RV Dad

North Sydney KOA

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:09:51 GMT

Thursday, we drove all the way to Sydney, Nova Scotia. We stayed the North Sydney KOA. This was very disappointing. The kids spent 5 minutes in the playground before they wanted to leave. The swings were hung too high to be used by kids. The swimming pool was damaged and no longer in use. Even the Internet connection was horrible. We even changed sites to get a better connection, but even the better connection was dropping all the time and slow. On the upside, our fire-pit was amazing and the view was spectacular.

We drove that night to downtown Sydney and we weren't any happier. The place was filled mostly with seniors and bikers. There was nothing to-do. Everything closed early. At this point, we decided to cut our Cape Breton stay to one night and we took off in the morning. We didn't do Cabot's Trail.

http://www.koa.com/where/ns/54124/

Cavendish KOA

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 15:00:57 GMT

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week, we stayed at the Cavendish KOA in PEI (Prince Edward Island). This was the first A+ stop of the trip. The KOA itself was great with activities for the kids, a petting farm, a jumping pillow, swimming pool and more. The Internet connection was very slow, too slow to play games or watch video, but usable. We spend two days next door at Anne of Green Gables. My eldest daughter has read more than half the book in the few days since. We also visited Rustic, a small fishing village near Cavendish, where we saw crabs and jellyfish in the water.

I was set this week to eat a great Atlantic seafood meal. We ate first at Sam's in Cavendish. Much of the fish was battered, which I don't like. The next day we tried the Friendly Fishermans. This was a buffet with only 4 seafood items. Quite disappointing. Finally we visited downtown Charlottetown and I had a great lobster and mussels dinner at Peake Wharf.

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http://www.koa.com/where/pe/58102/

Perce and Camping Baubassin

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 16:02:20 GMT

Last Sunday, I made my first mistake of the trip. I took highway 198 between Mont-Louis and Perce. Unless you were looking for a deathtrap roller coaster, you would be better to continue along the Route 132. There's no time saving as you can't drive fast on a road littered with pot-holes. My eldest threw-up and everybody felt a little sick.

In the end, the trip was worth it as we arrived at Perce. Still as beautiful as I remember it 30 years ago. Then onto an amazing campground called Camping Baubassin in Bonaventure. It's too bad it rained continuously while we were there as this had to be one of the best campgrounds we've stayed at. They have scheduled kids activities 6 days as week (not Sunday). Unfortunately, my eldest daughter speaks little French and the activity organizer spoke as little English. My daughter enjoyed it anyway. They have a small lighthouse, which you can explore. A long dock into the Baie-des-Chaleurs. It's also a marina and they have a nice little seafood restaurant, which we didn't try.

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http://bonaventuregaspesie.com/Dec_beaubassin.aspx

Gaspesie and Camping Parc et Mer

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 15:50:54 GMT

Last Saturday, a week ago today, we travelled along the St-Lawrence river in Gaspesie. It's a great ride, although slow at time. After you leave Highway 20, it's a local road with slow downs in every village with a population above 10. But the ride is beautiful and we finally stopped at a campground called Parc et Mer in Mont-Louis.

The campground's website doesn't work and neither does their WiFi, but the campground is gorgeous. I find most campgrounds other than KOAs that claim to have WiFi, actually have non-functional WiFi. The village is on a small bay with the campground on the river side of the highway. We picked up a cupful of sea-glass (beach-glass). Saw a groundhog. Ate at a small and delicious little restaurant in town.

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Quebec City KOA

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 13:44:54 GMT

Last Thursday and Friday night we stayed at the Quebec City KOA. When we arrived, we only had the Thursday night booked and they were booked for Friday. We were gonna park in their overflow and pay $25, but my wife suggested I go online and check. Surely enough, there was one spot left to book online and we got it. The campground was quite nice. A large playground at the front and all the sites were well laid out.

Friday, we took a free tour bus into Quebec City. The 15-minute bus ride took 30-45 minutes and the bus parked a good walk 30-45 minutes from old Quebec. I wasn't happy. Still it was likely better than trying to park downtown. The day in old Quebec was great. Street performers. Shopping. Crepes. Scenic views. Beer. BTW, if you are on the boardwalk behind Chateaut Frontenac, the scenic walk behind the Citadel is 45 minutes. We'll walk straight up the hill next time.

