Edmonton

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Travels Without Miranda, #8: Tybee Island, Georgia

I finally made it to Savannah in the spring of 2008, six months before I left Ottawa with Miranda. This harried road trip featuring bad motels and restaurant food convinced me that there had to be a better way to travel.

After spending a sticky day exploring Savannah’s historic district, I decided that the next day should be spent visiting the environs, my expedition culminating at Tybee Island, Savannah’s ocean playground.

It was the first week of April and still bitter cold back home, but on Tybee the sun was shining and it was hot. The Atlantic ocean beckoned me and I heeded its call, wading in carefully, then plunging in head first when I discovered, to my delight, that the water was warm!

Tybee Island lighthouse

Tybee Island lighthouse

view of Tybee beach from the top of the lighthouse

view of Tybee beach from the top of the lighthouse

Swimming opened up my appetite and I went off in search of lunch, finding it at a shack-type restaurant right on the beach called the North Beach Grill. I decided to take a chance on it since it was packed. It was a fantastic experience; a cruddy little restaurant open to sea breezes, salt shakers rusty from the sea air, rum flowing liberally, and Caribbean-style music booming from speakers. I ordered ‘grilled shrimp’ which was nothing like what I expected. I got whole shrimp, still in the shell with the legs on ’em, swimming in a cajunny-style sauce with a helping of freshly cut fries. It was one of the most undignified, delicious, and fun meals of my life. It took forever to peel those suckers using my fingers! It was there that I realised that coastal Georgia is a world unto itself where sweet tea runs freely, huge mountains of sweet shrimp big as a thumb cost less than a burger, and the people know how to take the time to breathe and enjoy a moment. It’s not paradise, but came pretty close to that for a sun and warmth-starved gal who had just fled winter!

That day in the water reminded me that when I am drained, water can renew me. I remembered this my first day in Edmonton.

(As a side note, that night I received an email that changed my life forever. But that’s another story, part of which you read whenever you visit this blog.)

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Fragrant Memories

Some travelers collect pins, others shot glasses or bar coasters, tee-shirts or ball caps; little trinkets to remind them of where they’ve been.  I have no patience for things that are just for looking at, so over the past few years, while I was still bound to a sticks & bricks existence, I collected blue willow dishware and artwork. Since hitting the road with Miranda, I have, for the first time in fifteen years, begun to rely solely on photographs and journal entries to remind me of where I’ve been. However, there is one purchase made in Edmonton, at Rutherford House, that I like to pull out on chilly mornings like this one, to remind me of those heady first weeks on the road: tea.

I like visiting museum giftshops because you can occasionally find unique items there. At the Rutherford House giftshop I was greeted by a lady who just had to proudly show off her personal tea blends, packaged by herself into tiny and rather pricey packages. The blend she was most proud of was the Rutherford House, which she based on the Queen’s favourite tea blend of jasmine and Earl Grey, with a personal twist. I took one sniff of that mix of my two favourite types of tea, with a secret ingredient I couldn’t identify, and I just had to have it! I think the lady was surprised to have a sale!

Since that September day, I’ve only had four cups of this tea. I have to ration it out because there is so little in the bag, enough perhaps for two or three more cups. It is a strong and fragrant blend, rather exotic, more reminiscent of warm climes than of Edmonton, and yet each sip transports me back to the parlour of Rutherford house, with its apricot walls and emerald green draperies.

Such a souvenir is more transitory than a painting, but when the tea is gone I will associate Earl Grey and jasmine to Edmonton. That is the kind of memory that lasts a lifetime.

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At Crossroads

Wow. I have to be out of this site by 11AM tomorrow and I have absolutely no idea where I’m going next!!! I really do want to plunk myself down somewhere for a several nights and just breathe before plunging back into working life. I’m a bit distressed that I don’t have the stamina I had when I was 19!

My options for getting to Kelowna, which will be my base of operations in October, are:

1) stick to my original plan and get to BC by way of Red Deer, Calgary, Canmore, Banff, Revelstoke, and Salmon Arm;

2) continue on the Yellowhead and get to BC by way of Jasper stopping in Hinton, Blue River, and Kamloops.

