This stop was a cute little park in Peshtigo, WI, an hour north of Green Bay. From here to Badlands, we will probably be finding places right along the highway. It’s nice when the places are actual parks rather than RV parks, but we are not going to be picky about it. I’m sure there will be KOAs along the route too.
I think we’ve seen three Great Lakes on this trip: Huron, Superior, and now Michigan. We remain very impressed with the greatness. Standing at the top of Lake Michigan, we realized Chicago is also on the same body of water, a mere 289 miles away. That’s a really big lake.
We crossed into Wisconsin today and will soon be barreling west along highway 90. I hear tell there is a SPAM museum out there, so we’ll see if we can find gems like that on our way.
I’m experimenting now with insect repellant clothing, in lieu of putting up a bug shelter. An Altoiste recommended something called Permathrin, which we purchased about a year ago and didn’t use. I’m not sure if it will still be effective, but I figure it’s worth a shot. I treated a pair of pants and a shirt and I shall see if it seems to make any difference. We both hate wearing bug spray and Deet and all that, but this stuff has no apparent smell. Hoping that doesn’t correlate with no apparent effect.
We ended the day with a little visit to the river by the park and a walk in the woods behind the campground. There were little froggies hopping around and a couple of deer rushing off to some important deer task. Very peaceful. I wouldn’t say it was a destination campground, but it was a pleasant place to stop with clean bathrooms and a little woodsy oasis feel.
Total miles: 223.7, 16.2 mpg, 5 hours 16 min. Site 13. Clean bathrooms, showers, kids playground. River access with swimming beach. WiFi sort of; very slow but it’ll get you email. 4 bars LTE for Verizon, 2 bars LTE for ATT.
Well this was a nice travel day with a lovely finish. We left Fairbank today, bouncing along the very pothole filled 14 mile park road back to highway 17. Then we headed west and kept going until we arrived at Sault Ste. Marie. All the while, we carefully scanned the rainy countryside, looking for moose (a bit desperately, it must be said).
Sadly, there were no moose to be found. However, we did spot signs warning us to look out for horse drawn carriages. Those crazy Canadians! They’ll warn you about the most unlikely things! Oh wait. Actually, there were multiple horse drawn carriages on the road. But not the angry night moose we had also been warned about so many times. Oh well. We loved Ontario so much, we think it’s highly probable that we will return.
The Trans Canada Highway is every bit as green and beautiful as I imagined it might be. You can go for long stretches without seeing any towns, but not so long that it’s scary. Yes, there are the ubiquitous stretches of road construction from time to time, but I’ll give it to Canada over Indiana any day on how the detours and temporary surfaces are managed. Sorry Indiana, I’m still fairly bitter. And construction or not, the highway is bordered by wildflowers everywhere, and marshes and lakes and rivers. It really seems like moose country to me. Maybe I’ll photoshop some herds in.
We stopped at a little park in Sault Ste. Marie before crossing the border. You know you’re close to home when your phone starts hitting Verizon and ATT instead of Roberts and Bell. The crossing itself was uneventful with the exception of oranges. Citrus, tomatoes, and certain meats (lamb), were on the list of ‘don’t bring,’ so we ditched them. No drama.
We chose a state park campground really close to the border, because you just never know how long that might take. It turned out to be a lovely place right on the banks of Lake Superior, and we got a site at the water. Sweet. It was raining as we pulled in but we made quick work of unhitching so we could go enjoy the beach. I can’t quite believe this is really a lake. The vastness makes it impossible to see to the other side and there are full on sandy beaches, complete with seagulls (lakegulls?). There are waves and everything, though it’s not as cold. It’s got all the vibe of an ocean beach and we enjoyed sitting in our Nemo chair swings to watch an almost sunset over the almost ocean.
We continue westward, saying farewell to probably the last social encounters we’ll have on this trip. Fitting that it was to Trisha and Ralph because they are among our longest known Altoiste friends.
The drive along the Trans Canada Highway is nothing short of spectacular. There are vast fields of wildflowers running along the fields by the roadway. Every so often, you come around a bend and see bodies of water ranging from lily filled marshes, to huge expansive lakes. I’m telling you, from the perspective of a native Californian, the sheer amount of water in this area is just crazy. Forget oil pipelines, let’s talk H2O.
