Date

Description

Sat Aug 21

Knowing that we weren't going far today made things go a lot easier as we packed. With the unfortunate rain off and on today, it was challening to do the packing without soaking everything in the process. We finished everything and left in the late afternoon. We were only going as far as Brockville (about 1 hour), and then doing the camp overnight in a Walmart, as that is so popular with Julia and Tirzah. When we arrived there, they did go for a short shopping excursion to the Walmart. We sat down and watched a movie, even though we were drydocking for the night.

Sun Aug 22

Got up in the morning after a restful sleep - amazing how the effort of packing can take so much out of you. All of us then went into the Walmart and did some shopping. They really know what they're doing by allowing RVers to spend the night in their parking lot. We hardly ever stop at one of them without going in and spending a bunch of money. This one had both a Tim Horton's and a Macdonalds located inside, so we had our breakfast there before getting on the road for the final part of the trip to the campground. We arrived at the 1000 Islands KOA around 1:30 pm, and set up camp in the rain. The rain hasn't let up since yesterday, and continued all through the day today. Pretty much just stayed inside the rest of the day today and did some reading.

Mon Aug 23

It continued to rain today until well after lunch, so we spent the morning hunkered down inside the RV. We eventually got ourselves going and drove into Kingston to hit the Value Village - another popular destination for the girls. The rain finally stopped in the afternoon, and although things were very wet, we were able to have a BBQ outside tonight, and a campfire. It was rathert buggy at the campfire though, I guess because of all the rain over the past few days. Glad the rain has passed, and the forecast for the rest of the week looks good.

Tues Aug 24

Got up at a reasonable hour this morning, it is a beautiful day today. The sun is shining and the temperature warmed up nicely. After breakfast, we went to the Skydeck Tower on Hill Island (near the US border). That is really interesting. I had been there once before in 1969 but didn't really remember much about it except that remembering that I'd been up it, when it was still almost new - built in 1965 apparently - but Janet, Julia and Tirzah hadn't seen it before. We all really enjoyed it. We came back to the campsite afterwards to have some lunch, and I got in the car to drive back to Ottawa for the rest of the afternoon. Because of the rain on Saturday, I had been unable to cut the grass in the front yard or look after the pool before we left, so that needed to be done. Also there was a British car event over at the Hazeldean Mall in Kanata that I wanted to attend. I managed to do all of that, and returned to the campsite around 11:30 pm. The girls had spent the afternoon on their own, hanging around the campground, enjoying the pool there and trying out some of the games in the arcade room.

Wed Aug 25

We went into Kingston again today, primarily to tour Fort Henry. What a great place that is. We saw demonstrations of some British military tactics of the time period, marching bands, etc. It was a very engaging afternoon. Janet was quite taken by the odd salute, and we talked with one of the soldiers about it. Kind of hard to describe, but there is this kind of odd twist of the wrist as the person brings their hand to their forehead. It apparently evolved this way because the soldiers marched in such close ranks that they couldn't extend their elbow away from their body as is done today without bumping the guy next to them. After touring the Fort for several hours, we did some more discount shopping - notice a theme here - and then went out for our one big dinner out at Chez Piggy's in downtown Kingston. It's a bit pricier than we usually do on holidays, but the food and service is still as good as I remember from when I used to go there a long time ago. Came back to camp rather late, so we decided to skip a campfire, and watched "There's something about Mary" instead. It is a rather odd but very funny movie.

Thurs Aug 26

This was a rest day. We had a quiet day at the campsite all day, just relaxing and reading a lot of the time. The weather was mostly good, with a few brief showers that blew through but didn't drop a lot of water or last long. We tried out the ping pong table near the pool, which was a lot of fun. We have to get one of those for home! The girls tried out the bingo at the main building in the early evening, and we had a really nice campfire this evening. Tomorrow will be our last full day this trip...

Fri Aug 27

What a fun day we had today! We got up early and caught the first boat over to Boldt Castle on Heart Island. That is an amazing place. This castle was built for someone who appears to have truly been one of those self made millionaires of the late 1800's. He arrived in the United States with absolutely nothing in the 1860s and by the 1890s was a very wealthy man. He and his wife had fallen in love with the 1000 Islands area and would summer there every year. They bought this island and started to build a beautiful castle - hard for me to believe the castle was intended only as their summer home - but it was. Unfortunately, it is rather sad story too, because about 18 months before the castle was to have been completed, his wife died suddenly and Mr. Boldt immediately abandoned the project and never returned to the island. It was eventually sold and mostly left to rot for 70+ years before the local tourism organization purchased it and have been slowly rebuilding it to its original grandeur. The exterior and the gardens are mostly complete, but the interior of the building is still being reconstructed, however large sections of it are finished and one can get an idea of the opulent lifestyle of the era. We went into Gananoque after that for a bit of shopping and a look around, then spent the remainder of the day back at the campsite. Tonight was the weiners and beans camp night - always popular! Although the weather was beautiful, we decided to watch a movie rather than have a campfire, so we watched the Long Long Trailer with Lucille Ball and then turned in early because we have to pack and leave tomorrow.

Sat Aug 28

Travelled home today. The campground really filled up on Friday afternoon / evening. It had been rather quiet there until then, but the place was hopping last night and today. It clearly is a popular weekend destination. We very much enjoyed this trip. It was a lot different than most of our RV holidays have been. We travelled less than 180 km from home, and did only a few things each day in the car while we were there. It was restful and nice. Once we arrived home, we unpacked the food and a few other things, but left the majority of the stuff for the morning tomorrow. Janet took Tirzah home, and we will just have a little BBQ here and unwind tonight. I love being out in the RV, but it is good to be home too.

Sun Aug 29

Just had to finish unpacking and clean the RV today. During the trip, we experienced the re-emergence of a previously corrected problem, and I will take it to VOS Trailers tomorrow for them to repair it before putting it back into storage. Other than that, everything was fine on both of our trips this year. We hope to get another short trip or two out of it this fall but sadly we are probably nearly finished with our RV camping for this year.