We finally decided to pull the Airstream out of the field where we store it, and take it on a 2008 shakedown cruise. Getting it home and preparing the trailer for a summer season of adventure is the topic of another post. Suffice to say that we managed to pull it out of the mud, get it home, fix and clean it up, and hit the road.

This year the shakedown cruise was a short 1 hour drive from home, to beautiful Niagara Falls KOA. We have never been to a KOA campground before, and while our decision to go was not without some concern for both our sanity and the potential backlash from diehard boondockers concerned that we aren’t really “camping”, we figured that for a shakedown cruise at this time of year we might as well enjoy ourselves. And we did.

I don’t know what you have heard about KOA campgrounds from other campers. Some of the comments we heard were that they were very child-oriented and very safe. On the critical side we have also heard that they can be crowded and cramped, and occassionally expensive. More on our thoughts about this coming up.

Niagara Falls KOA is located in Niagara Falls, Ontario Canada on Lundy’s Lane. Now at this point anyone familiar with Niagara Falls is most likely fighting to contain their laughter to see where this article is going. To the uninitiated, Lundy’s Lane is where all of the less expensive “honeymoon” oriented activity happens in Niagara Falls. Having been to the campground, I can assure you that all of that is a ways up the road, and when camping at the KOA you are not in the middle of a replay of the story of Sodom and Gomorrha from the Old Testament. Big sigh of relief from the parents there.

Camping in April is an interesting time of year to trailer in Southern Ontario, as most of the campgrounds are still closed until the weather clears up. Fortunately this year we had a terrible winter for snow, resulting in spring weather that has actually been quite enjoyable. So we set out into a weekend that at the very worst was expecting temperature highs of 17C (about 62F).

We were immediately impressed at the state of the campground. Registration was a breeze, the store was very well stocked, and once we pulled into our site – which was not hard to do as there were not a lot of other trailers around – we noticed that this is probably the cleanest campground we have ever seen. I mean very clean. There was no garbage to be found anywhere, and over the 2 days we stayed there I did not see one screw or old rusty nail on the ground. I am sure they are out there, as every campground accumulates things like this over time, but on this trip I could not find any. A fantastic job by the campground staff.

Issues like cleanliness and child activities have become more important to us since G is now old enough to run around with the big boys.

And what a lot of fun they had! There was a lot to do, even though the campground hasn’t really kicked off the summer season yet. Several swimming pools, very clean showers and washrooms, and a great environment for the kids.

A and I decided to unhook the Airstream and take everyone into town to find some supplies, and take a look at the falls. We ended up driving Clifton Hill, and instead of our planned evening campfire dinner we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe (read a review here).

So I guess I still don’t know if the camping BBQ or stove are working after the winter. Which is ok, because I did remove the tank bracket off the tongue to make room for the new Hensley hitch.

After dinner we noticed that G was not feeling well at all, especially after she threw up all over herself in the car after we buckled her into her seat. Fortunately it had nothing to do with the food at the restaurant, and instead has turned out to be a bout of the flu. Unfortunately A has it too.

For the first time we brought along the oil heater that we use in the basement at home, and it worked very well. Our new bed was very comfortable, and other than the usual commotion of trying to get the kids to sleep during a fun trailer adventure overnight in the middle of a playground nirvana for preschoolers, everything went well.

We decided to skip a campfire at night due to high winds, opting instead to rent “Juno” from the local Rogers Video and have a snug night in the trailer.

The next morning was glorious from a weather perspective, and the kids had a great time playing on all of the equipment at the campground with their new found friends. Bringing along the bikes, which I had to store in the trailer due to lack of an overhead rack on the truck, actually worked out very well as both the boys have really taken to riding.

Once again our Airstream has taken us to places that we would never have imagined before. If you had told me that we would be going to a campground in a city during April a few years back, I would have found the idea mildly humorous. Fortunately, I would have been very wrong. A and I had initially discussed heading to more remote campgrounds this summer, but after this trip I am thinking that we really must plan to attend some KOA campgrounds. The kids had a great time, and while I realize that not every KOA is going to have a Rogers video up the street, we cannot complain about the value we realized on this trip.

Now that we have had the Overlander out on it’s first trip, it is time to start thinking about where we are going to go and what to do this year. I think we will be staying in Ontario and Quebec, especially given the new passport rules and the fact that we need to get docs for the kids, but there is a lot to do just between those two provinces.

This was a great getaway!