I’m going to get flogged for this, but I am trying to avoid staying in national parks. I don’t care how pretty they are, 45$ a night for camping is highway robbery!!! Even non-hook up sites are exorbitantly priced.

I’m told Banff is a must see place, but I already have a chip on my shoulder about it. I just resent having to pay a premium for going where everyone else goes. I therefore try to find my own out of the way equivalents. No, I have never been to Niagara Falls, either (well, other than as a foetus).

So, technically, that leaves me with a third option, crossing over from southern Alberta via the Crows Nest Pass. But that’s an extra 300km, so not an option I’m seriously considering at this time (although I did once).

Does it really matter which road I choose now? The one I don’t take will be the one I’ll embark on in the spring when I get back on the road again.

I’ve been avoiding making this decision since I started off on this whole insane adventure of mine knowing full well that I would eventually end up in Edmonton one night with no idea of what my next move would be. Let’s see what sort of wise advice the night brings. I’m such a procrastinator. 🙂

And through the night, behind the wheel,
The mileage clicking west,
I’ll think upon Mackenzie, David Thompson, and the rest,
Who cracked the mountain ramparts and did show a path for me,
To race the roaring Fraser to the sea.

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Redoing the Electrical Audit

Another thing I did yesterday was redo all my reading about RV electrical systems to figure out why I’m having such a hard time when boondocking more than one night and properly determine what I need to upgrade. Things made sooooo much more sense this time around. For example, I finally figured out why watching a movie through the inverter runs down my batteries. Old timers are going to roll their eyes at me as this is really one of those DOH! moments.

I watch movies on my iMac. The iMac runs at about 100-120 watts. According to my initial energy audit, that meant that it uses at most 1 amp (120w/120v=1a), no more than a light. Therefore, I could definitely run my iMac on the battery for a couple of hours.

(Old timers are going waitaminute…)

Yeah.

What I failed to understand is that the inverter doesn’t really give me 120v power, so I should have been dividing that 120w by 12v, not 120. Meaning that my iMac uses 10 amps!!!

Okay, it’s clear. I can’t run the iMac when boondocking. It’s also the only power hungry thing I’d want to run for any length of time when boondocking. Therefore, my solution for long term boondocking isn’t to upgrade my electrical system but to get a slightly newer laptop that is faster and has a DVD player, a solution costing a few hundred dollars rather than a few thousand. Talk about my getting smarter!

That said, I most definitely need to replace my battery and I won’t even bother getting this one load tested. It has surpassed its lifespan and I doubt the POs did any sort of maintenance on it. So, two new 6V golf cart batteries are on my priority list for this winter, and then I’ll shop for a new-to-me laptop in the spring when I start boondocking again.

At any rate, I quit running the iMac while Walmarting quite a while back as well as running a million lights to either read or embroider as I’ve picked up a new hobby that requires no electricity and very little light. No, I’m not going to tell you what it is so don’t even bother asking. 🙂

Further evidence that I’m getting smarter about all things RV came about when I arrived in Edmonton on Monday night. It was really cold and damp in the rig, but I didn’t turn on the furnace since I was only on 15A service. Then, I actually questioned if the furnace would use as many amps as an air conditioner. I pulled out the manual and learned that the furnace only uses 8A. Add the 1 for the iMac and 1 for a light and I was still at only 10A. Ah, no more shivering. 🙂

Electrical heaters are next on my to-buy list and I’m still debating catalytic heaters. I have really mixed opinions on those.

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Where I’ve Stayed

I haven’t given too many details on the campgrounds in which I’ve stayed because I don’t think it’s wise to give too much information on exactly where I am at the time of posting, so consider this a bit of a catch up edition. 🙂

So, my first campground was the Ottawa Municipal Campground in Ottawa, Ontario.