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http://www.koa.com/where/qc/56107/

Montreal West KOA

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:37:18 GMT

Tuesday and Wednesday we stayed at the Montreal West KOA. This is another great campground for kids. They loved the playground, which included a trampoline. The swimming pool was rather cool for my taste. They delivered firewood to my site (for a small charge). We stayed the second night because it was raining and didn't want to go to old Montreal when it was raining. On Wednesday we went. I decided parking at a Metro station was the best idea and I picked the first station going into town (Angrignon). Fortunately, I missed it and found myself in Longueuil. This station is only 3 stops from old Montreal, yet located out-of-town. Take two stops north to Berri-Uqam, then one south on the Cote-Vertu line to Champ-de-Mars.

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http://www.koa.com/where/qc/56103/

Recreationland

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 21:35:55 GMT

Monday, we stayed at Recreationland in Cumberland just East of Ottawa. I very much recommend this campground, if you need WiFi near Ottawa. It was only about a 20-30 minute drive to downtown. Finding parking for an motor-home downtown was near impossible, but eventually I found lots on York Street, just east of the market. I parked the RV in two car spots and paid both meters (1 hour max). I didn't get a ticket. The campground had a very old playground (see pics), big sites (three picnic tables), but there was garbage on our site (yikes). They literally nickle and dime you for everything, but the cost is still low (<$35).

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http://www.rec-land.com/

Santa's Village Coaster

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:31:01 GMT

Here's a video I took on the roller coaster at Santa's Village. As you can see, it's for kids. No big drops. The kids love it.

Santa's Village

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 19:23:31 GMT

This last weekend, we were at Santa's Village, near Bracebridge, Ontario. Santa's Village is a must stop for anyone in Ontario with kids less than 10 years old. Kids get a free elf hat, adults get free coffee (it was good too). They have a roller coaster, boast ride, mini-putt, lots of rides, Santa's house, petting zoo, reindeer and much more.

Santa's Village is great, but it's much more than just Santa's Village. They also have a Sportsland and Whispering Pines campground. I spent hours in the batting cage. They also have mini-putt (very challenging) and go carts.

There's a 2-day/night family pass for both camping and Santa's Village for $160. We took the $190 package that included Sportsland, which gave me the unlimited batting cage tokens. The campground itself doesn't have much, but it's adequate. No Internet, which is a rarity for my stays these days.

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http://www.santasvillage.ca/

Niagara Falls Fireworks

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:23:50 GMT

Here's a video of the fireworks they do on Friday and Sunday in font of the American falls at Niagara Falls. They are only 5 minutes long. The first 4 minutes is lame (pop... pop... pop). The last minute was great.

Jellystone Niagara

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:57:50 GMT

The last weekend of June, we stayed at Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The kids really liked it. We arrived Thursday night and left Sunday. Even though Friday wasn't a holiday, the day was filled with kids activities starting as early as 9 AM. Saturday thru Monday had similar kid activities scheduled. Adelaine, my eldest, won the floating boat contest and agreed this campground was the best in Ontario. The kids loved singing songs on the wagon ride with Yogi and Boo Boo. The heated swimming pool was freezing. They had a cheap ($6/adult) shuttle to the falls. A great weekend. The fireworks at the falls (every Friday and Sunday) were a little boring. I might upload a video.

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http://www.jellystoneniagara.ca/

Port Huron KOA

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 13:50:15 GMT

Last year, we visited the Port Huron KOA on our way to Edmonton. We liked it so much, we returned this year during the May 24 long-weekend. And we love it again. Well, with one exception. Somebody stole 2 hockey sticks and some firewood from our campsite. Considering that we camp a large part of the year and we always leave stuff lying around our site, it's a compliment to campers that we haven't had more stolen. The drive across the Blue Water Bridge wasn't painful; only 30 minutes. Last year it was about 3 hours.

This time we visited the Angry Bull Steakhouse across the street. I had some wort of Pork wings. Awesome. Beer was great too!

This is the top KOA within driving distance of Toronto. They have a roller-hockey rink, tennis courts, soccer field, swimming pools, train ride, bikes, an amusement park, bouncing pad, ice cream parlor, pizza parlor, movie theatre (free) and much much more. The entire experience was fantastic and we'll be returning to Port Huron again in late August.

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http://www.koa.com/where/mi/22220/

Summer 2008 Vacation

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 03:52:35 GMT

Today, we left home for our summer 2008 vacation. We're going to Nova Scotia along the St Lawrence, then down the cost to Pocono, Pennsylvania. I'll also update you on a couple weekenders we've done in the earlier summer; Santa's Village, Jellystone and Port Huron. I'll try to blog at least once per day for the next month.

