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In 2015, spur of the moment, we decided we would sell our vehicles for a half-ton pickup and a fifth wheel. We loved the idea of traveling lots, being able to move at any time, without even packing, and of downsizing our stuff to what we need without all the frills and junk.

Early 2016 our dreams were a reality and we hit the pavement rolling, we got a Titan from Highland Nissan and our 29 ft., 2-bedroom, 2-bathroom, 2015 Durango by KZ 1500 from Pine Acres RV, and set off on our first adventure.

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We headed up to NS where we chilled in our families yard to prepare for our big journey across Canada! Unfortunately, that didn’t pan out for us…

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We ended up flying to BC after a bridge broke in Thunder Bay days before our departure. While in B.C. we checked out local RV spots because it is one of our favorite places to visit. we had a great visit and then headed back east for our first adventure.

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After some prep and learning, on our new rig, we were ready to head out! Mid-winter we headed up through Cape Breton and took the ferry up to Newfoundland with our good friends traveling with us! We learned that most Ferries have a limit to how much gas and propane you can carry with you, so make sure you check before you sail!

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Winter was more prominent and the roads a little worse for wear in Newfoundland. Learning to handle our new rig in these new conditions, was worth the extra stress, for the scenery, enjoying sites such as the beautiful Gros Morne park along the way.

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After learning a whole bunch about heating, power consumption and our generator, on our first night in our fifth wheel while on the road, we hopped on to another ferry to Quebec filled our 4 gas cans and drove a few minutes to the Labrador border where conditions got interesting real quick.

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We had driven this 600 km road before in the summer in our fully loaded 1/4 ton pick up truck and a car, we had popped 2 tires on the truck which we were able to plug but destroyed a tire on the car that was irreparable. I think if there had been cell service, I would have called a tow truck no matter how many kilometers were left, no matter what the bill. That is how rough this old dirt road was, but luckily for us, it was still winter and the ice road was pretty solid most of the way through and dirt road we did hit was in great shape for our journey. Yes, you heard it, the ice road is better than the dirt road on this highway.

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We got to stop in pop into Port Hope Simpson to have a visit with a friend we had made on our previous trip, who rescued our butts on the side of the dark Trans Labrador Highway after our jack bent and collapsed under our truck.

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Our trip turned dark, snowy and windy as we drove on, taking lots of pit stops to stretch our legs and on stop to make sure no one needed help when we found a toppled over road-maintenance-truck on the side of the road. We hit one snow drift from blowing snow that made us jackknife a bit, but the trick when you are doing this or the trailer is pushing you is to give her a little gas to straighten up and gain control again and so we did. It feels very counterintuitive but it works. We also lost our trailer lights somewhere along the way, which turned out to be a blown fuse in our truck. Which is often caused by a loose connection in the truck or anywhere in the trailer. We couldn’t find the cause until another journeys mishaps.

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We made it to our place with little left to spare… ahhhh home at last!

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Here we were in Labrador March still running – 35 C temperatures living in our fifth wheel parked outside out basement apartment. plugged into a 15 amp service. Trying out everything in our new rig and battling the cold! No running water in the rig at these temperatures we are only rated for -15 C so we have to do all our water-related business inside our apartment. We were enjoying learning how to utilize our small kitchen efficiently, cooking complicated meals from scratch to make sure we could do everything we wanted in our bitty kitchen. For heat, we are running the rigs propane and a ceramic heater. Until we weren’t…

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The propane furnaces are not made for this type of weather, the ignition wires run completely exposed and unprotected into the combustion chamber and if the furnace is running too much (our dealership suggested more than 10 minutes an hour those wires will burn up. but not all at once, what you will notice is the furnace will rumble more and you will be able to smell propane from “improper combustion”. from the outside of the rig looking into the heating vent you will be able to see the once blue flame will burn yellow.

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Luckily, the furnace is easy to access and easy to work on, we were able to call Pine Acre RV and have them walk us through how to check the relay and walk us through checking the wiring, though we did feel nervous poking at important things and have our mechanic friend supervise us. It was not as complicated as we feared.

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We, of course, had to wait weeks for the part to be shipped up to us, so back into the apartment we went. On a 15 amp service, we couldn’t run another heater and we couldn’t keep warm enough to stay out there, but we tried for 48 hours before our ceramic heater died from overuse so we finally gave up to be cozy.

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We did continue to move in arrange our stuff and downsize what we owned in the meantime. We got our heater fixed but we did not move back in until the weather was more in our favor, and when all the laundry was dirty and dishes needed to be done we had a way of migrating back to the apartment pretty regularly.

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We were working 2 jobs and running a business so it was pretty easy to enjoy the amenities of the apartment, flushing toilets, long showers, laundry facilities and not having to empty our grey and black tanks. We also ran into problems with even the RV toilet paper clogging our toilets (we decided its better to just have a trash bin for toilet paper – clogs are icky) and our apartment just had more space.

