Paused

Now, I don’t want to tell you “I told you so!”  but “I told you so! …Bob.”

On our way up the East coast I had noticed that our right front tire was wearing quite badly on the outside edge, while all the other tires appeared to be wearing normally (I predicted a bent axle, Bob said no). This got especially noticeable since New York, but we needed to get across the border, so we left it until we could actually be somewhere long enough to take care of it.  And then procrastination set in…

We didn't call anyone during our few days in Niagara Falls, and no calls were made during our week in Hamilton (Bob asked me why I didn't call anyone - I wasn't even there for half the week! I was in Alberta, for yet another orthodontic appointment – and to see my family – and get one more blast of winter (family good, snow bad!)).

Finally, as we were leaving Hamilton, I convinced Bob to pull into an RV dealership to have them look at our tires. The dealer indicated that it was likely (can you guess?) a bent axle!  But he wouldn't be able to get one in for at least three weeks, so we continued with our plan to move an hour and a bit up the road to Glen Rouge Campground on the east side of Toronto. We would (hopefully) have better luck near the large commercial and industrial center that is the GTA. (Plus more activities to keep us busy if we were to be stuck here for a while). Now is not an ideal time to be trying to get work done on the RV as spring has arrived and all the seasonal trailers are coming out of hibernation, needing the usual spring maintenance. But, after calling around, we did find a trailer (not RV) place that could take a look at our home.

And what they found was worse than we originally thought. Both axles are going, the suspension is getting loose, the right front shock is totally busted and it looks like at least one of the tires (new to us in July) is cracking. Yeesh!

Guess all those rough roads, potholes, the odd curb and miles and miles of travel have left their mark. And, so we've paused for a couple weeks to wait for axles to be built and the trailer to be fixed before we continue East toward the Maritimes. 

Being enforceably paused is making me twitchy (a week here and my itchy feet are starting) but I think it has more to do with adjusting to staying still than anything to do with here. There’s a certain rhythm you get when you’re constantly on the move which has quite a different feel to it than the rhythm of settling in and staying put. It’s been months since we have stopped somewhere for more than a week, and I’m not used to it.

a week later and it's greening up nicely

This is really an ideal location to be for a longer stop: Just off the 401, the campground is surprisingly quiet, open & park like with walking trails into Rouge Park right nearby. It’s very idyllic. But we’re also a stone’s throw from everything  – all the stores we could want within a 15 minute drive. The library (free fast WiFi) is just up the hill, Lake Ontario is just south of us (we really should go see it) and there are even kids in the campground for my two to play with (another full-time RVing family!). In short, it could feel like home – if only I could settle into it.