We did take a side trip to the famed and hallowed halls of Canadian Tire. There, we were able to fill our propane tank, purchase a torque wrench, and reject a whole host of screen shelters. I’ll be honest, I’m having an awning/screen room crisis. I have been for four years though actually, so it’s nothing new. I am still in search of the perfect combination of things that will create shade when it’s hot, shelter when it’s raining, and bug protection when it’s buggy. But it can’t be a pain to put up or take down. Or fall down when it’s windy. Or…. get wet. … or block the view out the windows… or be huge to haul. I think I may have to ultimately admit that I’m looking for competing features and can’t actually achieve this awning nirvana. I am moving closer and closer to developing a line of huge sombreros with bug netting hanging off them. They’ll be really nice though. Probably blue.
The road out to the park was ok until it disappeared and became gravel. Actually, that’s a lie, there were patches where the potholes were pretty serious, making the gravel sections nice in comparison. It was worth the effort though, as this park feels genuinely naturey, and yet, has electric hookups. I will say though that the power pole is pretty far away. This is now the second time we would have used a 50′ extension cable if we’d had one. Still waiting to use the 50 amp to 30 amp converter, portable grey water tank, or cute blue plastic cup I got to hold margaritas.
The second Provincial Park was just as nice as the first, so now we have a pretty skewed perception that all camping in Ontario is superlative. We keep reminding ourselves that they have winters here that would kill us.
Richard then biked down highway 630, which takes you into the very upper tip of Algonquin National Park from the north. I got to drive it, which was beautiful and nicely shielded from the copious flies. I spent almost all of my mental driving capacity looking for moose. No luck.
Algonquin is primarily a wilderness park. There was a primitive campground at a place called “Kiosk” (no seriously, that’s its name), but from there, you are on your own in nature for acres and acres. The place itself if aptly named and is really just a park office with souvenirs for sale. Once we checked out the lake boundary a little, we put Richard’s bike in the car and headed back to camp.
There we found our friends Patricia and Ralph, who were on the last night of their two month Alto adventure themselves. On their suggestion, we drove into the town of Mattawa for dinner at “Myrt’s.” That was a good county style place and we got to catch up with them on their travels since the Ridgway Altogather.
I snuck in a final paddle at sunset before heading to bed. There are some fires in the area, which has the upside of making the skies pretty at sunset. Tomorrow should be rainy, and that will be a welcome sight for the whole area. An unexpected sight for me was a small face looking straight at me out of the water when I went to rinse off my shoes. I froze completely, scanning my brain for possibilities of what that face might be attached to, but it turned out to be a large turtle, perhaps a snapping turtle. That sign at the park entrance with a big turtle shape on it no longer seemed so silly.
Our first visit to an Ontario Provincial Park led to a realization. From the first moment we’d placed an order on our Alto, I began slowly honing a mental image of what I thought it would look like to one day go Alto camping. Perhaps the most influential source of information I had to go on was the blog Routealto80.blogspot.ca, by Jim Gauvreau.
I spent hours reading his words and looking at his beautiful pictures. After we’d gotten Dory home and began exploring our neck of the woods for that elusive, picture perfect spot, I noticed that we had yet to find a perfect match. Don’t get me wrong, I love California State Parks and I’ve loved discovering all the richness and diversity I never knew existed within a 150-200 mile radius of my home. But when we stayed at this particular campsite, right on the water, something in my head went, “Yeah, this. This is the picture.”
It may well be that this picture was in fact exactly the same spot I’d etched into the back of my brain. It all clicked, the lush forest made up of a variety of deciduous and coniferous trees, the varied shades of endless green plant life filling the banks of the slow moving river, right down to the deep blue of the water. This was it and we were here. I blissed out and launched my kayak right from a small beach at the campsite, the very first launch since we left home over a month ago.
Richard hopped in the cool water too, and even hitched a ride out to a little island. Note to self: bring the floatie next time. What could make this better? A sunset. Ok, now it just gets a little excessive in terms of camping joy. It was a great day. Kudos to Richard for thinking to capture sunset pictures of me on the lake.
Our westward return trip launch got a perfect final sendoff. We were able to extend the post rally groove by hooking up with Cynthia and Gail, our Aussie Alto buds, at the Montreal KOA.
Following the Grand Rassemblement, we spent three nights in a private campground just a couple of miles from the factory. There we got to regroup with a couple of other Altoistes and do mundane things like shopping and laundry. This was a nice campground for the sites next to the river, which we happened to get. There are nice facilities there and even a couple of waterfalls along the river.
After almost two weeks in Quebec, I found a few more vocabulary words had gotten retrieved from my high school French. I couldn’t for the life of me explain that I needed “Loonies” for laundry when I went to the grocery store. But another guy in line helped me out and I caught the word “monnaie” (not that I could have spelled it). Later, at the campground I was able to use the new magic word, resulting in a nod and a “way way” (Oui, oui) from the campground host. Foreign languages are fun!
