24-hour whirlwind new camper purchase

At the Dealership

While daily blogging is not something I will commit myself to be doing right now, at least an update every few weeks or so I owe to my still loyal readers who haven’t given up on me yet. Thanks for being patient.

Yes, the pups have grown quite a bit since we got them and they have changed our lifestyle, but they, too, are adjusting nicely to our routines.   Benno and I keep smiling and chuckling a lot nowadays just watching Reggy and Elsa’s antics. They are a joy to have around.

Our Doxies playing in the snow

Mommy, I'm cold, let me in!

We loved our 19-foot Jayco travel trailer, but it became apparent that the space inside appears a bit restricted and now with the addition of two dachshunds romping throughout even more so.  There are so many different types of travel trailers on the market and it boils down to how big a rig can your towing vehicle handle and what fits your needs and lastly your wallet. 

During the past several weeks we’ve visited a few RV dealers in our area, went to the Windsor RV Show and while we were down in Florida, we had driven as well to St. Augustine to look at a 2016 Jayco White Hawk, 24RKS travel trailer with an overall length of 28’ 9” and 5210 lbs. dry weight, where we really started to fall in love with this travel trailer and it’s layout. It had one slide-out and the Queen size bed was a real 80” x 60” Queen and not the downsized 74” x 60” Queen you find in most RV’s. That trailer had a dark leatherette sofa but a lighter colored fabric covered sofa we would have liked better.

Our new 2016 Jayco White Hawk 24RKS

The more we thought of this Jayco model, the more we decided that this is the one we would like to get. However, once we started to look for this trailer here in Canada, all 2016 models were sold out in a range of 500 km (315miles) and the new 2017 models would not come into the lots until mid summer or later.

So guess our surprise, when Benno stumbled onto a website with an ad for the precise Jayco model we were looking for, hidden at a dealer up north close to the Canadian Algonquin Park.  There was a brand new 2016 model, with the cloth sofa, at a very attractive price to boot.  What’s the catch?  Well, during this time of the year the area is plainly dead and no buyers get lost there. Now, if we wanted to see the trailer we’d have to travel all the way to Lovesick Lake RV Sales in Burleigh Falls, Ontario on the Trent Severn Waterway. For all you guys wondering where that is, it is north of the city of Peterborough in the Kawartha Lakes area on Highway 28. We made an appointment for the morning of last Thursday to view the travel trailer.

At the ungodly hour of 4 A.M., my alarm clock ripped me out of my dreams. I am not an early riser so this is especially hard for me to get out of bed. Thank goodness Benno has an easier time with that and he doesn’t mind getting behind the wheel in the dark. In the truck, while leaving our driveway, I noticed the truck clock showed only 02.15 AM. HaHa!! Benno smiled and said, “Sorry, I messed with your alarm clock, lets beat the Toronto rush hour”. This is bad, really bad isn’t it! The drive was rained out, it rained, and it rained some more, even harder at times and with blinding headlights from traffic traveling in the opposite direction, this was a strenuous drive to say the least.

At 05.45 A.M. we were passing close by my sister Christina and her husband Paul’s house in Mississauga, there Benno was joking, “Lets drive by and ring the bell and invite us in for breakfast.” We had a few laughs, this would be a surprise we pictured, and of course we kept on driving. A few minutes close to 06.00 A.M. we were breezing past the notoriously worst clogged up traffic area on highway 401 to the Toronto Airport, but made it through this big city ahead of rush hour traffic and had enough time to stop past Toronto for a well deserved breakfast, feed the dogs their morning snack and then kept on going.

When we arrived at the RV dealer, the salesman we had the appointment with had called in to say he would be delayed.  In the meantime, while we were waiting, the owner of the Lovesick Lake RV Sales gave us a tour of the souvenir store and the restaurant.  The store was filled with unique and beautiful things, very tastefully selected items. The restaurant was closed but would be open for the season soon.  There is a story about the name of the Lovesick Lake (about an Indian Princess who fell in love etc.), which you can find on the last page of the Menu.  In addition to the RV Sales, there is an associated large seasonal campground.  All in all, this is a very nice place to camp during warmer temps.  So, once our guy showed up we drove to the Jayco trailer, which was stored among the other 160, various types of rigs for sale at the snow covered storage area next to the road.  Of course Benno and I were familiar about everything already about the trailer, having seen it before and educating ourselves on the Internet, but we went through the whole process of looking and listening to the sales pitch again.  We knew we wanted it!  Now we had to play it cool and see if we could haggle and get an even better price.  This took some time, including us going for lunch in-between, to give the RV dealer some time to mull about the price, but we did it. 

