Nov
2019

Snowed out!

I got to spend Saturday shopping with my friend Olivia. We had fun and I got to show Daddy Plato’s Closet.

He said

We always knew when we planned to camp in November the weather could play a significant role in the trip actually coming to fruition. I wasn’t bothered by the idea of camping with snow on the ground—in fact we were kind of excited about that. The trailer is insulated and has an appropriate sized furnace to take on cold-weather camping. But, as the forecast shaped up during the week, there were some big problems on the forecast: snow squalls, whiteout conditions, and 20-40cm of accumulation possible. All of it to happen from the north end of the city, right up to and north of where we were going to camp. And it was all to hit right in the time I would be picking up the trailer and taking it to the campground on Friday early afternoon.

Thursday when I got home from work around 7:30 pm there wasn’t any snow on the ground. About 45 minutes later, we were blanketed with a significant amount of the white stuff. By the time I woke up for my weekly Friday morning hockey, we had what looked like about 8-10″ accumulated. And the worst part was there was more to come north of the city. By the time I was done hockey we decided we were calling the camping trip. We were bummed for sure as I would like to add snow camping to the list of ‘things done‘ but, that is for another time when I don’t have to tow 30’ of 7,500 lbs trailer down a highway that might get closed because of snow squalls.

We quickly switched gears and called Can-Am RV where we purchased the trailer and asked if we could get it in that day for winterizing. With the temps scheduled to get to and even below 0 over the weekend we didn’t want to wait and take the chance the trailer wouldn’t be impacted by a freeze in the water lines. Originally it was scheduled to be done this week, but since we weren’t camping and because they had the ability to get it done, we got it booked in to be winterized Friday afternoon. The good news is where we store the trailer is a one concession over from where we bought it. After they were done with the trailer we picked it up, unloaded any stuff that didn’t need to spend Winter in it, and dropped it off at storage and said our goodbyes to camping and Wolfie III until next Spring.

Because we all of a sudden had a weekend to ourselves we quickly cobbled together some things we could do since we had the time to be together and no one had to work! Friday night we chose to have a pizza and movie night at home. Saturday we took Emelia and her bestie Olivia out to do some shopping at their favourite places. They got to show me what their favourite store in the world, Plato’s Closet is all about. We all found some great deals there. And then settled in for another quiet, easy evening at home. Today, was as it always is, about gymnastics and groceries. As much as we would have rather camped this weekend, the spending time together was really what it was all about and we were able to do that to the fullest which made up for being snowed out!

She said

This week certainly didn’t end the way we thought it would. For the last few weeks we had been cautiously optimistic that we could try out Winter camping in the trailer. Emelia wasn’t overly thrilled about it but John and I were very excited. I was hoping we would get a bit of a dusting of snow so we could see Pinery in all the beauty of Winter. So when there was a change in the forecast and said we would see snow on the weekend we were still excited. That changed as the week progressed. By Wednesday there were mounting warnings that the snow was going to be significant. Thursday morning John and I started quietly talking that we had to be prepared that the trip might not happen. We looked at that time what the cancelation penalty would be and warn our friends we were going to be going with that we were watching the weather and deciding.

Thursday by around noon the warnings were really coming around that this was going to be a solid dump of snow, not just for the north end of London but the volume of snow was going to be significant where we were camping and warnings of potential road closures. We got home after a few errands at the end of Thursday evening and it was becoming apparent that the warnings were coming true. When John got home from work the yard was grass we came home about an hour and half later and we had significant snow on the ground and it was coming down hard.

Friday morning we woke to 30cm of fresh snow and areas north of the city and near Lake Huron had 50cm and more was falling. So we officially called it, camping was cancelled and our plans for the day changed. John had Friday off to get set up at the campground but now we were shifting gears and getting the trailer ready for the winter. John took the trailer to Can-Am to get winterized and after work we headed out to the dealership to get the trailer, pack it up and prep for the winter and dropped her off for the next 5 months in storage. It was a sad day, hopefully next year early November co-operates better and we can try again to get out in November.

Since we now had a free weekend we took things at a nice lazy pace, we had pizza and movie night on Friday. Saturday we woke when our bodies wanted and then made plans for the day. We asked if Olivia was around so Emelia and Olivia could hang out. Of course being almost teenagers they were thrilled when we said we had some things to get done at the mall. So once we got a few things done we went over to get Olivia and headed first to Plato’s Closet. This second hand store has quickly become a favourite for us, we get insane deals on Emelia’s favourite brands of clothes and it lets her wear all her favourite teen clothes at a budget her parents like. With a bit more done at the mall we wrapped things up to get Olivia home and settle in at home.

Today was much like yesterday, we started out at a lazy pace and then a bit more shopping to get us all ready for winter. We wrapped up again from the mall and got Emelia home to get ready for gymnastics training. All in all in was not the weekend we thought we would be talking about but it was a weekend together as a family and that is just about perfect anyways.

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