We decided to get another keder rail installed on Dory’s port side so that we can mount an awning for shade purposes when it’s really hot. We also got a port side light to assist with after dark set ups. Richard’s hands down favorite improvement is that Frederic was able to instantly diagnose and fix a rattle from the 12v fridge compressor. It is now super silent. I think I’m most happy with the fact that the backup camera now seems to work! Frederic replaced the whole system and it is connecting and working perfectly so far. I’ve already used it to back into sites and I’m very happy. Other than that, it was all about bearings, and gaskets, and seals, oh my. And we did get a laugh or two out of Frederic, plus some hugs with Michelle Nadeau – that was probably worth the whole trip right there.
I’ve tried to sit down and write this post several times now, but I end up just staring at the screen not knowing where to start. So I can either give this a shot, or sum up and say the past four days were “awesome” and “way too much fun.” You know when some event, or trip, or life experience far exceeds your wildest expectations and it becomes hard to describe? Yeah, that.
But ok, here goes. Following the pre-fun at the pre rally rally, we organized ourselves into a parade of Altos in order to make our way to the Grand Rassemblement (the official Safari Condo 20th anniversary rally). 
Jim Gauvreau (routealto80.blogspot.ca) gave us a meet up location in some residential neighborhood in Ste. Marie and all we had to do was not lose him until we got there. Our small parade of 3 Altos first had to get through the hurdle of the bottleneck at the dump station. After that, it was clear sailing and a 30 mile or so drive.
The “pink shirts” did all the parking, even for the units that had Caravan Movers, and they were pretty fast. They did note that Dory was unusually heavy (I believe she lost some weight during the weekend, due to generally constant wine consumption). The location was in a huge parking lot for an upscale private school of some kind. There were large indoor sports facilities, skating rinks, showers, rest rooms, and an auditorium, all located in buildings surrounding the parking area. 
We heard there were around 150 Altos there, plus 200 Safari Condo vans, for a total of about 700 people. We were parked across from our Altoiste buddies Malcolm and Tanya, which was a total hoot and a definite highlight of the event.
After we’d all gotten settled, Safari Condo treated us to a beer tasting event in the big auditorium. As we sipped, they opened the celebration with an overview of the itinerary, some video clips of people thanking Daniel Nadeau, and a little history of how they got started. Meanwhile, beer was happening. 
Then it was time to light up the parking lot with decorations! Lots of people hung flags on their rigs and thanks to our other California friend, we got to represent our state in style. What we don’t have is a fancy name plaque. I can see that if we’re going to continue this rally lifestyle, we’ll need to up our game.
We were just a day or two behind them through Zion, Arches, and Canyonlands, so we’d been posting pictures of the same spots all summer. We had a little lunch with friends, did a little shopping, and got to hang with our down under buddies, Cynthia and Gail. You know you’re having too much fun when someone spits beer out of their nose.
In the evening, I found the whiskey party! I have never been a fan of hard liquor, but oh dear this stuff was good. Except the one that tasted like cigarette ashes, that was gross. You really can’t beat hearing the process of making Scotch Whiskey explained by someone with a gorgeous Scottish accent. Luckily, the stuff is pretty expensive so I don’t think I’m in danger of making it a habit. I’ll need to work on getting myself invited to whiskey parties from now on. 
Friday night was all about seeing a “Beatles” band. Richard lasted maybe three songs, but it was way too loud for him. I had a blast and joined in on the singing and dancing along with everyone else. I have never seen a “Beatles” band before and I have to say, I would pay really good money to see a rockumentary about this one, ala “Spinal Tap.” It would just have to be amazing.
Saturday opened with rain. So we had a laid back morning and took a trip out to Levis where we grabbed lunch in a cute little deli and sampled chocolate (and obtained gifts) at Chocolats Favorits. I should mention here that being in Quebec is not much different than being in France. Everything is in French and, unless you’re in the big cities, the people have limited English. They are very patient with us and seem to appreciate even lame attempts at recalling high school French. They can also tell pretty quickly (by our facial expressions I’m guessing) we are not natives, so they switch to English quickly if they know it.
Saturday night was dinner on Safari Condo. We got to be silly with snail based table decorations and listened to speakers (mostly in French) talk about how the company has grown over time. They are now producing close to their 1500th Alto, and with four models to choose from, the wait time from order to delivery date is still over a year. They are showing no signs of slowing down!
