Aylmer Express "MoHo" Extravaganza 2006

It has been a little bit challenging to find internet hot spots in northern Ontario but here I sit at, of all places, a Burger King in Sudbury. I first managed to track down a Starbucks only to find out that they did NOT have wireless internet access there. Anyway, the story begins to unfold below. If you find there is too much writing, do like I do and just look at the pictures.

June 23 2006

New name for the RV. We started off with my uncle Garth’s suggestion with MoHo. Then more recently, my buddy John shared a modified version of this moniker that indicated that a Johnson was involved by calling it the JoMoHo. I have to admit I really liked the sound of that.

And then just today, on our first day out on the road, Chantal and I came up with a further morphing of the label for what will be our home for the next 6 months. I thought that although John’s contribution certainly paid homage to the Johnson name, the poor old Rouleau name was not really represented. And so, not surprisingly, the newly minted name for our Glendale Royal Classic is now: the JoRo MoHo! I think it has a nice ring to it. And if I was so inclined, perhaps it would inspire me to write a song. I have a feeling that even a band like ChumbaWumba might be able to create something catchy if given some material as juicy as JoRo MoHo, no? But I digress.

The fact that we actually left the house today was a huge step. The fact that we made it all the way to Mattawa is even more amazing. I say this because we did not pull away until close to 4:00 pm! Yes, there was way too much to finalize before we left. Even at that, there are many things that went undone.

As you can see from the photos, we are towing a car behind the JoRo MoHo. This requires the use of a tow bar mechanism which allows one to tow a car “four wheels down”. One of the only things you have to be careful of when you are towing a car like this is to ensure that you never, yes never, try to back up with the car attached. It is not designed to go backward, and if you have ever tried to push on a rope, you know why. I figured this would not be a big deal considering that backing up a 31 foot motor home is not something I like to do anyway. Well, just take a guess as to how far we had driven before this issue reared its ugly head. When we went to the bank? No, we managed to avoid backing up by parking across approximately 72 parking spots. At the restaurant where we bought dinner? No, we simply parked along a “No Parking, Fire Zone” area. At work when I stopped by to drop off my computer? No, I just parked in the right-turn lane and put my flashing hazard lights on. Actually we managed to drive an entire 40 km before Chantal and I had to get out of the JoRo MoHo to unhook the car and move it so that we could back up a little to get turned around. Luckily the average number of kms per backup dropped dramatically once we got on the highway.

So far the weather has been stellar, very sunny and not too hot and not too cold. The traffic has been light. And the campsites have been available. The last part was definitely a bonus given that we had not booked any sites yet. We were so busy getting ready to leave, and I think we were so unsure of when we would actually leave, that we did not think to book a place to stay. But that didn’t stop us from departing. Every now and then you have to just live life on the edge, eh?




Anyhow, here we are at the Champlain Provincial Park just east of North Bay, Ontario on a pretty level “pull-thru” camp site in a lovely wooded and quiet location. After sharing a couple of glasses of wine while looking back on the day and the last few weeks that we have been through, it is time for some well deserved, low-stress slumber. Good night …


June 24 2006

Today marks the first of many days where I will be wondering what the heck is wrong with the MoHo. After Chantal put 4 pieces of toast in the toaster and then turned on the kettle, we quickly found ourselves without any functioning electrical outlets. “No problem” we thought and Chantal when to the main outlet to push the Reset button. When that did not make any difference I did not despair. Instead I quickly went to the main electrical panel in the MoHo to reset the breaker for all the outlets. When that did not work either, I knew it was time to despair. But after about 30 seconds of thought during which I processed about 5 seconds worth of information, I decided to check the electrical post into which we had plugged the MoHo. Sure enough, there was a breaker at the post and it had been tripped. A quick reset of that had us eating crispy toast once more. What an adventure we’re having so far, eh?

Today was another gorgeous day. Perhaps the fact that we were riding our bikes along the beautiful banks of Lake Nipissing with the sun sparkling off the water had something to do with my positive view of the day. We started off on a search for the house where my grandmother, Nanny, lived for many years. Nanny was lucky enough to have a house right on the shores of Lake Nipissing. When I was very young I used to go swimming there by just walking down the steps into the lake. The beauty of Lake Nipissing is that it is very shallow. Even a child could walk out about 100 feet and still be able to stand on the bottom with their head above the water. I’ve been told that the lake is only 14 feet deep at it lowest point. And no, there are not a lot of sailboats on this lake. But I digress.

Anyway, we did manage to find her place. It was quite easy after I called my uncle to ask him for the address and then punched the coordinates into my GPS. We happened to find the current owners in the middle of painting their front deck. When they heard why we were there they were nice enough to show us around and let me take pictures of what it is like now. A fun little trip down memory lane before heading off on a lovely bike ride along the very nice bike paths around North Bay. We wrapped it all up by having the whole family set foot in Lake Nipissing. I was rather disappointed to find out that the water level had risen in the last 2 weeks resulting in the aforementioned 100 feet being reduced to about 20 feet. Good thing I am a little taller now.

Upon returning to the campsite I went for a little tour around to see what the other side was like. It turns out that the other side is great as there are many campsites either right on the water or with a view of the water. And Chantal and I still can’t believe that on a beautiful sunny weekend at the end of June there is only about 20% occupancy at this truly picturesque campground. We would love to stay longer however adventure awaits westward so we are off tomorrow to sexy Sudbury.