Maple Lane #17
If I’d had to say one word about our trip to Cedar Beach, I’d have to say adventurous, but before you get too excited – not in a good way this time! The entire weekend from before we even left home on Friday was a chore! The weather looked like it wasn’t going to cooperate and again, for a quick moment or two, we kicked around going or not. Of course we ended up going but not without stupid issues which of course were our own fault. At least some of them.
Friday afternoon as usual, I got the fifth wheel hooked up and ready so that when Dave got home we’d be ready to roll. I’ve done it so many times, but I’d been called out to run an errand last minute and I guess my mind wasn’t on the process. I forgot to loosen the screws on the Strong Arms. An error showed up on the electronic auto leveler and it displayed a message to manually retract the jacks. I tried that until I heard a loud metal snap. At that moment I remembered to check the screws and found that they hadn’t yet been loosened. The were pretty tight, but I got them loose. The final front one broke when I loosened it. Of course I found out later after much grief and worry, that it is just the bolt that I sheared off and it’s replaceable. We would just have to get through the weekend without one strong arm.
One good thing – the rain held off until we were finally on the road. Of course we were delayed while Dave took the broken strong arm off, but that put us in a good place for Toronto traffic. Unfortunately with the shorter hours of daylight we were chasing the last hours of the day trying to make it to camp before dark. We’d never visited this park before and had no idea where our campsite was or even what it looked like. We tried calling the park office, but it was already closed. Both of us were so frustrated when we arrived well after dark. A Facebook friend has a seasonal site at Cedar Beach so we messaged her and she came to help us get in and drove Dave to the campsite to make sure we knew the roads and entry point.
At last we were in and parked. The auto level system seemed to work fine and we got set up quickly. Even our cat Joey was stressed. I suppose too long in the cat crate waiting for us to get parked and set up. Both of us were so stressed by this time, Dave more so. I think that’s what led to the next bad event – he moved the truck alone in the dark without me spotting and backed into a tree. Our new truck! Fortunately when we had a good look at it in daylight, the damage wasn’t too bad. We’ve already replaced the tail light and there’s just a small amount of body work to do but there’s also a bit of damage to the box. Needless to say, Friday night was a very subdued, quiet night at the campsite!
Saturday morning brought us all the rain that had been forecast and a much less eventful day! We walked around the campground and took some photos of it and the beach.
And some photos of Musselman Lake:
The best part of the weekend was meeting up with friends from our RVing in Canada Facebook group. We visited Daryl and Mike for coffee and talked about their full timing RV adventures. Then later Saturday, our other full time RVing friends Bryan and Trish visited us and stayed for dinner. We had a nice visit and talked about how great the full time RV life is and of course how anxious I am to get there! Dave still needs a little push lol! 😉
Here are some more photos of our campsite and Maple Lane.
The rain continued all day and night on Saturday but Sunday we awoke to clearing skies. I had to work a night shift, so we didn’t hang around too long. As was the way this weekend, it wasn’t quite so easy to get on the road! When I turned the auto level display on, the back light came on, but no font. We called Niagara Trailers and they walked us through taking the cover off and power cycling the box. That worked, but there was a error that cycled through – RR Jack and LF Jack which prevented us from running the reconnect sequence. We ended up having to manually retract all jacks to continue. I was sure that my broken strong arm incident was the cause of this since it had never happened before. The tech at Niagara assured me that it was the sensor and they were known for giving a false error that senses the back jacks are over extended. At worst, when the strong arm bolt broke, it might have jarred a sensor. Our friend Daryl came to say goodbye and brought the best banana bread I’ve ever tasted by for us! That eased the pain lol. 🙂
All in all, I think I’d rather have stayed home, but how were we to know that it would turn out that way? We did make some ground rules going forward. #1 No one backs up without a walk around and a spotter (especially after dark)! #2 We take our time when reconnecting or disconnecting the fifth wheel (especially when doing the procedure alone). It’s so easy to get distracted and be in a hurry, but that leads only to disaster! The good news is that the truck wasn’t near as bad as we thought and the strong arm only needs the bolt assembly which Niagara is working on locating.
So for a review of Cedar Beach! Maple Lane seems to be where the bigger rigs go, but be careful with the site you choose. #17 and smaller numbers seem ok but there are trees between sites. Also, watch the firepits, they can be in awkward locations! The pull thrus have no privacy between and #17 although full hookup had the sewer connection back at the road. We ended up backing up to the edge of the road and connected our two lengths of sewer hose to reach! Some of the pull thrus are 30 amp, some 50 amp. The park seems very clean but we didn’t use any washroom facilities. There are a lot of seasonal sites here and not so many overnight. We could tell the park was very well run and cared for. Musselman Lake is very small and could be kayaked very quickly. Not sure on the fishing as we didn’t even bring our kayaks due to the weather.
Here is a link to my Picasa Album:
And to Cedar Beaches Website:
Sue and Daves RV Adventures 