Ah, this was a good day. Woke up a bit later than usual, and I can attest that the blackout blinds in the Alto are really good. I opened one and was almost blinded by sunlight! All that sunshine was good for the solar panels. After a night of running the heater at 55F and the iPhone white noise program (helps mask the sounds tinnitus makes), the battery meter stood at 12.6, after starting at 12.9 the previous evening. Sweet! And the solar just works, I don’t have to remember to turn it on, so I love that part.
Breakfast (bacon, eggs, and toast all fried in the same big frying pan on the propane stove, very efficient!) and shower, then time to pack up.
Grabbed checklist, followed it rigorously, even when the “let’s go!” part of my brain said I could just remember to put that tool back later. Uh-uh, not yet, brain. Let’s get these patterns dug in deep before we start improvising on the theme of packing up camp. And about 2 minutes out of the campground, I remembered one more than I did not have the checklist, the chains. Argh, I had hooked them out of the way because I was using the caravan mover and didn’t want to run over them. A quick stop and they were done, and the checklist updated.
Then it was on to the drive, an amazing amount of ups and downs and I had to give up on cruise control despite not having any traffic because it turns out it’s not very efficient and pushing up hills and then gliding down the other side. I was getting about 15 mpg with cruise control, and when I drove without it, the mileage rose back up to 16 or so.
I did remember to stop for lunch and picked a pretty decent place for my peanut butter sandwich, courtesy of my own kitchen.
A significant portion of the midday drive was through Algonquin Provincial Park, and it was full of lakes and I was honestly jealous of every single kayaker I saw. This place is now on my bucket list to come back to and spend time (hopefully with kayak) eventually. So many places on that list now!
Made it to the Parry Sound KOA, where the wifi was once again out at my site, but the owner promised it would be up by end of day, and about 4PM, she drove by in her golf cart, calling out that KOA3 worked now. And so it does! Probably the best decision of the pre-trip preparations was to get that T-Mobile hotspot with the 6gb plan. It works in Canada, does ATT phone calls over wifi-assist, and back in the US, where bandwidth is better, I can stream many video services without having it go against my data plan. But mostly I’m happy I have it right now, since online access has been spotty this week.
Today’s quotation
Today’s Stats
- Miles Driven: 195 (513 overall)
- MPG: 16.3 (16.2 overall)
- Side trips: None
- States/Provinces: Ontario (it’s big)
Thank you Annie – I will look at your DV post. C
Hi, Claude, thanks for reading and leaving a comment, I appreciate every reader of my little blog!
For the Subaru on grades, check out the recent post on driving into Death Valley, it has some information on grades and how the car did. Short answer: I’m happy with it, and it did fine for me.
Hey Annie – I really enjoy these posts from your early days on the road. I’m in the waiting stage for my Alto. It looks like your Subie does well with it, though I’d appreciate any insights on its capabilities esp out west with the steep n long gradients. Enjoy the road n be safe!
I went and looked at a map, wow, how did I know so little about my country’s northern neighbor?!
Great blog Annie. And yes, Ontario is bloody huge especially east to west (10% bigger than Alaska in area which is itself twice the size of Texas). People don’t really get it until they have to drive across it…
Great blog Annie. Algonquin Park is gorgeous and there are so many different ways to experience it. Campgrounds are beautiful (if you go back check the dates vs. the bugs though as black flies can be in plague proportion and ruin a good outing)….you can also leave Breeze and take a swag, your kayak and your food and go into the park on foot/kayak and camp in the wild. It is a truly awesome place and is the stuff that makes for core memories to take pleasure in for years to come.