First, you can see my full review of the park here.
This was a last minute booking. There wasn’t a spot free at any provincial park for like a month previous to this weekend. I decided that I wanted one, bad, so I used a refresher extension for Google Chrome, and kept refreshing the OntarioParks webpage until one came available. I then immediately booked it. Site 306 at Rondeau park was the one site available.
We decided to go here for a couple reasons. First was because it was near a beach, and felt we needed some beach time. Second, we havn’t been here before, and we want to try to get to every provincial park in the area.
We left London at 5pm Friday, and after some brief stops, we arrived at the park. We new the site wasn’t going to be amazing, but in this circumstance, we couldn’t be choosey. We got a site close to the beach, but it had a paved road directly behind it, and a pedestrian beach trail directly beside us. But we decided to ignore that, and enjoy our weekend.
The weather was awesome! Every day was 30 degrees, so we spent 3 full days on the beach. It was great to sit, read a magazine, and venture into the water ever 10 minutes. Afterwards, we would come back to the site, and relax some more, then cook supper, and prepare our campfire.
We we survived the first camping trip of 2011! A couple weeks ago, I pulled the camping trailer out of the corner of my yard, and popped it up to make sure everything was dry inside, and there was no animals living in the trailer. To my surprise, since we had SO much snow, the trailer was completely dry inside, and everything seemed to be in working order. Tessa and I popped up the roof, and folded out the beds, and made sure it was stocked of all our camping necessities, and of course it was. The only problem we had was with the propane fridge. I think the burner tube was a little dirty, as the flame was backfiring through the breather tube. But after a nice clean-up, it was good to go! That was about all the maintenance we did on the trailer before taking it out.
We left Friday right after work, and had a beautiful drive up to The Pinery. The weather the first day was great, with about 5 minutes of light rain. We got everything setup in record time, then enjoyed our night. We had a couple nice bike rides, and a great campfire, then off to bed.
The next day, and the following, were absolutely beautiful! 15 degrees, and not a cloud in the sky. After a huge breakfast, we went to Grand Bend, and took a walk on the beach. After that, JP left to go home, and Tessa had the campsite to ourselves. We went for a nice walk, then started the campfire, and supper, and relaxed the night away.
It was a great trip, and went off without a hitch!
We decided on Turkey Point because all the other parks were filled, and there was 1 spot left at TPPP. I think the reason why it was left was because the description says “Poison Ivey around site”, and they weren’t kidding! There was poison ivy everywhere!
It was a good overall weekend! Weather was decent. A few friends came up for a night and we sat around the fire and chilled. The weather was good enough for the beach the second day as well. Everything went off without a hitch! Here are some pics
Just got back from Long Point Provincial Park! Again.. the weather was BEAUTIFUL! There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, ither of the days we were there. We got there Friday afternoon, and stayed till Monday. The spot we chose was the closest spot to the beach. There wasn’t alot of privacy, as there was a bathroom across the road, and a playground, but the tent trailer covered most of that view. The beach was about 20 feet away from our campsite, and we had our own path, and our own spot to sit on the beach. I will do a full review of Long Point, with more pictures and stuff later on.
Most of the days consisted of sitting on the beach, or lounging in the boats, or chatting in the shade up at the campsite (as it was HOT!). We played some bocce ball, some badminton, and even volley ball. The beach goes on for MILES! We went for some nice long walks, and even bike rides. We had sand EVERYWHERE afterwards, but completely worth it. I also really enjoyed setting up the chairs on the edge of our campsite, facing the beach, and reading! Awesome!
Tessa and I went out for a bike ride, and brought Percy. We didn’t even think of the ticks for some reason. We went into a long grass trail, and I looked down and noticed my legs had about 3-4 ticks on them. I immediately left, and inspected Percy. He had close to 25 ticks on his body, and took us 2 hours to pull out. I hope we got them all!
