Bearkill Provincial Park - Ontario, Canada
Monday - 14 June 2004 - Killbear Provincial Park,
Ontario, Canada: Our alarm clock woke us at 5:30 a.m. - we had a 7
o'clock appointment at the Cummins dealer. Simply cruel, but they were ready
for us. Big Diesel engines - though relatively simple, have complicated
computer sensors everywhere. There is an outlet where the tech plugs-in his
computer to our engine and our engine tells him every thing he needs to
know. It gives an instant reading of the engine ID number, the number of
miles, the number of hours driven, engine starts and stops, and what was
happening when a fault code appeared on our dash monitor. According to the
Cummins computer, nothing was happening when our fault codes appeared. The
Cummins technician changed our two fuel filters and sent us on our way.
However, he did find all sorts of junk in our fuel filter and advised My
Driver to avoid letting the fuel tank be less than one-quarter full, so all
the grime and gunk will stay in the bottom of the tank (?!). This, of
course, will ruin DT's game of seeing how far he can go on one tank of
diesel, (we have an 110 gallon fuel tank) but will make for a more relaxing
adventure for me.
We were at the Canadian border just after 10 o'clock,
prepared with passports, registration and proof of Canadian insurance for
both vehicles. The agent looked at our passports and asked where we were
going, if we had guns on board and waved us through. Welcome to Canada! We
were welcomed by stop-and-go traffic to get around Toronto, crawled through
it, and finally headed north on Highway 400 towards Sudbury.
We stopped at a Welcome Centre, filled-up the tank with
litres of diesel (calculated to 48 gallons, $95), and picked up a few
Loonies and Toonies (Canadian cash). We are now set for a great holiday in
Canada - over the next week we will be traveling around the Northern Shore
of the Great Lakes! Check back often. I will try to post every day, but may
not be always able to update from our campsite. Canadian Provincial
campgrounds are beautiful and usually heavily wooded, making for great
camping, but terrible interneting. No need to tell you we have no cell
service! Tonight we are camped on the shore of (actually just a few feet
from) Lake Huron in
Killbear Provincial Park. We are enjoying a beautiful view of the lake
and made friends with a pair of loons.
And by loons, I mean birds.
The view from our campsite
For our after-dinner entertainment, we were audience to a
huge storm! The waves kicked up, the wind howled and huge, noisy rain drops
poured down on our RV. Thunder and lightning were the co-stars! Later,
we learned north of Toronto there was a tornado warning, heavy flooding and
the wind blew over semi-trucks!
Campground:
Killbear Provincial Park - Parry Sound, Ontario. We squeezed-into site
#386 and ran an extension cord to get 15 amp service. Completely wooded site
- very close to the lake. Great running/hiking/walking trails. No other
hook-ups. Water is available throughout the campground. This is a
tent-camping place. It was Monday; it was rainy - few people were here.
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