Canada Day 2011 at Butterpot Provincial Park

Campsite #106, our home for the weekend. All dressed up for Canada Day.

Kaitlyn and Morgan spend some time at one of the parks playgrounds.

Kaitlyn participates in the Butterpot Park Canada Day Bicycle Rodeo.

Alexis swings by for a visit

What could be more Canadian than paddling a canoe on Canada Day weekend?

How about visiting the home of a Canadian Beaver while canoeing on Canada Day weekend?

Gravel Pit Camping

We went gravel pit camping on June 10th-June 12th. Like other weekends we had rain. We did have a great time with my friend Lisa and her family. Richard, Keshia and their puppy Watson came for a BBQ and a campfire. We also went for a drive to Bay Roberts to purchase a couple of things we needed.

Alexis, Morgan and Kaitlyn with giant marshmellows May 24th, 2011

Alexis, Kaitlyn and Morgan had a lot of fun at our campfire. Morgan likes roasting the marshmellows but she does not like eating them fired (as she calls it)

Mostly Cold and Wet

Well the first camping trip of 2011 was enjoyable despite the poor weather and the Pop-up problems. We did manage to get the propane problems repaired before heading to the campground and thankfully so as the temps dropped to 1 or 2 Celsius at night. The new problem reared it's ugly head on Saturday morning. The rain started very early that morning while it was still dark. We stayed in bed later than usual hoping the rain would stop. When we did make our way out of bed we found that our Pop-up had sprung a leak and our dinette seat cushion was very wet. The leak was from a missing screw during the installation of the replacement canvas at the end of last season. I made some temporary repairs (from my "Red Green" training) and we spent the next few hours drying out the cushions. The rest of the day my wife and granddaughter spent inside making crafts while I snapped a few photos and caught up on some work (yes I brought my laptop camping).

Sunday was a better day still cold but no rain. Our son, his girlfriend and their dog, and our daughter with her husband and our other 2 granddaughters and their 2 dogs all dropped by for a visit. We barbecued a scoff, put in a campfire and enjoyed a few refreshments.

Then Monday we woke to clear blue skies sunshine and even slightly warmer temps. Of course this is the last day and we spend much of it packing up to go home. I leave you with this photo of our campsite taken Monday morning just before we started packing up.

Preparing for the camping season.

Friday the 20th of May if fast approaching and there is much to do. I spent the past weekend getting a good start on de-winterizing and repairing the pop-up.

Yes I said repairing! The propane system was giving us trouble on our last trip of 2010. We suspected a regulator issue and I replaced it but it is still not working properly. The so called experts at the dealer suspect a collapsed hose between the tank and the regulator. We purchased a replacement hose and I will install tonight. (Crossing my fingers)

The Battery was reinstalled and charged and all seems to be working fine. The water system was drained of antifreeze and sanitized. The new canvas is looking good. The interior has been thoroughly cleaned and the broken spring/door closer has been replaced by a custom bungee configuration that may require a little more adjustment to get the ideal tension.

I haven't started the mod's I had planned for his spring so they will have to wait till after the long weekend camping trip.

Much of the camping gear has been hauled out of storage and we just need to go through it before we pack it all away in the pop-up. We are excited to be back in camping mode and look forward to a great season. Also we will celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary while on our first camping trip this year.  

Dan

Winter is nearing an end.

With the weather showing signs that spring is near Sandy and I decided to do a little sightseeing yesterday. We visited a location called "Mad Rocks" in the community of Bay Roberts, NL. It is situated at one end of the Bay Roberts Heritage Hiking Trail. We did the hike in the summer of 2009 and the scene at Mad Rocks was quite different with the surf pounding the rocks. This day we drove to the site and found a much calmer sea.

A surprisingly calm day at Mad Rocks.

Our temperatures are still only single digits above freezing but I'm already looking forward to the camping season.