We also had the blow-up boats with us, and really enjoyed lounging on them on the lake. I could sit out there for hours! Here are some pics
I must first say that the weather was AWESOME! Every single day was very warm (30 degrees), and not a cloud in the sky. We went on Canada Day, and took Friday and Monday off as well. We got there around 9am Thursday, and they let us right on the site. Setting up was a breeze, and once that was done, we sat down and enjoyed the site. We had our own private walk-way down to the beach, where we could sit and enjoy the water. We headed back into town for a couple of the days and enjoyed some of the Canada day festivities in Goderich. The other days we sat down at the beach, and enjoyed the sun, and water. Incredible weekend!
This is the second time we’ve used the trailer. We decided to head to my uncles cottage, and spend the long weekend there.
We left London around 2:45pm, and got to the cottage around 7. We setup the trailer on the top of the hill, before going down to the cottage parking lot. The bugs weren’t bad, and the screen room kept them out pretty good. The weather for this weekend was awesome! We didn’t get any rain, and it was sunny every day!
The first day, we hung out at the cottage dock, and went into Severn Falls for some penny candy, and a walk on the docks. Sunday, we headed to the big chute, and walked on the rocks there, and even found another cool spot to hike, which lead to a nice lake. And for Monday, we packed up around 3pm, and headed back to the cool lake and spent the afternoon there. We left around 5pm, and headed home.
The weekend was awesome! The trailer worked great! We are headed back up to that area in a couple weeks!
I’ve been meaning to take the car to a road race track for a long time now. I think there were a couple things holding me back. 1) I keep my car in REALLY good shape. It’s always spotless, and hate rock dings, etc, etc. Obviously taking it to the track could increase the chance of an accident, or more rock chips. 2) I don’t want to break anything. I don’t drive my car hard very often, and again, taking it to the track increases the wear on the engine, suspension, brakes, and drive-train in general. 3) Didn’t want to spend the money.
However, the car was meant to be driven, so I broke down and decided to take it to TMP on a Wednesday night for a evening session. It was only $60, and the track was open from 5pm – dusk. Here’s how it went down!
I got off work, picked up my car, and father, and started the drive to TMP. I wanted to get there early, just so we could check out the grounds, and I just didn’t want to be rushed. I wanted lots of time to go over the car to make sure everything was safe, and learn the rules, and see other cars go around the track before trying it. We got there at around 3:15, and other people started to arrive around 4:30.
My dad and I started talking to another father and son group, with a BMW 135i, and a Honda S2000 on race tires. Finally at 5pm, no car inspection, no drivers meeting, they let us on the track. First was the S2000, then the 135i, then me. We did a couple of warm-up laps, and since the first 2 drivers have been there before, I got to see the line they were taking, and tried to learn their braking habbits. Here’s a video of me following the BMW, which was following the S2000. Videos aren’t great.
After 2-3 laps, the BMW and S2000 got faster and faster and I decided to do a couple warm-down laps of slower driving, then after that, I picked it up again and did some fast laps. The problem was, now I had no one in front of me, and had NO idea where to brake. My first solo corner, after a 160km/h straight, was pretty harry, LOL. I started braking at a red pylon I thought was the signal to start braking, but it was WAY to late, and had to turn while braking, and almost got sideways. The car recovered very well, and I kept going, trying to learn how to race this thing. I timed myself and did a 1min40sec laptop which is HORRIBLE. I did a couple “fast” laps, and then 1-2 cool-down laps, then pulled off the track.
I talked to the guy in the BMW, to try and get some tips. He then told me that the red pylon was the turn-in marker, and your supposed to have ALL your braking done at the cone. (LOL, wish I knew that the first lap!). He also said that you need to have all your braking done, before turning in. If you are doing any braking, while turning, it will disrupt the car. Which is exactly what happened my first “solo” corner.
After a 20-30 minute brake, I headed back out. I was really getting the hand of this cone thing, and braking before turning thing. I was also learning how far you can push the car through the turns, way more then you thought you could. I was also noticing that my traction control really slow my corner exit speed down, by cutting the engine power so I wouldn’t spin. I was worried that turning it off, would make the car less stable on corner entry, because the stability control wouldn’t kick in. I did a few more laps, and managed a 1min32sec lap. Which wasn’t great ither. I did some cool-down laps and took a break.