From the press release at Autoblog

“San Francisco, 28 January 2008 – World-renowned custom bike builder Jesse James has announced that his newest creation, a glistening aluminum-clad motorcycle and sidecar combo for client Airstream will make its first public debut at the Legend of the Motorcycle Concours on May 3rd…”

Now in this case I completely understand that a bike like this is more of a concept bike than anything else. In my opinion, it must be difficult for a custom creator like Jesse to find inspiration, especially since the masses probably have an appetite for only so many skull and crossbones/green slime/blood and guts/heavy metal/hot chick montage vehicles. At least, the parks that we have been to with the kids

I applaud the creativity that a designer like Jesse has. And I also like the fact that, like so many other designers across the decades, he was able to draw upon the ideas of Wally and the Airstream heritage. Now, if only they would tell us when this bike is going into production…

“You can visit Stonehenge in Europe or the United States. But there’s only one place to visit the Airstream Ranch…”

I have had the good fortune to travel across parts of Canada in our Airstream, and we are looking forward to travelling down south sometime soon. Of course with the kids we are a little more restricted than we might be if it was a “Road Trip”, but we still have fun nonetheless. That being said, while researching various destinations, this one is certainly one of the more unusual destinations I have come across. Similar to finding a toy in your Cracker Jacks that doesn’t match the picture on the outside of the box.

Still not sure how I feel about this one…

BTW the link is to a blog that points to the article at Tampa Bay Online.

When our Airstream trailer was delivered from the factory, it had a special coating on the skin that was designed to slow oxidation of the aluminum. Over the past 25 years, the coating has gradually failed to the point where there are locations on the upper skins that have no coating left. This has left the exterior looking blotchy, and in some spots the oxidation has progressed enough to discolour the surface and cause minor pitting.

All of the noise has been from a series of tools we have been using to remove the old coating, and polish the aluminum skins. Here are some pictures of the desired result (keep in mind these are not my trailer):

This trailer is very similar in age and design to ours. Significant differences would include the excellent polish job, the restoration work on the tongue and jack, as well as the newer awning.

I could not resist posting this picture as well, both for the beauty of the polish handiwork, as well as the location of the photo. It snowed here in Canada yesterday, and I was thinking about how nice it would be to go down south this winter. He even has a kayak on a roof rack.

Both of these photos are off of the Airstream Forums.

A view of Chateau Lake Louise.

Airstreams in Bannock MT.

They have been travelling around the US and Canada for over two years now, and it looks like they have been having a lot of fun. You can see more of the pictures he has been posting on his Flickr site here.

“Wally Byam’s Airstream travel trailer has been an American icon of design and product integrity as well as a symbol of a carefree, adventurous way of life since 1931. To this day, Airstream Caravanners travel the world, making friends with people from all walks of life.

The year 2009 marks the 50th anniversary of Wally Byam’s Cape Town to Cairo African Caravan Adventure. This historical event was an overland, 221-day, 14,307-mile journey embarked upon by 106 Caravanners in 41 Airstream travel trailers. This anniversary provides the motivation to rediscover Africa as a Caravan destination. We want to tackle the challenge that is Africa, once again embracing the humanity and participating in the community that Wally Byam endorsed in his life and in his book, Trailer Travel Here and Abroad….”

Here is a link to the video:

I have just realized how easy we sometimes have it today with our modern roads and full hookups.

Here is a YouTube video that Tim made up called “The VAP Aluminum Wrap”, and it has lots of good pics and a custom soundtrack:

Sheer ambrosia for an Airstream fan.

Flamboro Valley Camping Resort is a family-run campground located near Guelph, Ontario. It is actually run by two families, and is a relatively new operation. As such, there are a number of new buildings and facilities that really give the campground a modern look. The other advantage of being newer is that there are not as many seasonal trailers, so there is a wider variety of other campers who are on shorter term stays.

The first thing that impresses a new visitor is the little valley itself, which you can see from the front gate. The gate is on a rise, and down a road to the woods you can see the trailer sites in the distance. There is a large cedar and pine stand on the one side of the woods, and there are fantastic tenting sites throughout the trees.

We booked the site unseen, and were a little surprised when we arrived. It was a bit of a disappointment only because we were in a central lawn with no trees around on a corner lot. Well, what do you want for a last-minute booking. The site did have full hookups, which we are starting to appreciate more now that we have the bathroom running properly in the trailer (another article about that coming up soon).

