Time to start the departure routine. Slides in, level, dump the grey and black water (which somehow became my job), electric off, water disconnected and Jeep reconnected for tow (also my job). Wait a minute, why is John’s job just pushing buttons inside and I am out doing the rest? Anyway, all seemed to go well today. It should be a smooth and relatively short drive. I even marked where we should get off for diesel fuel. Pull into the Flying J gas station (choose it because we have one in Michigan). Seriously who doesn’t have a credit card at the pump these days? So John goes inside and they need to know how much to pump. He decides on $200. I don’t know if he forgets we are in Canada but $200 won’t get us 1/2 a tank. So he goes back in and adds another $125, I suggest at least another $200 (which is about $150 US). Needless to say, we are only at 3/4 tank get to do this again, in Canada. So now I calculate the fuel economy. First I have to translate liters to gallons, Canadian dollars to American dollars. Overall we are now getting 9 miles/gallon. Still, haven’t figured out what calculation I did wrong because we haven’t gotten over 7.8 miles/gallon yet. Maybe it is these smooth roads in Canada. Actually, the roads are really smooth in most of Canada so far. Of course, their taxes are pretty high, taxes are added into merchandise and then taxed on top of that for at least 13%.
We have to put DEF in the tank, which is an additive added to diesel vehicles after 2011 for emissions control. No problem except the DEF fuel pump is on the drivers’ side and our tank is on the passenger side. Seriously who designed this RV? So now we have to go in and purchase it by the gallon container and pour it in manually. Somehow I got that job, too. Did some research, we will be buying DEF from COSTCO in the future and keeping it and adding when we are stationary.
We pull into the campsite and it is the tightest maneuvering I have ever seen. I have no idea how John is going to make the turns or how I am going to survive. Well, he made the turns and I survived. I think I need a glass of wine or two or three???
We unhook the car and do the docking procedures and ready to head to a grocery store. We get to the store and I can smell burning rubber in the car. John says oh, it probably isn’t anything, and I’m pretty sure that it isn’t normal. So what could we have done wrong on the tow this time? Only time will tell.
On a good note, the internet works great and I can actually get work done in less than 10 million hours.
Saturday we played tourist and took the ferry to Quebec City. This summer on our boating trip we met a couple from Quebec City in South Haven, Michigan. After a few (okay many) glasses (or was it bottles) of wine, we decided to connect in Quebec City on our RV trip. It worked out great, loved seeing them and our new friends did a marvelous job narrating a tour through the city in English (as their native language is French). We saw everything I wanted to see plus more and got in over 20,000 steps (still trying to stay on track with my 10,000 steps per day) while traveling. Thank you Martin and France for the amazing time.
Sunday is a relaxing day from travel but a needed day for the mundane items, like laundry, groceries, and cleaning. Other RV travelers we met on the trip told us they block off a day a week for these items and make sure it is added to the trip, a very good tip as we didn’t do this on the itinerary of this trip.
