Today is filled with races. Our favourite of the weekend is the Nascar Pinty’s Series. The sun is shining so we brave the rickety Michelin overpass bridge and settle to watch the race at the start/finish line.
First race starts at 9am, it’s going to be a busy day.
We go to the front straight, whoa!! A very many step-up overpass Michelin bridge to get to the other side of the track. Neither of us are fans. Doesn’t look intimidating from this side.
Make it and watch from the start finish line for a while.
On our way back to Bailey we stop at turn 2 but first we grabbed a bevvie.
Our neighbours arrive, they are from Quebec and have a Winnebago Gran Tour. Should have gotten a better photo, only see the back sticking out.
We do venture to turn 5 and watch there for a bit.
7pm a band is playing to be followed by fireworks.
The on track activities are over so we walk on the track back to Bailey where we’ll watch the fireworks.
Still looks like a shopping cart, but it a recycle bin!!
Cool being woke up with cars on the track. We have a great view from the captain chairs so don’t have to rush out.
Off next to check out the infield activities, not much happening today. We’re in the Beer Garden and I get a free beer. Allan selects a 61 which is named after the year the track opened.
The grounds are beautiful we walk through the wood heading back to Bailey.
Wake up very excited! On our way to pick up Bailey for the race weekend at 10:30a. Get to the campground, load up and off we go to Clarington at 11:28. 52,861km.
We thought the gate at Peace Bridge was narrow, nope! We now know what is narrow, the entrance to this park. Fortunately, Allan was super cool we get through relatively easily.
Allan knows the track very well having driven here in years gone by so we drive directly to corner 3 our spot 3O06, turn 3, 6th spot.
Allan is happy installing his GenTuri! I don’t get it, but he loves it. He also uses the jack stands for the first time.
There is some track activity and we are pleased with our view. It’s not too busy yet giving us an opportunity to scope out the place.
What’s that across the track? A shopping cart mounted to the roof of a car?
We wander over and yes that is exactly what we’re seeing.
Bailey reunion day! It will be a short lived reunion but excited to get her.
We leave for the dealer in Smithville at 8:40a, eta 10:22a. Almost there but whoops, detour! The road we normally take is closed due to construction so we follow the Detour Route. We drive and drive and drive, finally arriving at the dealer at 10:50a. Forgot to take a photo 🙁
Head back, you have to love Toronto traffic – it’s brutal! It is worse than this photo depicts. Make it home at 1:30. We fill up with fresh water and Allan attempts to install our new Genturi but the connection fitting we require is not included. Amazon here we come!
2:21 Off to the campground. Kyle is here so he rides with Allan and I follow.
We know our actual site is not available yet because the trailer currently occupying it is not out yet. It is still too wet to move. Way too much rain this season.
We are storing it there, looks a little lonely, until Thursday when it’s off to the races.
This will be our spot! The decorative well, trailer and deck have to be removed. Learned today we are to cut the grass, but at least we have 50amp.
We are pretty excited and doing the …We have a spot for the summer in a campground in Sutton, and have 50amp power which is more than we thought we’d get at this point.
We are picking up Bailey on Saturday, bringing her to the camp where our spot isn’t ready yet but they have agreed to store her.
Thursday, we pick her up and head to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park, the track previously known as Mosport, for the Castrol Victoria Day Speedfest.
Weekend after that we bring Bailey back to the dealers as they still are not finished the repairs.
Anxiously excited, for the races, not bringing her back to the dealer!!
When we purchased Bailey, the sales agreement stated everything on the coach must function. There were also paint repairs to be done. The paint did not get done prior to us taking delivery and it was agreed that we will bring Bailey back in spring to for the paint. We brought her back in April.
During the 10,000 km of travels we found a few other things that never functioned. That first trip was quite the experience!
