We’ve arrived in Canada! But first, how did we get here from St. Petersburg, FL?
To begin our first 5th wheel summer RV trip, we headed north. We stopped in RV campgrounds in Georgia, Tennessee, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania arriving just outside of Buffalo, New York after 9 days of travel. Dave and I planned to join six of our friends on the Cycle the Erie Canal 8 day tour which began in Buffalo, but what to do with Murphy? Luckily, our good friend from St. Pete, Frank Smith, graciously agreed to join us on our travels north and stay with Murphy while Dave and I cycled the canalway trail. If you haven’t read it yet, check out the blog from that awesome adventure on our website www.slopace.com.
One thing Dave and I quickly learned is that State Parks have very large campsites compared to privately owned parks. And, they typically have awesome trails to hike and roads to cycle on. Check out the picture below from Wellesley State Park in the Thousand Islands area. A private RV park would have one, if not two RV’s between us and the one pictured. However, we have been extremely happy with all of our RV sites even at the private campgrounds.
Murphy is such a great traveler while on the road. He hangs out in the backseat, usually sleeping on the floor. He loved using Frank’s backpack as his pillow. He looks forward to checking out each campground and we hike and he swims as often as possible. He even jumped off a dock!
I can’t neglect to mention our experience at a Buc-ee’s. For those that aren’t familiar with it, it is a HUGE travel stop that originated in Texas and is currently expanding in the southeast. We stopped at one in GA and the brisket/egg burrito was very good but the cinnamon roll was exceptional. Yum. Yum. The location we stopped at had 120 fuel pumps and over 56,000 sq. ft in their store. I felt like I was in a Disney store, as there was Buc-ee themed merchandise everywhere and Buc-ee himself was even in the store signing autographs.
One of our favorite stops on this segment was a campground in Sevierville, TN just outside of Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge and The Great Smokey National Park. I purchased a Passport book and we got our first National Park stamp. Unfortunately, it was a bit misty the day we visited the park and hiked up to Clingmans Dome.
We enjoyed mini golf and the obligatory pancakes in Pidgeon Forge (lots of pancake houses), horseshoes in Mercer, PA and grilling our dinner most nights. At our final location where Frank was going to hang out with Murphy for 8 days, we went out to dinner. Check out the scrumptious chocolate mouse cake with Murphy quietly eyeing the yumminess from afar.
Our last stop prior to entering Canada was at Wellesley State Park in the Thousand Island region of New York. Many of our looper friends cruised through this area this year. We went on a boat tour of the islands- there are actually over 1800 individual islands. It was gorgeous! One of the highlights is the Boldt Castle and mother-in-law island across the way. The Boldt story is quite interesting if you like a quick Google read.
We have now arrived in Ontario (whew, we made it through Customs with no issues) and we are staying in a campground about 30 minutes outside of Ottawa. Stay tuned for next week’s blog to share our initial Canadian explorations.
Thanks so much for following along on the Merchberger 2022 RV adventures. I hope to post an update each Sunday.
Tootles,
RV Novice Brenda exploring with RV Master Dave and Mr. Murphy
All sounds amazing! Safe travels.
You are amazing!! When can you bring your travels west?? Sure would love to see you❤️
Hopefully next year we will go out west. I plan to visit my Mom when we arrive back in FL, so hopefully I can make a trip to see you!! XOXO
I laughed out loud seeing Murphy eyeing that dessert! With those eyes, I just know he got a little taste. 😉