Heading Home

Now that the weather was generally warmer, we thought it was time to see how well the motorhome systems operated without “shore power.” We had dry camped before, but only for a day or two at a time. This time we decided to travel east from Des Moines using only the electrical power that we generated ourselves.

The Aqua-Hot system is our primary heat source. It burns diesel fuel, but it was not burning it cleanly. Occasionally it belched white smoke. Our first night in Davenport, Iowa, did not go well. For the first time ever, the Aqua-Hot system would not ignite.

So, we needed to get the Aqua-Hot system working properly. As luck would have it, there was an Aqua-Hot service centre in Davenport, so I made an appointment. The Aqua-Hot dealer diagnosed the problem as a defective fuel pump. The pump was producing only 50 psi, while the service manual specified 150 psi.

We spent two of our four days in Davenport getting the Aqua-Hot repaired. Aqua-Hot supplied the replacement parts under warranty and agreed to cover two hours of labour. That still left me with a bill for the remaining labour, which I hope to recover from Tiffin. Wish me luck. I have submitted a claim, but warranty reimbursements after the repairs have already been completed can sometimes be difficult.

We very much enjoy going to the theatre when we are home. It doesn’t matter if the shows are big musicals or community plays. Theatre was one of the things that we missed when we were travelling around Europe. While there we did listen to more symphony orchestras than normal as music didn’t care that we only spoke English.

We were thrilled with the show in Illinois. The dinner was excellent and the show was spectacular. We have seen Fiddler on the Roof several times before, on television and live in both Toronto and New York. This production rivaled any of them.

With the Aqua-Hot system operating as it should, we left Davenport and headed toward home. We were looking forward to a visit from our friends from Norway, who were scheduled to arrive on Sunday, June 14. We figured we had plenty of time, but we wanted to get settled before they arrived.

On our way back to Canada, we stopped for three nights at a casino near Michigan City, Indiana, just east of Chicago. Once again, we were dry camping.

I had plugged our Starlink internet system into an outlet inside a storage compartment on the passenger side of the motorhome. At one point during our stay, that outlet suddenly quit supplying power. I spent some time trying to diagnose the problem but couldn’t find the cause.

I called Tiffin Technical Support. They explained that the circuit started at the breaker panel, passed through a small terminal block that looked like a Lego block, continued to a wiring cabinet in the bedroom closet, then to another compartment near the engine, and finally to the storage compartment where I had plugged in the Starlink. They suggested checking for power at each point along that path, beginning with the “Lego block.”

Since we would be driving right past the dealer where we had purchased the motorhome, and since it was still under warranty, I decided we should simply stop there and let them diagnose and repair the problem. This meant that our next stop after leaving the casino was General RV in Wixom, near Detroit, Michigan, a place we had hoped not to have to visit again.

The technician assigned to fix the dead outlet discovered that a screw had fallen out of the “Lego block” inside the breaker panel. While performing that repair, however, he apparently dislodged a a connection in a wiring cabinet in the bedroom closet. It took a different technician two days to find and reconnect the mid-coach temperature sensor.

As we were leaving Wixom, it occurred to us that we might once again be selected for a secondary inspection at the Port Huron–Sarnia border crossing.

A year earlier, we had been escorted back into the United States behind flashing blue and red lights because the border agents thought we were attempting to smuggle our new motorhome into Canada. Not only were we escorted back into the U.S., but our file was flagged. A few weeks later, when we crossed at Niagara Falls without the motorhome, we were again directed to secondary inspection.

We weren’t sure whether this would become a regular occurrence every time we crossed into Canada, so before reaching the border we carefully inventoried everything we thought the border agents might ask us to declare.

As it turned out, the crossing was completely uneventful. Well… almost.

We chose the NEXUS lane because we both have NEXUS cards. When we pulled up to the inspection kiosk, however, I discovered that the clearance between the kiosk and the mirrors on the motorhome was only about four centimetres. I mentioned this to the border officer, who casually replied that we could have used the truck lane instead. Of course, there was already a long line of trucks waiting there.

We once again spent a few days visiting our friends near Oil Springs before finally heading home to Mississauga and preparing for our visitors.

Part of getting settled back at home involved buying new e-bikes. We wanted e-bikes that would go further, and  perform better on trails that were not paved. We had test-ridden a Velotric Fold 1 Plus in Galveston, Texas, and had pretty well decided that we wanted to buy a pair once we got back to Canada. This meant that we would temporarily own six e-bikes, the two we had kept in the motorhome, the two we kept at our apartment to use at home and the two new ones. Since we were having five visitors plus the two of us, we thought having seven e-bikes would be great. We managed to rent one additional e-bike which meant that everyone had their own. We cycled all around our area. Our friends used the e-bikes to travel back and forth between our apartment and their Airbnb and also to the beach near them. The e-bikes worked out really well.

We spent several days showing our visitors many of Toronto’s attractions. Although we live in Mississauga, we realized that we hadn’t visited some of those places ourselves in many years. In fact, several had changed considerably, and in the case of Ripley’s Aquarium, the entire attraction was completely new to us. Since we recently joined the “Freedon Boat Club” in Toronto we were able to take our guests on a couple of boat rides including one of the Toronto Harbour which was great fun.

Helge and Martin wanted to see a moose in Canada. Since we knew that they have moose in Norway, we asked why. They said because moose in Canada are bigger. Given the time of year and where we live, that was a little difficult. You can live many years in Ontario and never see a mouse. The Toronto zoo does not have any moose. So, we suggested that they might want to drive to Parc Omega, a lovely, huge park near Montebello, Quebec. It is full of animals that you will find across Canada and there is a 12 km route for cars through the park. Jackie and I visited it last year. Jackie wasn’t up for a six-hour drive each way so our friends left for a few days, visiting our capital city enroute.

During this visit Martin celebrated his birthday. Helge and Elin took all of us to the CN Tower for a birthday dinner.

People kept asking us, how we could have visitors during the FIFA world cup with all the congestion that brings. Actually that worked out great. Our visitors got to see all the Norway games from various locations and even our walks through Toronto had extra things to see and do thanks to the World Cup.

As with all overseas visitors, we had to visit Niagara Falls. It had been many, many years since Jackie and I rode on the boat at the foot of the falls. The bad news: the oldest and the youngest both ended up with soaking wet feet for the rest of the day.

Jackie and I had a marvellous few weeks with our visitors and hope to meet up again somewhere in the world next year. The family has now returned to Norway, having made a lot of new memories. We are once again busy preparing the motorhome for its next adventure.

The Cummins maintenance manual says I can drive up to 40,000 kilometres between oil changes, but it also recommends changing the oil once a year. Although our motorhome is a 2025 model, it was actually built in 2024 and had never had its first oil change.

The bill came to $824 for an engine oil change, an oil filter, and a diesel fuel filter!

The owner’s manual states that the engine takes 15.1 litres of oil, but it also mentions that engines equipped with the optional high-capacity oil pan may require as much as 18 litres. It even suggests that, if you are unsure, you should start with 15 litres and then add oil one litre at a time until the dipstick reads “Full.” It turns out that the last part was most relevant to our motorhome because it required 28 litres of SAE 15W-40 oil. We stood there and watched the mechanic pour it in. I counted the empty containers.

As I write this, we are heading north before turning west towards Vancouver.