GPG Randy

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:08:38 GMT

That's my new name. Goal-Per-Game Randy. Last night, I played my first competitive hockey game in many years. And I scored. Therefor, I've scored a goal per game for the last several years. Only one game, but I won't tell anybody that. We lost 8-3, after I had tied it up 3-3. The other team had the three best players on the ice and they were skating circles around us. By the 3rd period, I was exhausted and we were short-handed for most of the 2nd half of the game.

I Couldn't Holdem

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:14:06 GMT

On Wednesday night, I entered a Texas Holdem tournament. It was my second tournament ever. The previous time, I lost on the 3rd hand. This time, I did much better. I made it to the final table, placing 7th of 39 gamblers. On the last hand, the blinds were 300-600 and the pot was 2100 before it was my play. I had AQ and about 6000 chips. I raised to 3000. Everybody folded, but the last person (sitting to my right) called. The flop came out 9-8-2. I had played this guy for the last hour and knew he could've had any two cards. He raised all-in. I had about 3000 chips left and the pot was already 11,000. I called and found I had the best hand. He had JT suited. He hit 7 on the river and I was goodbye. I was one card away from being chip leader on the final table of 6 players.

Pocono Test Days

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sat, 03 May 2008 05:51:43 GMT

With my purchase of tickets to the Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono, I get 4 free tickets to the test sessions (children under 12 free) on May 27th (12:30PM to 7PM) and 28th (9AM to 5PM). I have to order the tickets by May 16th. Not sure if I can go because it's during the week. Anybody want them?

Pennsylvania 500

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 17:58:26 GMT

Today, I purchased tickets for the Pennsylvania 500 (August 3rd). A 2-day pass was only $150 to park the RV in the infield with three kids, my wife and I. That's pretty good value. It's about 7 hours from Brampton.

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Spell Daydreaming

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 02:16:55 GMT

I've been trying to stump my daughter with words that she doesn't know how to spell. Just now, I tried daydreaming. She got it perfect. BTW, she's 4 years old.

Draining the Icerink

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 18:55:57 GMT

Yesterday, I started to drain the icerink. It took a bit of work to prime the hose, but eventually it started. It's been draining now for 24+ hours and I think it'll take another day or two.

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More Backyard Icerink Pics

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 03:01:56 GMT

Taken today. With all the snowfalls lately, I've had to dig out the rink several times this week. The rink was well used today and the temperature got near zero (-3), so the ice was horrible by nightfall.

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Backyard Winter Wonderland

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 14:52:12 GMT

This winter is the most beautiful in Brampton, since I moved here years ago. We are getting lots of snow. More than ever. And the temperature has been very good for my backyard icerink.

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2 More Goals

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 00:01:44 GMT

My son Brayden scored 2 more goals tonight in a 12-2 loss. For some reason, they put the best 3 players on one team in his mini-game tonight. He now has 6 goals, 7 assists in his last 4 games on 14 goals by his teams. He's on a scoring blitz.

2 More Points

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 19:04:36 GMT

Brayden scored 2 more assists this weekend. Today, he played defense and they played the top team in the league. After falling behind 4-0 in the first half of the first period, I told the defense to start taking chances and rely on their goalie to make some saves. They lost 6-3. Brayden assisted on their 1st two goals and was on the ice for all 3. He's now got points on 8 of their last 9 goals and been on the ice for all 9. If you add the hat trick he scored in the mini-game on Tuesday, he now has 4 goals and 7 assists in his last 3 games. In league play, he's got 2 goals in his last 4 games and 7 assists in his last 2.

BTW, the reffing is so frustrating. I know they have a hard time getting refs, but I just cannot believe how bad they are. In truth, some refs are good and some are bad, so I'm only talking about the bad ones. The team my son played today is very dirty. They hook, slash, trip, bodycheck all game. At one point, a player on the dirty team tried to bodycheck a player, but he fell to the ice and the player he hit kept on skating. The ref called the only penalty of the game, interference against the player that got hit, not the player that initiated the contact. I was floored and started laughing. You can't really say anything because there's a real lacking of reffing everywhere, so you gotta take the bad because the alternative is no refs at all. Still, I'm amazed how bad they were.

Six Points!

randy@kbcafe.com (Randy Charles Morin) — Sat, 02 Feb 2008 19:41:19 GMT

Today, Brayden scored a goal and got five assists. His team won 6-2. He scored on a one-timer from the doorstep. Our backyard icerink was destroyed by the weather this last week, so I was a little upset at myself that I didn't get him more icetime. I'll have it fixed later today.