Halifax RV Show

I got off work Thursday morning early, caught a few hours sleep and headed to the RV show.

With a plan of course.

If you've been reading along, you know we love our wonderful little hybrid trailer. But we always had a few issues with it. One of the biggest issues was the lack of space. Not enough room to store stuff and at times, not enough room for us!! Off we went to see what we could find that was a little bigger.

We spoke to the dealer we got our trailer last year from, CRC RV. We had an idea of what we were looking for. The Jayco 26BH. Marc explained it was the next logical step. We got to he show, looked at for a second or two, but fell in love with the trailer across the aisle from it. The Jayco 28 BHS. Similar, but just right! Places for the kids, a place for us, a bigger kitchen for Alicia's most wonderful camping meals, and LOTS of storage! We found it!

We looked about for a while longer, made sure that there was nothing else that we missed and headed back to CRC RV. A quick transaction and we owned a new trailer! Now just have to wait until the spring thaw to make the change.

Passport America Club

 www.passportamerica.com

What a score this was!

Its amazing how you come across things. I was looking at trailer/camping apps for my iPhone and came across this app for Passport America. "What the heck is this?" I thought. One pretty cool deal, I found out! Its billed as "The Original 50% Discount Camping Club!" With each membership comes half price stays at selected campgrounds. We paid $45USD and I am sure we save hundreds of dollars over the course of the summer.

The membership comes with a directory of participating campgrounds. Look up the place you want to stay and see whats available. You have to be careful, there are lots of blackout dates and some restrictions. But what's the worst that can happen? You pay what everyone else is paying! Trust me, you save enough through the year, that the occassional full price night won't break the bank.

Check it out!

Wrentham Premium Outlets

Wrentham Premium Outlets

 

This was the end point of our trip. Wrentham, Mass. (Side note for those who follow the NFL, this is right around the corner from Foxboro, Mass!) 

 

What an incredible place. We found this place about 10 years ago on a trip with my grandparents, the original New England shopping pilgrims! Its hours and hours of shopping fun! 8 billion stores to browse and shop through. If I ask my wife, she says the Ugg Australia Store was her favorite. The many boxes in the back of the truck on the way home attest to that fact. I was able to find some stuff for myself as well. (Read, Saucony store).

Anytime we even think of heading this way, Wrentham is on the list of stops. How could you not? 

Great thing about it too, is its relatively close proximity to other major cities. Boston is just a hop, skip and a jump away. This trip we ventured a tad south to Providence, RI. Checked out, you guessed it, another mall..haha. Didn't buy a whole bunch. Found most of what we were looking for in Wrentham!

The BIG ADVENTURE

We had a 12 day block of time off in mid August in which we chose to embark on a huge adventure! Let's go to the USA! Seems like the RV thing to do, yes?

Well, my block of days off started after a night shift. The plan was for me to come home, sleep a bit, and hit the road around 3pm after our daughter was done at a birthday party for one of her friends. The plan worked as far as departure time, but the sleep before leaving got lost in the excitement of the trip preparations.

I got home around 7:30 am, got changed out of work clothes, and set to make preparations for getting underway. Double and triple checking everything to make sure nothing vital was left behind. Like there are no stores on the way! HAHA

Dogs in kennel. Food out for kitties, house locked up. Good to go!

We set out right on time, no stopping us now! GPS set for Bangor, ME, which we thought would be our first big stop. well, that was not to be, due to that lack of sleep business. At around 10:00 pm, we decided, with kids already sleeping in the back seat of the truck, that we would find a place to tuck in for the night.

The Big Stop Sign just outside of Oromocto NB. What a welcome sight at 11:30 PM after 6 hours of driving, following a night shift the night before and next to no sleep!!

We didn't initially set out to stop here for the night. We stopped for gas and a light snack, and thought, "that lot over there looks really big and trucks are lined up overthere, probably sleeping too..." We had this great plan to park in the corner of the lot. All alone. Hmm..how do you think that worked out??

The next morning about 6:00 am, we woke up and set out for the US adventure. Next stop, Bangor, ME!

We have had this long held family tradition when travelling to Maine, which we have been doing for most of my 40 years on a semi regular basis, of stopping at a certain FANTASTIC truck stop for breakfast. There is nothing like it. Dysart's has become a friend of the traveling family. Its located just south of Bangor, just off the I-95 at the Coldbrook Rd exit.

 www.dysarts.com

With a hearty breakfast in us, off we headed south again, in search of shopping and camping adventures.

Our first camping stop was in Old Orchard Beach, ME at Powder Horn Family Camping.

http://powderhorncamping.com/

Great little spot where we spent a few nights both down and back on our trip.

Out With the Old, In with the New!

Remember that comment about Chrysler engineering? Well.. we buy a trailer sized for the van we will be towing it with. Simple, right? HAHA.. nothing is simple in life!

Our trip home from Truro showed us that it might not be as smooth sailing as we first thought. The van pulled the trailer, BARELY.

How do you fix any problem? Throw money at it..AARGH! Well, in this case, I got my beautiful new (to me) 2008 Dodge 1500 4X4! That'll tow it! HAHA

Here's a pic of it and trailer on a later trip to the Annapolis Valley area of Nova Scotia, in July 2010.

A Recap of the Year That Was-Part One

I had a great plan when we started this to keep a log of our trips that we took, as the summer went by. So much for that idea! So, the next few posts, I'll try to recount what I can remember .

What a year we had! Took off to Truro the morning of the 25th of June to pick up our new baby: Our Jayco 17Z Hybrid Trailer. We searched and looked and researched for several months until we settled on that one. Part of our research also was where to buy. We have a dealer quite close to where we live. We looked but didn't quite like what we saw. We kept looking. A good friend recommended a place about two hours away from us. CRC RV Centre. www.crcrv.ca We hit it off with the owner, Marc, right away. The deal went great, we picked it up and off we went! Nothing could stop us now!

Hmm.... except Chrysler engineering...more to follow on that!

 Our very first camping adventure was to a park that is right in our backyard. Quick trip, just to get out and see how it went. Here's Momma and the new puppy, who we HAD to take along!

These are pictures from our Second camping adventure at Graves Island Provincial Park, outside of Chester, Nova Scotia.