The rest of the formalities took the better half of the day including getting our cheque certified at a bank in the city of Peterborough, having the trailer’s ownership registered at the license plate office in Lakefield in our name, and the most important part of setting up our trailer weight distribution hitch to mate it to the new travel trailer.  Finally, past 4 P.M. we rolled out of the parking lot, towing our new trailer, heading for home at the beginning of rush hour traffic. Underway we made stops for gas, dinner at a restaurant, letting the dogs go for walks and feeding them supper.  We were very tired driving back and it started to snow, covering the highway with a sheet of ice and the going was slow.  Finally, after 1150 km driving within a 24-hour period, close to 2 A.M., we crawled into our driveway and parked the new camper right next to our other Jayco.  All we wanted now was to sleep for the next three days.

As a side note:  Right on the highway, close to the Lovesick Lake RV place, we drove past the very famous Lakefield College on the way to the license plate office in Lakefield. This is the place where Prince Andrew, a younger brother of Prince Charles, and a son of Queen Elizabeth II, had been educated.  We heard it is a very good College and very pricy!

Elsa and Reggy

Almost three weeks have flown by and no updates to my blog.  Sorry everyone.  The excitement of getting two Doxie puppies, housetraining, feeding and playing with them almost around the clock, trips to the dentist (me) resulting in a filling, fighting an infection and a pulled tooth is my excuse, but there were other happenings:

The travel trailer got parked next to the house but not quite in its proper position. The reason for this was that the trusted Parkit trolley, which we use to turn the trailer around and move it to the full hook-up, went on the fritz and quit working. A replacement electric motor, still under warranty, is on order. Benno thinks that during the previous use lubricant from the small gearbox somehow got into the electric motor and gummed up the rotor. That caused the rotor to stick to the magnets, which in turn when powered up, fried the windings while Benno tried to use the Parkit, when we got home last month.  

Then there was the priority of creating a save area outside for the dogs to romp around.  Our deck is ideal for that, but we needed a gate and a foot high lattices all around the balustrade so the Doxie puppies would not get their heads stuck under or in-between the railing. Home Depot and Lowes in Windsor had what we wanted but we bought too much so another trip was called for to return the extra material.  Of course Benno had to cut, drill and mount the lattice and I painted the gate. Now we just wish for warmer weather so the little Doxie puppies can stay out longer.

While we had already bought the absolute necessary items for the pups, more exploratory fun trips to pet stores in search of better dog food, harnesses, retractable leashes, chewing bones and a couple more toys took up more time than anticipated. Hey, some dog food is only three stars we got educated and there is the five star puppy food as well, and it is better of course. HaHa! Immense marketing is trying to harness your dollar in the pet food business. In addition I took our little male Doxie to the Vet because we noticed that he seemed to be itching on his behind, so my man Benno looked at the poop with a toothpick.  Our male Doxie puppy had his vaccination shots and meds for deworming, but he got a booster shot and some additional medication for more deworming as a precaution. $75 thank goodness it is Canadian Pesos only and not the $ US!!

Our two oldest grandchildren, Heidi, 6 years old and Annaliese, 4 years old, were given the task of naming our little Dachshund puppies.  Heidi wanted to name the boy and her two top selections for a name were Ruffster, and Reggy.   The naming process for the girl Doxie seemed to be a bit more problematic for Annaliese and after much thought she came up with Elsa, and Meow Meow.  There is the Walt Disney film of “Frozen” with the fictional character of Queen Elsa, which must have made a big impression with most girls at the age of our granddaughters.  A name we certainly can get used to calling our female puppy.  Just imagine I am calling “Elsa” near a playground full of kids and all the heads turning around with questioning looks as to where she might be?   And as for our little male puppy, he is very sweet and playful, (we are thinking Sir Reginald, in short the name: “Reggy”) fits him well.   A visit to our grandkids, daughter-in-law and son consists of several hours of traveling time. Last weekend was a good test to see how well the Doxies would tolerate a lengthy car ride when we drove out so the girls could meet the puppies. It turned out to be a good experience all around.

