Bass Lake Provincial Park

We are going to head to Bass Lake Provincial Park as soon as Karen finishes work. 

I had the day off, so I was able to deal with preparing the motorhome for travelling.   Around 2pm while I was doing the circle check, I discovered that we had a flat tire.  I am glad that I have a routine of checking the vehicle before heading out, but I am not thrilled to discover a flat tire.

No big deal though as we do have a spare and we do have CAA RV Roadside Assistance.   I called the number and within an hour the service truck arrived and 20 minutes after that he had the flat tire off and the spare tire on.  Karen got home from work and we were ready to roll.

The sky was very ominous though as we were leaving the house and by the time we got to Perkinsfield we were into a torrential downpour and high gusting winds.  The motorhome was very stable though in those high buffeting winds, however I could barely see to drive it was raining so hard, so we pulled over into the ball diamond parking lot and parked.  My iPhone weather radar app showed me that this was going to blow over in about 20 minutes so we just waited it out and then continued along our way.

It did rain most of the way as we headed towards Orillia and Bass Lake Provincial Park.  Our friends Don & Shirley were already there and were all set up. 

When we arrived at the gate to check in it was till raining. 

 

After checking in, we got parked in our site and immediately went over to Don & Shirley’s rig for happy hour. 

The rain stopped long enough for me to go outside and get the blocks under the jacks and get the hydro cable plugged in.  I got our house on wheels level and put out the slides, but that was it for setting up tonight.  The rain started up again. 

Back to D & S’s for the rest of the evening where we sat inside and socialized and watched the other campers arrive with their tents and pop up campers.  It was comical to watch this one guy walking around holding an umbrella in one hand while getting his tent set up while his wife and kids sat in the car.  Eventually he just gave up trying to stay dry and threw the umbrella on the ground.  We are warm and dry in our houses on wheels.

Further to the flat tire earlier, Karen and I knew when we bought the motorhome last fall that we would need to buy new tires for it.  This flat earlier just proves we need new tires, so we better get them sooner rather than later.  The vehicle safety certification required to transfer vehicle ownership only checks for tire tread depth and there is a minimum depth that is not to be exceeded in order to pass the safety.  These tires do have lots of tread and they did pass the safety, but they are the original tires.  Every motorhome expert will tell you to get new tires every 7 years despite how good the tread is.  The rubber compounds break down with age and the tires deteriorate to the point where they are no longer safe.  Our tires are the original tires, so they need to be replaced.  We will be shopping around for new tires before we head out again.  I just hope we can limp home on these original tires without incident.

To see all of the photos from today, you can find them on our FLICKR site.