About Us
Porter
The conversation went something like this…….
“Hey, Honey, let’s get a dog”!
“Um…,.. no..…, I don’t think that’s a very good idea”.
“Why not? It’ll be great!”
“Well..…dogs require a lot of work. You have to walk them and care for them and we both work. You can’t leave a dog by himself in a townhouse for 10 hours”.
“ True. But I’ll be retired soon. I’ll have lots of time and he can go running with me. It’ll be great”!
“ Yes…..but…..we like to travel and a dog would really cramp our lifestyle”.
“No problem – we’ll just put him in a kennel”.
Fast forward five years. We are both retired and have a 5-year-old chocolate Labrador Retriever named Porter. He rules our lives and while we continued to travel, there was never any question of putting him into a kennel. Instead, if we were off skiing or hiking or biking, Porter went to dog camp. A perfect off leash place out in the country – Camp Canine. This worked very well for 7, 10 or even 14 day stays. But we found we could not leave him for longer than that, no matter how wonderful the facility. It was hard on him, hard on us and hard on the pocketbook.
So what to do? Our dream of visiting all the capitals of Europe and travelling for extended periods of time overseas was put on the back burner. But what about exploring our own back yard? What about North America? We could easily bring Porter with us! He loves the car! Well that plan also faltered. Travelling with a dog meant finding dog-friendly hotels/motels/inns and dog-friendly restaurants. There are plenty of pet friendly accommodations to be sure, but eating establishments is another story. And there was no way Porter could pull off the role of therapy dog.
Enter the RV. Now this was a huge paradigm shift for us. When our children were young, we took them car camping to both the east and almost-west coasts, often cursing when caught behind a slow moving behemoth on a 2-lane highway.
Kayaking The Baja
Canoeing Killarney
Skiing Mont Blanc Glacier
Biking Across Italy
As the kids grew older and developed their own interests (none of which seemed to include the great outdoors) we set out just the two of us – back-country camping, hiking, canoeing, kayaking. We loved the solitude, the back to nature, even the challenge of packing as light a pack as possible for a 10 day trek. One of our most wonderful trips included hiking the Grand Canyon from the south rim to the north, where on the first day we even had to carry our own water! So, a motor home? Oh, the horror! But it was either that or stay home.
Hiking the Tour de Mont Blanc
We started our research, attended numerous RV shows, visited several RV dealers and ultimately decided on a 2016 Tiffin Phaeton 36gh. It had more bells and whistles than we really needed (or wanted) but the size and layout worked. Big enough that we would not feel cramped, yet small enough that we would be able to get into all the national, provincial and state parks on our list. Driving it required a DZ licence so John took the requisite course. We leased out our house, put the bulk of our things into storage, donated the rest to local charities and packed up the land yacht (as we came to call it) with what we thought would be needed for a journey that we estimate will take us three years, possibly four. There are restrictions and limitations to be sure, imposed by both OHIP and US Immigration, so certain time lines will have to be followed. We have divided North America into general geographic areas and hope to follow the warm weather as much as possible. Trips home to visit family and friends are a certainty, but we hope that family and friends will also look us up should they find themselves in whatever neck of the woods we happen to be situated. The land yacht has a sofa that can sleep two guests and the welcome mat is always out! Please look us up.
Us!
The Land Yacht
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