The next session I decided to turn off the traction control. WOW! What a difference. The car had SO much more corner exit speed, and it didn’t really effect corner entry at all. I found that now “I” was the traction control, and the car felt WAY more responsive. This is now a new machine! I was racing in-front of a brand new Audi RS4 for about 3-4 HARD laps. He started off about 5-6 car lengths behind be, and after 3-4 laps, he was still 5-6 car lengths behind me. He couldn’t gain on me at all. Here’s 2 videos of the last corner, in front of the RS4
I also had some fun lapping behind, and in front of the BMW 135i, 240sx, and the S2000. The S2000 was the quickest, running 1min25sec laptimes. The BMW and 240sx were on race tires, and even with me being on street tires, I was faster then them. Another cool thing was to be going down the front straight at 130km/h, full throttle, and seeing a Audi R8 V10 go FLYING by! What a sweet car! I did another 5-6 laps this night, and timed myself once doing a `1min28sec lap, which is pretty good I think. (being on street tires). One other thing I learn that was a necessity, is Heel-and-toe shifting. You CANNOT go around this course fast, and no be perfect at Heel-and-Toe. If your going down a straight, in 3rd gear, full throttle, and come up to a second gear corner, you have to brake, shift down, and blip the throttle at the same time. If you don’t match the second gear RPM, as your previous third gear, your tires will lockup, and you’ll go sideways. It happened to me once, with the 240sx behind me!
Here are a couple more videos. Again, the video quality isn’t great, but it’ll have to do.
Conclusion:
What a day! I loved it! I want to go back real bad, but still have some reserves on the wear on my car. Maybe once or twice more this year! I learnt that braking in a corner, will make the car uneasy, and that braking before turning in, is crucial. I think I also perfected my Heel-and-Toe technique! And most important, I got to feel the limits of my car. I think that’s important!
Since buying the tent trailer in November of last year, I’ve been ITCHING to use it. The weather was looking up this past weekend, so on a whim, we booked a site at the Riverside campground at the Pinery. We really lucked out with this site, it was RIGHT by the river, and very large and private! The weather for Friday was awesome! So good that we felt the need for a swim in the river behind the campsite. Saturday morning was a little rainy, but by the afternoon, it was warm and sunny again.
Overall, the weekend was awesome! Can’t wait to go again!
I got some skates for Christmas, and havn’t gone skating in a long time. Thought it would be nice to go for a skate on a Saturday evening. We went to Story Book Gardens. It was $7 for 2 people, and Tess rented a pair of skates for $5.
It’s a trail that goes through the park, and ends up being a loop. So you do laps throughout the park. The ice was good, and the trail even went by the seal park, where you could see seals swimming in the water. Lots of fun!
I wasn’t planning on buying these tickets, but after having such a great night going to see Jann Arden at the JLC, thought we’d duplicate that with JM.
We bussed downtown, and went for dinner, and during dinner we I realized that I forgot the tickets at home. So we had to bus all the way home again, and back downtown. We made it with 10 minutes to spare.
We had floor seats (at the very back, section 9), and we then kinda wished we bought seats in the rised section, because we realized this would prove to be difficult to see. We had 8 seats beside us that were completely empty, so we occupied those as they gave us way better view of the stage. Spearhead opened, and JM came on an hour or so later. We were excited with our new seats, but just as John entered the stage, 8 drunk 19 year old screaming girls came piling in, and we had to move back to our crappy seats. I won’t get into this much, as it was frustration, as they wouldn’t shut up the whole concert. Half of them left half way through to go sit at the bar.
The concert was great! He played some of his new songs, and some of his old songs. Throughout the concert, I had been itching to walk to the front, and take some decent pictures. So during his encore, I walked up to the very front and listened to 3-4 songs. So much better up here, and wish I went up earlier. Oh well. Here’s some pics!
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