The Start of a New Season!
/Presqu’ile Provincial Park
May 10 - 12, 2019
We booked this site at the beginning of the year, thinking that we’d have a few weeks to pick up Holly from storage and prepare her for the season. We ended up brining her home less than a week before we were supposed to leave! We didn’t have a full weekend to de-winterize and sort everything out, so we (I) felt a bit rushed getting ready for this trip.
We weren’t able to leave earlier in the day and with the longer drive (it was about 4 hours away), we ended up arriving at our site in the dark. The drive was uneventful and the weather nice. We were on 4 lane highways almost the entire time, but luckily, the traffic wasn’t terrible.
on our way
Taking a rest
Chris wanted a coffee, but we thought we should just get on the road and pick one up on the way. We often make this mistake - the coffee on the road is mediocre and there are usually huge line ups on weekends. We should either make it before we leave or pick it up on the way out of town (especially if we have to fight the getting out of town traffic anyways…)
The site we had was fairly level, so it didn’t take us long to park. Since it was dark when we arrived, we didn’t bother unhitching right away or plugging in. We were in such a rush to get going, that things felt very disorganized and cluttered in the trailer when we arrived. It felt like we had WAY too much stuff! It’s a small space though, and in the daylight, we were able to find proper places for most of the things. The evenings were still quite cool, so we turned on the furnace to take the chill out of the air - it heats up our little Holly quite quickly!
We woke up to a beautiful view! It was sunny, but still a little chilly and a bit windy, so we enjoyed it from the comfort of our dinette:) The dog had a quick walk, we drank some coffee, and had a yummy egg breakfast. I tidied up a bit to feel like there was some sense of organization again.
As it turned out, we couldn’t plug in because we were too far away from the plug and had forgotten our long extension cord! However, our neighbour came to our “rescue” and loaned us, not just an extension cord, but a 30 amp extension! We were prepared to go unplugged for the weekend, but this was a nice surprise and allowed us to not have to worry about conserving our electricity.
Mmm… coffee!
Our view!
After breakfast, we headed out on a walk and ended up going all the way to the lighthouse. It was 11 km round trip and a gorgeous walk along the water. The water was pretty high in a lot of places and rubber boots might have been a good thing to wear, but neither of us own a pair, so we just tried to stay away from the really wet places! It also meant that Daisy wasn’t quite as dirty at the end of our walk. It was early in the season, and most of the trees were just starting to bud, so everything looked a little sparse. But the view was still stunning! Also, this park is well known for it’s bird population and when we arrived closer to the lighthouse, there were quite a few more people there specifically to bird watch. We don’t really know anything about birds, other than they’re pretty, so we didn’t spend tons of time watching them!
We heard the path to the beach was flooded, so we didn't even try to get to the beach during this visit.
Our waterfront campsite
daffodils along our walk
Chris was training for the Ottawa Race Weekend Marathon, so we had a quick bite to eat for lunch, mapped out a route and he headed off for his long run - 25 km. Daisy and I relaxed in the trailer. The weather had cooled down and clouded over, so sitting outside was a bit too cold for us. While I read the paper and a few magazines, Daisy stayed on the lookout for her daddy…
We ate dinner and took it easy, watching a movie before bed (although, Chris fell asleep pretty quickly - I suspect his body was a little tired after walking 11 km and running 25 km!). We were up fairly early on Sunday morning. We had eggs and toast for breakfast, but decided we need a proper toaster, instead of our camping toaster contraption - it takes too long and also sets off the fire alarm in the trailer! Although… the smoke detector seems to go off on the regular, quite quickly after the element has just been turned on to cook nearly anything, except to boil water (I hear this is common from other Bambi owners).
site 61 - so pretty!
cool reflections on the windows
The weather wasn’t terrific — we were starting to get a little rain, so we packed up, hitched up and headed for home. We took highway 401 to just past Belleville and then headed towards Perth. The weather had cleared up in Perth so we stopped at Coutes Coffee for a snack and to let Daisy stretch her legs.
We passed one other Airstream on the 401, but otherwise didn’t see any others. It was early in the season, so most of the sites at Presqu’ile had trailers on them. There were a few tents and a couple of smaller trailers, but many were much larger trailers than our Holly! And there were no other Airstreams.
We very much enjoyed our quick trip to Presqu’ile Provincial Park and will certainly go back when we have another day or two to spare. It was pretty far to go for a short weekend, though. We will definitely book in advance again so that we can get one of the gorgeous waterfront sites! All in all, it was a very successful first trip of the season. We’re loving our tiny, shiny home away from home!
Ottawa - Presqu’ile Provincial Park - Perth - Ottawa
Towing: 586 km