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Even though we were a little overextended, we enjoyed the summer and kept our heads down and focused on work. As the summer ended we decided to close our business, a big old company was now competing with us and it was no longer worthwhile for us. We ended up selling our work truck to a fellow in PEI so we drove it on down “The Quebec Way” Which involves driving to Labrador City or “Lab City” through Quebec to a ferry to New Brunswick and we, of course, went to Nova Scotia for a visit and made arrangements from there.

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We lost a windshield wiper between Church Hill Falls and Lab City and we found a great sign warning you not to overturn your vehicle on a sharp turn, on the actual sharp turn there was a vehicle tipped over, so that was a highlight, and the ever beautiful Manic 5 was as breathtaking as ever. We took the Matane–Baie-Comeau–Godbout Ferry. We nearly ran into some moose just before New Brunswick. but we made it home quickly and efficiently. I often wonder if we made the right choice in getting the fifth wheel. Our 16 ft cube van was a beast, ran amazing, was a little older but I think we should have converted her some days.

She was a beautiful size to drive, getting turned around in her was a picnic, no towing, no jackknifing. She had this door between the passenger and cargo unit, so you never had to get out of her to pull over and take a nap. Sure it would have been ghetto and a little cramped but she was a pleasure to drive. I think with a little work, stress, yelling, crying, hurt feelings, mistakes, fun and creativity, we could have had an amazing convert.

Perks to the 5th wheel were, we wanted to be able to detach our home from our vehicle, to not be stuck moving your home every time you go somewhere, also if the vehicle breaks down you lose your home. Secondly, converting the cube van felt like it might be beyond our capabilities at the time. talking about power, propane, appliances, water, and wastewater, felt very overwhelming and complicated at the time. Not at all now, but we didn’t have to learn everything all at once with a new rig, just a little project here and there as things went wrong. The main reason was size, having the bedroom, living room and office as 3 separate spaces is amazing. Being able to be in separate rooms when you need space or one person is making a lot of noise or being busy is awesome. I am not sure at the time I could have downsized that much of our stuff all at once. It can be hard to let things go, emotionally or “that could be useful later”.

It was hard to downsize to a 29 ft fifth wheel. The stress in my life during the downsizing phase was indescribable. Saying I could live without stuff, no problem, easy, survivalist, minimalist, watching YouTube Videos on “How easy and relieving and freeing it is to part with all your stuff” and getting all excited, was easy. Parting with that stuff was hard, it was unreasonable feelings of doubt, stress, terror, grief, and resistance. It wasn’t just sentimental stuff that was hard either. It was kitchen stuff, clothes, tools, things I was terrified we might need one day.

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As fall and winter approached we became experts in heating our little home on wheels, after discovering the kerosene heater, we were able to do – 35 C like champs, we were warned many times about the dangers and safety around using kerosene, which has a high instance of CO poisoning. Of course, our rig is equipped with detectors, but we also never used it overnight. We would light it in our spare room with the door to the rest of the trailer closed and the windows open, as there is some smell when you first light it, then we would make sure it was burning well before closing the windows and opening the door to the rest of the house. We would superheat the house with it and close the door to the house, open the windows, turn it off, allow the smell to dissipate after the smell was gone close the windows and open up to the rest of the house which would cool from super hot to a good temperature from the cool room. this paired with our ceramic heater kept us warm but it was a lot of work. We ended up deciding to go to a mini wood stove later because of the inconvenience of this process.

We ended up giving up our apartment at this time to renting a bedroom/15 amp electrical outlet from a friend. this gave us access to his shower, laundry, and sink as we were again without water.

After some changes in our working situation came upon us we decided to head south to NS to repeat the previous year’s shenanigans. Taking our fifth wheel back to Nova Scotia the Quebec Way with our old traveling companion.

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We headed to Quebec without a stitch. Stopped for the night at a rest stop on the side of the road. where we woke up to a cool -33 C and headed back at ‘er bright and early. We hit up a gas station that was charging more than 3 dollars a liter on our way, drove by the majestic and always impressive manic 5 with some stress, but mastered that decent with skill and slowness. We celebrated our victory with a hot breakfast!

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After Breakie we continued on our way to the ferry but the warmer it got the snowier it got slowing our pace and warming our noses.

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We made it to the ferry with good time and we were excited to keep moving even though the snow kept getting worse.

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We made it to civilization before we had to call it quits and hunker down for the night in a parking lot, the police came to make sure we were all good when they saw us camping there in the middle of the snow storm though. Bless their hearts.

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We continued on our way the next morning and were happy to find clear roads in southern New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. We were happy to get parked home in our old spot, with the new 30 amp service we had installed while we were away.

-Rachel

#ALittleRVRnR