This was our 2013 Jayco Flight Swift 198 RD

THIS WAS OUR 2013 JAYCO FLIGHT SWIFT 198RD, PARKED AT THE TOMBSTONE TERRITORIES RV PARK IN ARIZONA



Thursday 12 August 2021

Eventually we had to go home

Our time at the RV Resort was up. Benno has a routine he follows to hook up or unhook the RV and pack everything away. I make sure inside the travel trailer everything is also packed for the road should we encounter potholes or wobbly roads. The day started to be overcast and rain was predicted for the afternoon. Although I hoped that we might outran the dark clouds, but it turned out that was not to be.


Nevertheless, the views were still spectacular driving through New Brunswick and Quebec. A few hours in we encountered a little rain but nothing too heavy. It spit off and on in the afternoon. By the time we were ready to settle for the night the sky had cleared. We parked at a very large parking lot of a Walmart Supercenter in Drummondville, Quebec. It turned out to be a popular overnight stay for other RVers to spend the night. At one end of the parking lot people sat in their chairs outside of their RVs watching the activities. We decided to park on the opposite side all by ourselves which didn’t last too long as new RV arrivals joined us in short order we counted 13 RVers. The stay was quiet and pleasant.

 













The drive through Quebec was a bit stressful this time. Benno had preprogrammed our GPS computer to take us home, which was a different route we had taken driving to New Brunswick. This route took us through parts of Montreal with lots of traffic lights and construction. 

 





The 401 highway turned out to be just like when we left – too busy for our liking and knowing what would await us driving through Toronto, we opted to spend another night on some parking lot and tackle Toronto in the early morning hours. Once I started to look for a Walmart, I could not locate any in the vicinity of the highway. That was frustrating and we debated of where to go. As we neared Bowmansville in Ontario I found a Walmart listing and quickly programmed it in. The funny thing was, as we arrived at the location our Garmin computer said it would be, there was no Walmart. 

 


Frustrated we had to find our way back to the highway but Benno said, “Why don’t we check out the marina here in town? Maybe we can park there.” We knew that friends of ours have stored their sailboat in that marina when they moved to Nova Scotia two years ago. We found the marina quickly but there was no place to park for the night. We had to drive into the marina property to be able to turn around with our camper. At the very end of the road we discovered our friend’s boat “Monica” stored up on the ground. I took quickly a couple of photos of her. We then searched again for a Walmart and found out that a new Walmart had been built not far from the wrong address our computer had given us.

 

In no time at all we arrived at that new Walmart and its big parking lot. Relieved we parked there for the night. I sent the photo I had taken of Monica via Messenger to our friends telling them that we had just been there.  Five minutes later I get a message back saying: “When? We were there. We are here for a few days, we are staying at a Motel nearby, we are working on the boat.” Now, isn’t that a coincidence?

 


Of course I asked our friends to come and see us and we had a great visit. That was a wonderful ending to our vacation trip. Next morning at 04.30 AM we got out of bed, had a quick breakfast and by 05.00 AM we hit the highway 401, sailed thru the top of Toronto in one hour all fine to the west end past the airport, while the opposite lanes into Toronto looked like a parking lot. The rest of the trip was easy and by lunchtime we drove on to our driveway.

 

Thanks for dropping by again and wait to find out what we did when we got back home…

 

13 comments:

  1. I can sure understand and feel your travel frustrations looking for a Walmart overnight spot. And Garmin misleading you. All things that have happened to us as well. It's always a great feeling to pull into one's own driveway again. Sometimes the best part of going away is coming home:))

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    1. You are so right with it all. Thankfully the Walmart stores are still allowing us to stay overnight when we do find them. In the States we stayed at Home Depot, Camping World and other camping outfitters as well but I'm not sure HD or Lowes would let us stay and not sure I'd be comfortable to do so. Yep, great to be home :-)

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  2. Looks like you had a great time, always nice to get home safe and sound.

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    1. It was a fantastic vacation! Happy nothing went wrong!

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  3. Good to know that the Walmarts in that area allow overnight parking. We have had on and off success overnighting at marinas as well.

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    1. Perhaps the marina would have let us park, but the Covid restriction were still in place and so everything was cordoned off.

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  4. I just can't help but love that beautiful green landscape. As to the GPS, I always check my route on my phone's Map App before believing the GPS lady. She's known to have been wrong on several occasions!!

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    1. Yes, I did find the Walmart on my phone and we ended up parking there. As the GPS computers, we have two and the older one I use as well to search for things. It happened a few times that when we used both for the same location, they would respond simultaneously with: turn right and the other saying turn left!!

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  5. I'm glad you had a nice break and change in scenery, and no real drama. Very cool that your friends were there doing boat maintenance and that you got to have a visit!

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    1. It was a great trip and we got to really try out this new travel trailer. You know how wonderful it always was to run into friends at anchorages? It was kind of the same thing this time with our sailing friends.

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  6. Glad your trip was a safe and enjoyable experience. I know you've seen Nova Scotia and P.E.I. from the ocean side of things but what about from the land side of things.
    Always nice to be Home.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    1. Land travel gives you so many more choices to see the beauty of the land. However, traveling by boat, anchoring in quiet bays and seeing the shore is wonderful too.

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  7. This was indeed a stressful driving day but such a wonderful reward to see your friends. As much as you enjoyed your adventure it is always great to return home.

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