It wasn’t long after the Covid-19 outbreak that Jutta and I started thinking about our options for travel. Having just returned early from skiing in Austria, cancelled Ireland and Florida, and with Hilton Head hanging in the balance, border closures and restrictions, we realized that Canada might be our only option. I suggested we might go on an extended camping trip, and Jutta said……..”You mean like at the Holiday Inn?”………..I don’t know how it actually happened, but one thing led to another, and before you knew it, we were down in London at CanAm Rv looking at Airstream trailers and RV’s. Everything seemed to come together, and we realized that this might actually be something we could do.
I called CanAm to inquire about a trailer that was showing on their website as an incoming unit for Fall 2020, but was informed that likely this unit would never be delivered due to production cutbacks at the factory……..you guessed it……Covid. Our contact at CanAm was the same guy who provided Sid and I with a brand new trailer (non-Airstream), for the ride across Canada. He was great, and although the new unit was never going to happen, he mentioned he had a slightly used 2017 that was coming in for resale the next week. Back to London. Bought it on the spot. It is a beauty, and was the previous owners’ third Airstream, but at 85 years old, he just wasn’t using it anymore. Not a scratch on it. You would think it was brand new.
This was not a knee jerk/impulse purchase……..Jutta and I had been talking Airstream and where we would go almost daily since the first trip to London. The plan was to head west, where winter comes late, and you can golf year round down south in Osoyoos, or on Vancouver Island, visiting the kids along the way…….what a plan. Turns out, not so many golf courses stay open late in the Okanagan, and only the southern portion of the island stays open most of the year. Nonetheless, we are in…….100%……..let’s go hiking and biking instead……..done.
So we leave tomorrow morning……early as possible…….with our target destination Pancake Bay, already plugged into the GPS. I have to admit some apprehension, okay, a slight amount of fear, okay, I’m shitting myself. My trailering experience is limited, but after my test drive yesterday, up Grey Road 19, loop de loop and one wrong turn, which led me down Scenic Caves Road!!!. I must admit I feel a whole lot better after the test run.
The trailer is fully loaded, and we look forward to an uneventful first day. Our plans are to get across the country quickly, with stops at Pancake Bay, Thunder Bay, Falcon Lake, Moose Jaw, Canmore, and Lake Louise, before settling in Kelowna for a week with both Sam and Stephanie visiting for a couple of days. Following that, we will be on Vancouver Island for three weeks with stops up north at Port McNeil, then Tofino, and finally Victoria. We hope to find a good weather window to make it home without having to drive through an early winter storm up north or across the prairies, but if all else fails, I may be posting from the Walmart parking lot in Kenora, mid-November……….save me……..send the chopper.
I hope to post daily, and hope you will all chime in to let me know how things are going at home. Cheers.
HUGEBLOGSITE 
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