended an RV Show in Ottawa and decided to buy a Prolite Trailer instead of the Scamp. It’s Canadian-made and ticks some of the other boxes.