For kids activities, there is a playground area with swings, a well-kept outdoor pool, and a small arcade in the main building. Adult activities were actually far more extensive, and while we were not able to break away from the 3 little ones long enough to participate, we did see a lawn bowling competition, a horseshoe tournament final, a church service, and an evening dance on the Saturday night.

We have been to a few campgrounds that in my opinion were a little nicer in terms of the sites and the scenery, but one significant thing that Flamboro Valley has going for it is the sense of community.

(Sausages anyone?)

On Saturday afternoon we had a visit from Michael and Melanie, and there daughter, which was quite fun. At this point things were a little hectic, as the kids were all worked up and we all did not sleep very much the night before as the baby had been crying throughout the night, most likely due to teething. So I am sure we were all a sight for sore eyes when our visitors arrived. Anyways, we got to work setting up a dinner which turned out really nice. Smoked sausages, corn on the cob cooked directly on the grill (ask me how to do this, you will be surprised), and lots of desert. And it was nice to see that the kids were in to the healthy food first, and desert later.

Keeping the kids hemmed in to our campsite was a bit of a challenge, as we were in a wide-open area without any real boundaries. Nicholas fell off of his bike a few times on the gravel roads, but no major damage. And Patrick found that it was too difficult to ride over the gravel with his tricycle.

The kids had a great time running around and playing with all of the stuff kids find on a campsite. The bugs were an especially big hit.

After dinner, Michael and Melanie joined us for a leisurely walk through the campground, weaving in and out of tenting sites. Oh yes, and I think the kids were there too.

Flamboro Valley was not the nicest place we have visited this summer, but activity-wise it was the most active. While it was not a bad place to play for the kids, I think we will be looking for a more nature-oriented location.

Byng Island Conservation Area is at the mouth of the Grand River in Ontario, which empties into Lake Erie. It is regarded as one of the major fishing areas in the Great Lakes, and is just the other side of the river from Dunnville Ontario.

It was also our first camping with Erin. This is also the site of Jacob’s first fish he caught on his own.

We booked the site a week or so in advance, and had a fun drive down trying to find the place. It is not enough to just say “Dunnville”, you sort of have to know your way around. Anyways, after a little searching we found the campground, and were really pleased with the cleanliness and organization of the place. It is also quite busy, and there were many seasonal camping families there with semi-permanent setups. The seasonal campers looked like they were all having a great time.

Erin’s family brought along a couple of tents, one being a large dinner tent which ended up being their main tent area. We parked a couple of sites down under a nice tree, which made for some nice shade during the day. No need to run the air conditioning on this trip!

It was a lot of fun to have everyone there with us, and our boys were thrilled to be camping with their cousins. After dinner, Scott and I agreed to take the kids fishing down at the docks, which was a lot of fun.

The competition for fishing rods was heavy and earnest, as there were many smaller fishing boats roaming up and down the river and they all had fish on them. A couple of 14 footers even started trawling closer to our shore, which concerned the kids because they thought that the fishing boats might land our fish. I was concerned too, not because they were so close but because they weren’t getting any bites. As you can see from the photos, it was evening and the sun was setting. I guess the fish knew what we were up to.

Anyways, everyone got a chance working the rods to the point that it was starting to get dark, and we were all thinking about heading back for the nightly campfire. Jacob was helping pack up the equipment when he suggested that he make one more cast. This is after an hour of no contact fishing. I am not sure why he brought up the idea to stay behind. He cast out into the river, and then very quickly reeled the line in to pack up. The hook got to about 6 feet from shore when all of a sudden he had a hit. We could tell it wasn’t like the multitude of snags we had been picking up all evening because his line was actually moving.

Within about 2 minutes Jacob had caught his first fish.

It was a very exciting time, and we took just enough time to catch a quick photo before we sent it back home to hang out with it’s fish friends.

That night we all sat by the campfire at Erin’s site with the kids telling stories and roasting marshmellows. Unfortunately the sad state of wood at our site prevented us from getting more of a smolder going.

After the kids went to bed, Scott and I tried to light the fire at our trailer’s campfire ring. It only took an hour, a bunch of lighter fluid, and some liquid courage to create a nice smoking smouldering mound that vaguely resembled the tailpipe of an old 1950s roadster with a head gasket problem. Everyone else, which would be the folks with the actual smarts, decided to stay at Erin’s nice warm fire and watch the flames dance in the cool night air. Well, at least Scott and I kept the mosquitoes out of the area.

The boys stayed up a little later and went on a couple of excursions through the local forest and through the other camping areas, which got to be a little difficult as it got darker. I am not sure how we found our way back.