These are some of the things that didn’t work:
No dash heat, it was really cold driving
Bedroom & bathroom blinds do not open
Hamper in bedroom locks open
Key fob works sporadically, as does the door lock switches inside coach
Windshield leaks. They had replaced it prior to our picking up
Accent light does not illuminate around front cab
Tag axle fails to dump
AC loud noise when turning off
TV antenna that doesn’t always work, we are paying the dealer to replace
Jacks & slide, we paid a US mobile repair guy to repair those. Once the dealer had Bailey back we were notified that there is a recall on the emission control system that requires 40 – 50 hours of labour. They knew about it when they sold us Bailey but didn’t mention it.
Maybe not having somewhere to park Bailey for the summer isn’t such a bad thing right now.
We have Canadian Motorsport Park booked for the May long weekend we are hoping to borrow Bailey from Sicard’s for the race weekend.
Once again we show our naivety! We think we can easily find a local campground for Bailey for the summer.
In March we compile our list of possible campgrounds and take a few weekends to drive around checking them out. We want a site with 50amp power, most only have 30 amp. We eliminate some, like others and never think our selected location would not have space for us.
When we got back from our last trip we begin calling the campgrounds and much to our horror most have no space. How is that even possible? We are down to 2 locations, both only have 30 amp, neither have a space but perhaps one will come available. They each tell us to try again next week! Several weeks later still no space.
The only good thing right now is that Bailey is still at Sicard’s for the repairs.
We awake to full on sunshine, such a nice change. We head to Sicards @ 720a, km 52,546 and wait for them to open in a nearby parking lot.
While there we eat up the balance of our left over food so a Chicken Caesar Salad it is.
This was our schedule
9ish we head to Sicard who are in Smithville, a small little town. We are hoping to get an Uber home but suspect we’ll have to cab it to Hamilton and get an Uber there.
Drop off complete, km 52,590, Allan looks for an Uber and much to our surprise and delight there is one 15 minutes away! Ya, Uber!!
That’s it for this adventure, now we search for a local campground for the summer. We are hoping Sicards does all the required repairs.
We are not anxious to have our vacation end but as it must we decide we will cross the border at Peace Bridge @PeaceBridgeAuththen find a campground.
Me blogging away
Off we go, leave Westerville at 7:15a, km 51,975. Allan says we’ll get fuel on the US side as it is cheaper but the story of our lives goes as…
We drive through Pennsylvania, finally get a welcome sign Then New York.As our luck would have it, we have to detour through a part of Buffalo that is totally unfamiliar even to Allan who used to be in Buffalo twice a week. Our GPS are not much help as they want to send us back to the highway that is closed. Turn right or left? We feel we chose incorrectly so get turned around. Whoops we were correct the first time so turn around again.
Finally see the Peace Bridge only to discover it is under major renos, one narrow lane each direction.
Made it to border crossing, fortunately it wasn’t too busy. For those keeping track, NO we didn’t get fuel.
We pick a line not realizing the border crossing guard was 18 and his first day on the job. He just couldn’t understand the concept of storing Bailey in Phoenix. He asked several time about that, weapons and cannabis. Yep, pulls us over to be searched. 2 burly guards come over, tell us to get out and stand way back there behind the yellow line. We have nothing we’re not supposed to have so we aren’t concerned BUT we are dressed in short sleeves shirts and shorts and boy was it freezing!!
They get done and now are friendlier and we get back in. Now to drive through the last obstacle, the super duper narrow gate. To freak you out more there are tons of scrape marks, Allan makes it through perfectly.
Back home in Canada and it starts to pour. Our plan is to find a campground and play games for the rest of the day. Us experienced RVers didn’t realize campgrounds do not open until May. We pull over to find the closest, reliable Walmart.
Find one in St. Catharines on Welland St, off we head anxious to just park for the night. Arrive to a full parking lot and no where we can park and open our bedroom slide. Canadian Tire is on the other side of the parking lot, space there but also a sign that reads “No Overnight Parking” Not too friendly of them, Allan suggests it may be a town by-law.
Not giving up so easily we head to the next Walmart in Fairview Mall. This one shares the parking lot with an Ikea but we find a good spot and set up. Hope we are not asked to leave
