Out of Winter

Until now, Jackie wrote everything on this blog, and my role has been limited to that of editor. Our plan this year is to reverse those roles. Jackie will remain in charge of the actual website and the photo gallery. We also haven’t started taking our photos yet this year but we promise we will soon.

Although we can see the mist over the city of Niagara Falls from out condo, Niagara Falls is about 60 km from our home. Every ten years or so, when it is really cold, Niagara Falls freezes. It happened again during the first few days of February 2026. This harbinger of cold was carried on the news. We first heard of it from Jackie’s cousin in England.

As it turns out, planning to leave winter behind and actually leaving winter behind are not the same thing. Jackie and I were hoping for a warm spell in January but it didn’t happen. There was in fact a brief warm spell in early January but we were not yet ready to take advantage of it. We didn’t have much of a plan but on our way to a warmer climate we wanted to travel through Red Bay, Alabama where Tiffin, the company that built our new Tiffin Phaeton 40IH was located. That way we could get them to install a new electric fireplace, perform some routine maintenance, and correct a number of minor warranty issues. We don’t normally drive more than a few hours on any given travel day so, we thought it would take up to a week to get to Red Bay Alabama.

Because we missed the warm spell in early January it was much colder trying to get ready than we had wanted. We loaded up the motorhome on Tuesday February 3, with a plan to leave for warmer climate the next day. We stopped at Fran and Ron’s house 45 minutes from the Sarnia border for the first night. This gave us time for a short visit and allowed us to get a water fill up from them. We arrived at their house and got stuck in the driveway. They had been driving on top of the snow in their driveway but our motorhome was too heavy to stay on top of packed snow. The pack was about 10 inches deep in the spot where we got stuck. Ron, dug enough snow away from the tires for us to maneuver the motorhome into their yard. It probably took us 20-30 minutes to get the RV unstuck and moved up the driveway where the snow pack was only about 4 inches deep, and solid enough for the motorhome to stay on top.

Before it got dark, we filled the fresh water tank and purged the antifreeze from most of the water system leaving only the washing machine and dishwasher with antifreeze. That night the temperature dropped to -16 ° C much colder than we had ever experienced before in either our new or old motorhome. The RV was quite comfortable inside but overnight the water lines froze in the aft bathroom. We worried that we would have some serious water leaks when the ice melted.

We left early (for us) Thursday morning. The snow pack had hardened overnight so the motorhome stayed on top when we drove out of the driveway. We hooked the car onto the motorhome once we were on the road. But I must have forgotten to put the car in neutral. We did not get more than 200 meters down the road when we heard squealing tyres and saw blue smoke in the mirrors. We pulled over and reset the car into neutral. So we might have some flat spots on the front tires. Interestingly, the motorhome’s acceleration didn’t seem sluggish even when the front wheels on the car were not turning.

We cleared US Customs easily. The customs officer did ask how long we planned to be in the USA We told him that we would be returning to Canada at the end of May or the first week of June at the latest. It appeared to us that he was entering that information into a computer. However, when Jackie checked later it appears that he didn’t log us into the system properly and now we either have to get the records fixed or leave the country within 30 days. Jackie is working on getting the records fixed. That would be easier if we had a fixed address in the USA, but we are travelling in a motorhome. Thankfully friends have agreed to allow us to use their address.

We had planned a stop about 3 hours or so past the border, with an optional extra 45 minutes to buy fuel and have lunch. It turns out that the central US we were driving through had the worst cold spell of the year predicted for the next few days. Friday was predicted to be snow and bad driving conditions in Ohio and northern Kentucky. If we had stopped in Michigan, Ohio or Kentucky the overnight temperature would have gone to -17 and -22°C which we have already discovered wasn’t good for the RV. We weren’t worried about us inside, but the water tanks and pipes etc. were already frozen in some spots and we were concerned that the problem would just get worse and worse.

With the weather prediction, it meant we might be in that weather for a few days if we couldn’t drive on Friday. So we ended up driving 1,000 km until 11 pm, no stopping, no stretching and eating just cheese and Ritz crackers. For some parts of the trip the roads were greasy but it was too cold for slush. The motorhome and car are however really dirty and in need of a wash.

We aimed for Cabela’s in Bowling Green, Kentucky where the temperature was expected to go down to only -3° C overnight, so much warmer. Even so, by the time we got to Bowling Green Kentucky even the water pump was frozen. By Friday morning with -1° C temperature the water system thawed out, and best of all, there were no leaks. The pipes did not crack. During the course of the day the temperature in Bowling Green KY went up to +10 ° C. We decided to stay in Bowling Green one more day.

On Saturday we drove to the Tiffin maintenance facility in Red Bay Alabama. We were a few days ahead of our scheduled appointment. The weather was what we would expect in early spring, in Canada, just below freezing at night and in the mid teens during the day.

They installed the new fireplace on Tuesday February 10, and started work on the warranty and maintenance list we had prepared on Thursday. Early in the afternoon on Friday Tiffin decided that they needed to replace the macerating toilet in the rear of the motorhome because they could not reprogram it to correct the deficiency that we had identified. However, that was not the last item on our deficiency list. So, although they did replace the toilet before quitting time on Friday we had to wait until Monday to get the oil change on our generator

We left Tiffin’s campground on Tuesday February 17 on our way further south to even warmer weather.