Some continued on to the factory for an open house and a blessing ceremony. We kind of cheated by staying at a private place very near to the factory with three other Altos, rather than overnighting in the factory parking lot. This way we could dump tanks and run the AC to our hearts content. Then we drove/biked back to the factory for the open house factory tour, speeches, balloon release, and duck race raffle (that, sadly, turned out not to be real ducks). The sun set on a camp chair circle of good friends, the last remnants of the pre rally rally, as we chatted and laughed until it was time for bed. Perfect way to round out a perfect long weekend.
We left Lake Champlain on the early side because it turned out the Safari Condo private factory tour we’d signed up for was scheduled at 2pm on that day. Somehow, we missed that. We really weren’t holding out much hope we’d make it because it would be very tight and we had no idea what to expect at the border.
Our plan was full disclosure and to be prepared to part with bear spray, fruit, or a couple bottles of wine if need be. The crossing turned out to be a non-issue, aside from getting through the road construction. We were asked about why we had bear spray, but as soon as we said “Glacier,” that seemed sufficient explanation.
From there, Google took us off the main roads and into some more direct, but very bumpy, country roads. Here, we were able to make up a lot of time, but that was only because I was holding on for dear life as we careened over the hills and bumps, Dory bouncing behind us like a water skier on a choppy lake. But we just kept driving, hoping we’d arrive at the factory in enough large pieces that they’d be able to put her back together.
At 2:10 we arrived at the Safari Condo factory, Dory’s birthplace, just a little frazzled, but excited to be there. We greeted Dominique Nadeau, the CEO of Safari Condo and daughter of Daniel Nadeau, inventor of our beloved Alto. It was wonderful to see my fellow Altoiste admin, Leslie, as well as our California buddy Linda, who was picking up her new larger Alto the next day.
Dominique took us to factories “Alto 1” and “Alto 2,” the latter having been recently built to accommodate production of their new model 2114 trailer. She is an excellent tour guide and walked us through every step of the manufacturing process in both factories. You know how they say you should never watch how sausage is made? The opposite it true here. 
Seeing how much care and attention goes into every single Alto only made us more confident in the company. Daniel Nadeau is some kind of crazy genius who has been able to anticipate and design around potential problems before they occur. His design of the Alto is like a work of art and watching the employees install each piece by hand gives you this sense of pride that I can’t match with any other experience.
After the tour, we both realized we were starving so we grabbed a quick lunch inside Dory before heading to our campground. Camping La Jolie Rochelle, was discovered by Routealto80 blogger, Jim Gauvreau, as an ideal location for a sort of “pre-rally rally.” Many Altoistes who were coming for the big 20th anniversary event arranged to meet up ahead of time for a couple of days.
This place would be an “11” if only it had better service or campground wifi. Richard still needs to work while we’re here and he’s finding connectivity to be something of a challenge. This slight drawback is well offset by the company and views. Holy moly, this place is perfection. Somehow we were all able to snag riverfront sites together. It makes for a spectacular photo and is a ton of fun. My favorite people are here and we get to do the touristy thing and hang out together before the big event. We’re pretty blissed up.
On the list of awesomeness was a trip into Old Quebec City with three gorgeous women. Richard sadly had to work, but he did get in a bike ride at the end of the day. We took the ferry into town and spent the day wandering the streets and eating poutine, like ya do.
That night, we ventured back into Quebec City to have dinner with one of the celebrity sales people from Safari Condo. He brought us to his friend’s restaurant, Restaurant La Gueule de Bois. The food was absolutely outstanding, with some exquisite French cuisine dishes, as well as some very unusual creations. That was a lovely evening. Past my bedtime because I’m a late night wimp now, but well worth it.
As much as the previous day was a challenge, this day was an absolute pleasure. We took the scenic route (fully researched and agreed upon ahead of time) through the central part of the Adirondacks and toward the point on Highway 89 that was as close as we could get without crossing the border.
This is such a wonderful area. The roads were almost entirely smooth and recently paved, so the driving was easy. There are a few little tiny towns scattered around, but mostly this is a forest road that takes you along endless rivers and sparkling lakes.
We briefly debated whether to use the Caravan Mover, but with a site like this, you have to take full advantage of the view. We spun Dory and enjoyed dinner and the sunset while gazing out at Lake Champlain. The lake is so big, it’s hard to believe it is not the ocean. There are even little seashells on the beach. The water is warm and we loved letting our feet sink into the sand at the edge of the water. It was a 12 on a scale of 1-10.