For the moment our quiet and relaxed retiree lifestyle is in a bit of upheaval but in a good way.  Forget about sleeping in or leaving the dogs unattended for a while, you will be in for a surprise.  We are certainly more energetic now and they make us feel youthful just to keep up with them, as they can run like the greased lightning.  

We have rushed home! Why?

Why on earth would we leave warm and sunny Florida at the end of February to rush home to cold and snowy Canada?  The reason is in the pictures.

Last year available Dachshund puppies found new homes before we were ready or reacting not fast enough in the pursuit of a purchase. Further searches for puppies brought us to breeders located all over Ontario but none close to home.  So when we saw two advertisements for pups in January we contacted the owners to see if they would hold a puppy for us for when we come home in spring.  Of course they wouldn’t and we would prefer to select the right one for us. However, it looks like nowadays the pups are being released at a much younger age than our previous dogs and with March Break coming up we were told the puppies must be gone by then. So, we ended up in a panic race up the Interstate 75 toward Canada a few days ago J

The little pretty female was 8 weeks old when we picked her up in the Town of Lakeshore close to the city of Windsor, Ontario last Saturday.  On Sunday we drove to Grand Bend on the shores of Lake Huron, Ontario to get the 10 weeks old cute male Dachshund.  Both are lively little rascals. They get along well and can be a real handful if you let them.

In my experience it is easier to train only one dog, as the other one would not distract the puppy trying to relief itself.  The little girl already knew where she was expected to do her business, which we provided with a 24x24 inch plastic shallow tub from the TSC Store, a well known store chain for Ranchers and Farmers, holding a disposable, absorbent training pad from the same store. The male puppy had not been trained that way and was used to go outside or perhaps anywhere.  With our present cold temperatures I am not going to continue that practice until it warms up somewhat, so our patience is being tested.  But determination and training will get us there. 

For the puppies sleeping arrangement and playtime we have for a bargain price a portable playpen made for babies, which is netted on all sides with a plastic bottom.  That arrangement is temporary until we can trust our young dogs enough to roam freely in the house without leaving us a wet or soft present on the lovely virgin carpet.

You will be asking: “ aaand which names have you given them???” Our granddaughters Heidi and Annaliese are thinking very hard in coming up with the names.

Sure, we are now busier than we would want to be, but it is a lot of fun to watch puppies play and discover new things.  Stay tuned…..

Small World

Florida is a popular place in the winter months especially with us folks from cold and snowy Canada. So it is of no surprise that we run into people down here from back home.  In the Cliftwood Mobile home and RV park we’ve met two couples from Canada and while we were talking it turned out that one couple used to live right around our neighborhood and the other couple resides a few miles away, but they are also friends with the family of our neighbors across the street which we went to see last Sunday at their winter place down here in Florida. It’s a small world, isn’t it?

 Our neighbours home in Canada

We had arranged to meet for lunch at our neighbours winter home. Benno figured it would take us about an hour from our RV Park to drive north, past Gainesville and then into the rural area of Lake City.  In preparation for our get-together I had packed a picnic, beverages and some frozen food items for the BBQ and we left at 9:30 a.m. so we would have plenty of time to visit before lunch.  The weather was gorgeous and we were on the I-75 in no time at all.  I think we hadn’t even driven half a mile, when we came to a full stop and traffic on all three lanes started to back up.  We couldn’t see what was going on but figured there must be an accident ahead of us, which turned out to be a heavily damaged travel trailer, awning and debris strewn all over the highway when we came to it an hour and a half later!  So much for extra time, but we arrived just before noon.

Our Canadian neighbours had family visiting with a travel trailer and tent, which they had parked right beside the house on this spacious 10 acres property. Teresa, our friend and neighbor, had prepared several yummy dishes and soon was flipping delicious Angus burgers on the BBQ.  There sure was plenty of food and no one left hungry. Thanks guys!

After lunch we went for a long walk through their property but the two little doggies got a ride. What a dog life that is!

While driving through the country roads I spotted longhorn cattle.  That is something we don’t get to see very often in Ontario Canada and I include a few pictures for our grandchildren to look at.

That rounds up another nice day down here in Florida.