I maintain that the OMC is Ottawa’s best kept secret. The park feels like it’s deep in nature, but it’s just minutes from the Queensway and from shopping centres in Nepean and Kanata while being about ten minutes from downtown (as long as it’s not rush hour!). Staff is friendly, rules are lax, there’s wi-fi at the laundromat, and the electricity and water are good.

I found this campground using Google.

My second campground was Stillwater RV Park in Nipigon, Ontario.

For the night that I stayed, this place was fantastic. It had 30A pull-thrus, good water, a cheap laundromat, and wi-fi. Even though it’s located right on the highway, the sites are removed enough from it to be quiet. But I’d hate to stay here in the high season as the sites are packed very closely together. Thankfully, the place was practically empty when I stayed.

I found this campground in an old Trailer Life directory the POs left me.

My third campground was Shady Oaks RV Resort & Campground in Sidney, Manitoba.

This was a really nice campground, if you like being in the middle of nowhere (60km to the nearest grocery store!). I had a beautiful spot overlooking the Manitoba prairie and shaded by oak trees that rained acorns the whole time I was there! Water quality wasn’t very good here (too much iron), but I wasn’t drinking it, so I didn’t mind. The staff was very friendly. There was wi-fi, but it wasn’t free, and this new service needed a lot of tweaking.

I found this campground by driving down the Transcanada highway and following the signs advertising a park offering full 30A hookups and wi-fi.

Then, I moved on to the Dyer Straits Campground and Cabins (great name!) in Whitecity, Saskatchewan.

I adored this campground. Even though it’s right on the Transcanada and just twelve kilometres from all the shops and services, it feels like you’re in a natural setting. It’s quiet and the owners are friendly and laid back. The water here had the same problem as that at Shady Oaks, but, otherwise, the services were good. Wi-fi isn’t available at all the sites, but the owners are okay with laptop owners coming up to their house after dinner and stretching out on their lawn chairs.

I knew that I wanted to stay in the Whitecity area and was looking at another campground found in my Saskatchewan Official Campgrounds Guide, but Dyer Straits was cheaper.

Next, I stayed at the Gordon Howe Campground in Saskatoon.

This campground is very well located. It feels private and rustic, but is close to downtown and several Saskatoon attractions. I found that there were a lot of rules and I was disappointed to learn that you can only dump during the week! That said, staff was friendly, laundry was cheap (and change for it was given with a smile), and the wi-fi was free (even though they had a service interruption most of the time I was there!). Water pressure at this park is very high, so you need a regulator. They warn you about this several times.

I had planned to stay at another campground right on highway 16 west of Saskatoon, but didn’t have specific directions to get there. So, upon arriving in Saskatoon, I followed little brown signs showing a trailer until I got to what looked like a dead end as I wound up at a sports arena parking lot. Just before deciding to cut my losses and try again to find the other park, I saw rigs off in the distance behind trees and realised that the road forked out to the left to the campground entrance. I’m glad things worked out this way as this campground was a much better choice for my purposes than would have been one several kilometres out of town.

Which brings me to here, the Rainbow Campground in Edmonton.

Meh. This campground was obviously my best choice for Edmonton, but it’s ludicrously expensive for 15A service with no water! And you have to pay 10.50$ per day for internet access! The gates close at 11PM sharp, so this isn’t the place to stay if you want to experience Edmonton’s nightlife. That said, it’s fairly conveniently located and fairly quiet. I’m right at the entrance and in front of the men’s washrooms, positioned here because I have a toad. They only allow one motorized vehicle per site, so I have to park my toad somewhere else. This is the only site where there is a ‘somewhere else’ close by: right across the way in front of the men’s washrooms. 🙂 I do find that getting here is a bit of a pain. My GPS is of absolutely no use and being ‘off Whitemud Drive’ is of only limited use. Depending on where you enter and exit Whitemud Drive, it runs north/south or east/west! So, I always have a hard time figuring out which direction to go to get home.

I found this campground in the Official Alberta Campgrounds guide, and decided on it with a bit of research done in Lloydminster on a limited internet connection.