Although the weather definitely wasn’t the greatest this past weekend, we had one of the best times camping at Valens yet! I arrived alone on Friday to a wet, foggy park with temperatures hovering around 2C (plus a windchill). It didn’t take long for our fiver to warm up, nor for me to unload the truck and unpack all the weekend supplies. I’ve got a pretty good routine going! The things we need are packed in blue plastic totes with our clothes and any clean laundry to return in our large laundry baskets. I use cloth tote bags for drinks and pick up groceries on the way to Valens. Once there, the hydro gets plugged in, battery shut off turned on, slides out and finally furnace, fireplace and fridge powered on. About 30 minutes and everything is inside ready to be unpacked!
Since I arrive around 10am on the Friday, I end up with a good portion of the day to amuse myself at my favorite place once the work is done! Amusing myself at Valens usually isn’t difficult. I never tire of hiking the trails nor the beautiful scenery. I could walk for hours at the park and have done so before! That is exactly what I did on Friday after my last chore of feeding the bird feeders was done. Here are some of my favorite shots of that hike. 🙂
As Friday progressed, the weather got worse and by the time I finished my hike the fog and drizzle had moved in. I had to drive back home to pick up our youngest daughter from work and bring her back to Valens for the weekend. The fog made for quite the drive home! We waited for Dave to finish work as well then headed back to camp. By the time we got back to the park, it was almost dark and raining pretty hard. In fact, on the drive back to the park we noticed lots of lightening! Our first thunder storm of 2017! The rain and storms continued throughout the night.
We awoke Saturday morning to overcast skies but no rain. After a wonderful camping breakfast of bacon and eggs, we headed into Waterloo to see our oldest daughter and son in law for a visit. They live only 30 minutes away from Valens – what an awesome bonus!
The day looked like it was clearing out, so once back at camp, Katey and I enjoyed another hike while Dave built us a raging campfire. That was a good thing as the weather brought some snow flurries with the colder wind! We were grateful for the warm up after our hike. Here are some photos of that wintry hike!
As promised, upon our return the fire was blazing! We had a great time relaxing while waiting for Nikki and David to arrive for dinner. Another camping friend of ours – Mary, stopped by to visit as well. She’s in the winter program at Valens too!
I brought my roaster along this time and we cooked a couple chickens. I’m really impressed with how this appliance cooks! The kids arrived for dinner so we left the campfire for the warmth of the fiver and enjoyed some time visiting.
It was such an awesome weekend spent with our kids! Not very often do we have everyone together anymore with Nikki & David living in Waterloo and Katey’s work hours. All of our kids moved out awhile ago and we usually see them at separate times other than events like birthdays or Christmas, so this was such a treat!
As for our ongoing fresh water issues – the part Niagara Trailers gave us to swap out – the valve did not solve our issues. We still have a pump that turns on, makes noise but pumps nothing, not even pink on the winterize setting. Next up according to Niagara is the pump itself, which they are willing to give us if we’re willing to try swapping it on our own. Also, our new fireplace came in to replace our old, noisy one. I swapped it out on Friday but, it also started making the same noise although not as bad. Maybe it’s the manufacturer of the fireplace and it’s common with those models. I’m not sure, but if it gets as bad as our old one, I’ll be calling warranty again. It looks like our next weekend at Valens in March we’ll be swapping out the water pump.
March will be an awesome month of camping! We will be at Valens three weekends out of four with one of those weekends being part of my holidays. I’ll be arriving mid week and staying until Sunday. Dave will commute those few days until Friday when I’ll drive home and pick him up so we only have one vehicle at the park over the weekend. I can’t wait! I’ve been so busy at work and I really need this wind down time surrounded by nature!
Sue and Daves RV Adventures 