Our First RV Season BY DARREN BURROWS About six years ago we upgraded from our tent and bought a new 12ſt Rockwood tent
trailer. It was great. It had a king and a queen size bed with heated mattresses that fit all five of us: me, my wife Tracy, and oldest to youngest, that are our daughters Kayla, and Sierrah, and son Jayden.
Our first destination was the
Buffalo Ranch in Wells Grey Provincial Park. Nice people were working there. We rented time on a very nice old horse and to this day the kids ask about that horse “Mini”. One of the staff members at the ranch recommended we go to Mole Falls, so I got the directions, Tracy packed lunch and off we went. It was a 45-minute hike to the falls, very nice. Tere was another couple just leaving as we arrived, so we had it all to ourselves. We took the kids, one at a time, up the trail that went behind the falls. It was very wet from the mist,
and the loud roar of the falls did not impress Jayden who screamed as if he was only a few years old. It was a little too overwhelming for him. We found a nice bolder in the middle of the creek to sit on for lunch, then took some family pictures. We saw several more beautiful sites and wildlife before we headed off to our next stop at Mount Robson Provincial Park. We camped in Mount Robson for one night and it rained. By morning the skies were
clearing, and we thought it was going to be another great day, (we thought wrong). Sierrah woke up with one eye red and swollen shut. A bug bite maybe? Our next stop was Jasper and we were hoping that they would have a clinic we could go to. So we wiped down the outside of the tent trailer before folding it up as it was soaking wet, then off to Jasper we went. We found our campsite at Whistler’s campground in Jasper; a great campground that Tracy
and I stayed at a couple times before we had kids. We were hoping the elk would still be walking through the campsites as they did years before. We pulled into our pull though site and unlatched the roof of the trailer in preparation to raise it up. I hit the power switch to raise the roof and nothing happened, What? Te new battery is dead? Not to panic, we just had to crank it up manually. Finally we had the walls up and door put into place; next was setting up the inside, (the
damp inside). We were quickly learning to dislike the tent trailer as all the bedding was damp and had to be hung out to dry. Aſter setting up a couple of clotheslines to hang the bedding on, we headed into Jasper to find a clinic and get another battery for the trailer. We found the clinic quickly and saw the doctor, who figured it was a bug bite on her eyelid.
Te doctor was also kind enough to point out that Sierrah had a very bad case of lice! Kayla too had the little critters! Needless to say this did not make Tracy very happy, and meant a lot of laundry and hair washing for the whole family. So off to the pharmacy to get the lice shampoo, then back to camp so we could all wash our hair and gather our clothes to take to the laundromat. As the clothes were washing I went to find a new battery; too many $$ later we had power in the tent trailer again. Aſter spending the remainder of the day washing our hair, laundry and accessories, the
kids were bored and getting cranky, along with mom and dad of course. Aſter dinner at the campsite, a lonely elk came strolling through the site. Te kids we amazed how big and close she came to the trailer. Tis put us all back into better spirits. Te next day we took the tram to the top of the mountain and had a beautiful day on top of the world; the second perfect day this year they said, as usually you can’t see Mount Robson from here. Aſter a couple of days in Jasper, we were back on the road to Lake Louise. Te Columbia
Icefield is always a rest stop on this route. We had a nice spot in Lake Louise with the kids being able to play at a playground by our loop; they were more interested in the playground
12 RVT 151• JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2013
than the scenery. Tis was to be home for the next three nights. Te next day we unhooked the trailer and
headed to the Calgary Zoo. On the way we passed Woody’s RV Store and we agreed to go in and just take a look at their selection of SOLID wall trailers. Well, we wound up buying a basic 28’ Coachman trailer, no slides or frills. We would come by the next day to trade in the tent trailer, because today we were going to the zoo. We all had a great day at the Calgary Zoo and Jayden loved the dinosaur statues. Te next day we headed back to Woody’s
RV. Our salesman stayed well aſter his shiſt as we finished the paperwork and transferred our belongings into the new trailer. Back on the highway headed towards the mountains, which could be seen far to the west. Te weather was changing fast and a storm was brewing. We were all getting very hungry, so we turned off the highway to the closest town, which was Cochrane. We found a small strip mall where we could do some grocery shopping. Tracy and I were also very hungry and could not figure out what to make for dinner; we decided to order a pizza from the pizza shop in the mall. We would eat it in our big new trailer. Just as we started eating, kaboom, the storm hit with lightning, thunder, downpouring rain and hail, followed by a big bright rainbow. Aſter about 30 minutes the sun was back and we were ready to hit the road again, and wow, we didn’t have to find a gas station to use the washroom, we now had a full washroom in our trailer. At this point we were so happy that we didn’t have the tent trailer any more. It was getting dark as we approached the mountains. Tracy asked if we had to go back to our campsite as we going to heading back to BC in the morning. I agreed, we are fully self-contained now and can camp anywhere. We found a nice pullout on the Bow River
just out of Canmore with a beautiful view of the lights glistening off the river. Aſter a great sleep behind solid walls, we had breakfast and pulled back on the road headed to Osoyoos, where we had a campsite reserved. When we got there we told them of our trailer upgrade. “Tat’s a problem,” they said, “as we put you in a small site in the tenting area. You could probably squeeze it in if you’re an expert driver!” Not much choice, but say, no problem,
right? Wow, it was tight, but we made it, and only blew the campsite breaker once which took out everyone’s power in our area. We didn’t try to use the air conditioning again. Aſter two nights we headed home. Our
friends and neighbors were shocked to see that our new tent trailer grew tremendously into a full size trailer on this trip. d
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