The following morning was a wonderful time, and I took the kids on a walkabout tracing the steps of our little moonlight adventure the night before. Surprising how different things can look with a little light on them.

It was a nice country drive back home from Dunnville, and we all though that we should go back again next year.

Next year we are going to see if these two want to come back too!

Well, Nicholas waited an entire year for this one. He had been saying throughout the year that he really, really wanted to have a party. But when we asked him what kind of party he wasn’t really sure. So Amy suggested a camping party, and he though that was a fantastic idea.

We went to Valens again.

This is a picture of the Chinese paper patio lanterns that I purchased from JYSK. They were nice enough, and not very expensive. And they also used Christmas mini lights. Unfortunately they did not survive the weekend rains. The light from them was very nice reflecting off the trailer.

I took the two boys and the trailer to our site as kind of an advance party. The remainder of the family and friends were due to show up the following morning. It is an easy trip as it is only a few minutes up the road, and we have to pass a Tim Hortons on the way, which is really nice as there is a large parking lot there with lots of room to maneuver the trailer. Here is a picture of the site once we had figured out how to back the trailer in and set up. On our previous excursion to Valens, we had camped in the cedar forest. As you can see, this area is more of a hilly grassland with a few young trees. The ground was packed dirt and small rocks, and not very well suited to bare feet. At least there was a decent fire pit, and large rocks had been placed at a distance around the campfire pit to keep the grass out of the area.

Imagine our surprise when we pulled in and parked next to this ’80s Airstream Excella. We were the only two Airstream trailers on the entire campground, and ended up on adjacent sites. It was a young family and their young uncle, all down from somewhere near Kingston. The trailer belonged to one of their parents, who did not use it very much. They were nice folks, and you could tell they did not drive this trailer much as there was a lot of slow work to get it unhooked and on the road at the end of the weekend. They did not want to damage it on the narrow roads.

Here is a shot of the trailer once everything was finally set up for camping. The boys had a difficult time at this site as there was not much to do, until they discovered the 6 teenage girls beside our site, and a foot long garter snake. Things really heated up at that point. Surprisingly, our 5 year old was really in to making friends with the girls, while our 3 year old was trying to play with the snake. In both cases our neighbourhood girls and snakes tried to show polite patience…

Things really improved the following morning once Grandpa showed up for the birthday party, and confirmed that he was going to camp overnight with us. The kids thought that was great, and so did I. Not just because there was a lot to do and I was the only onsite adult.

I took the boys out to the fishing bridge on the first night with their new toy fishing tackle, and a basic reel setup that we had picked up a few weeks earlier. This weekend was the annual fishing derby. I have never seen Valens so busy. We were on the bridge for about an hour, and there were about 50 other people along the bridge fishing as well. I could see about 10 fishing boats on the lake. We did not catch anything, and there was not much biting, but we did see a little girl pull in a small sunfish on her Dora the Explorer rod and reel.

We went back to the fishing area briefly in the early morning, and there had already been a lot of fishing activity, and in fact the first place and second place fish had already been caught before the sun was up.

Amy showed up with the party items, and we found a couple of tables near the beach to set up. It had been threatening rain, but we decided to press onwards and see if we could beat the forecast. Patrick discovered a number of caterpillars crawling between the trees beside the road, and the two boys played with them for quite a while. Until one of them got stepped on, but that is another story.

Once all of the party goers arrived, we started a BBQ and got cooking. We had lots of gourmet food for the grill, and Amy had prepared much of it. Our guests also brought some fantastic summer food, and we all ate happily as we watched the clouds roll in with wary eyes. The kids went down to the beach to get in some “swim time” while we cleaned up the cooking site, and at this point the rain began. We decided to relocate everything back to our house, since we live just up the road.

Uncle John agreed to take care of little Grace while we were getting people settled. The party actually turned out really well, as we all gathered for cake and ice cream and the kids got a chance to take a real shower before we headed back to the campsite.

We sent Patrick home, and Nicholas had his buddy Christian over for a sleep over at the trailer with Grandpa Lang. It was a little bit of work keeping up with these two, as they have both turned out to be quite curious and love exploring – with and without adult supervision. The next morning we went for a walk through the Valens forest, and then went to the lookout over the wetlands. Here is picture of the kids up at the lookout.

The walk through the forest was a lot of fun. Both of the boys had not seen many of the plants and fungi from the area before, and were very inquisitive about what lives in the forest. I was swarmed by mosquitos, but the kids did not seem to be very bothered.