The Rolling Estate's madien voyage took place in August of 2022. Mommy J took the Rolling Estate all the way to the Irish Hills of Michigan!
It was a tough haul for the first trip with the new trailer, but Mommy J was brave and pulled her way there; of course, she had some trusty passengers to guide and encourage her along the way.
Mommy J is an avid NASCAR Fan, and has been attending the race at Michigan International Speedway since 2012. Over the years she began to go with more and more people and it has become a friend trip every year for her and the gang. On this trip, it was even more special as it was the first one with The Rolling Estate. Mommy J got the chance to see how the truck pulled the trailer, how the trailer felt over a long distance, and got to try out all the gadgets inside before taking the rest of the family out in September.
If you have never been to a NASCAR Race, Mommy J highly recommends heading out to experience it!
One of our first trips as a family took place at the Niagara Falls KOA.
Little R says it was great! She enjoyed the wagon ride, the Halloween trick-or-treating, and of course the indoor swimming pool!
Mama S and Mommy J took time to relax and get things organized throughout this first trip; after all, it was the first one as a family!
Wheatley Provincial Park was a new park for Mommy J and Little R, but Mama S has been going since she was young.
The Rolling Estate family is no stranger to this neck of the woods because if you have never been, you totally should go! The Rolling Estate heads down to this area at the end of every September to catch a beautiful glimpse of the Monarch Migration at Point Peele National Park. Mommy J is fascinated by these beautiful creatures, and Little R has taken a similar liking to them.
While you're at Point Peele hike down to the tip and take a picture with a breathtaking background. In our experience, the point changes each year so it's nice to capture the changes each year.
The Rolling Estate family tried to get one more trip in before the end of the 2022 season.
Bronte Creek Provincial Park is a beautiful place, and I highly recommend you check it out. We found out the hard way that we should always investigate and plan the sites that we want to stay at. Going to Bronte Creek was an excellent idea, until we were arriving in the dark, and then our site was anything but ideal. What the site description failed to mention was that there were GIANT boulders on either side of the roadway, and it made backing a very hard task. At one point we almost took out the front bumper of the truck trying to get the trailer onto the site. Would it have been better during the day? Possibly, but we had no other options for the evening and plans for the following day. We gave it every attempt to get the trailer onto the site, but we were unsuccessful.
Mommy J was really hard on herself, and felt that much of it was her fault, of course, this was not the case! The site was big and beautiful, but there was no way our 28.5ft trailer and truck were backing onto that site without hitting a rock! Not every day is sunny and happy with the Rolling Estate, and we want you to know that we will share our trials, triumphs and failures with you because we're human!
In 2022, we drove a total of 1935 KMs for all trips and maintenance.
We started this season off with a trip to the Niagara Falls KOA Holiday. We arrived on Friday May 19, and stayed until May 22. During the weekend there were many activities to participate in, and the indoor pool was a blast for Little R. The activities and itinerary put together by the KOA is phenomenal and kept Little R very busy with crafts and fun. The journey out was a good one, and traffic was perfect. We only forgot a few things, but found some local shops to purchase these items.
Early June, 2023, we headed down the road to Darlington Provincial Park. We arrived to a pull-thru site close enough to see beautiful Lake Ontario. The site was very large and provided full sun throughout the day. We attended a "scat" information session held down at the beach by park staff, dipped our toes into the chilly lake. During our trip we ventured into town and visited a few places including Watson Farms, and the Parkwood National Historic Site. We did some shopping at the market and had some great walks around the park too. Memories were made roasting marshmallows, dancing, and playing charades!
An impromptu trip to a conservation area in our own backyard! The Rolling Estate family decided that we needed to be out in nature for a little while before our next trip! We packed up and headed over to Brant Conservation Area for a four-day get-away. With some VERY hot weather, wind, rain, and storms the first couple of days we stayed inside to keep cool. We did take some time to walk in the rain, play in the mud, look for toads, and splash around. The pool and splashpad were phenomenal and offered some shallow and deeper swimming options. Our campsite was very large and offered morning shade with afternoon sun, and an unusual amount of earwigs - YUCK! Mama S was still working through the week and spent most of her days in the trailer working away while Mommy J and Little R did crafts, walks, and swimming. We added a "Poop Caboose" (aka Honey wagon or portable waste tank) to the Rolling Estate to ensure we can continue to travel without sewage connections if needed. On this trip, we even had a very close friend come out to visit and stay for a Rolling Estate dinner and fire. All-in-all this was a great trip out and we will certainly be back to Brant Park in the future!
We headed out to Pinery Provincial Park to cross off a great lake from the list! Our trip out was smooth, and quite easy to get to. We made a few pit stops for coffee and snacks along the way, and the weather wasn't the best when we first arrived. We had to put up with some thunderstorms in the area which didn't sit well with any of us as the service was quite spotty at our site. We didn't have the best site, and quickly realized that we should have investigated a little more before selecting. Our campsite was on the corner which provided an easy entry, but tricky pull out. Additionally, the site was filled with poision ivy which made C-Bears bathroom breaks a little tricky! Little R adapted well and quickly learned all about the "leaves of 3 leave them be."
We did venture into town, and down to Lake Huron but the water was so rough from the storms that had come in. Pinery is a HUGE park and so we needed to drive to get everywhere! We did make it down to Dunes Beach, but again the water was so choppy that we couldn't get any swimming in. All in all, a great trip, another great lake crossed off, and another adventure for the books!
Another year of racing and The Rolling Estate rolled our way down to Michigan International Speedway. The weather Thursday and Friday did not disappoint, however, that all changed on Saturday and Sunday when a system of wet weather moved through. This was the first time Mommy J has ever shivered in the stands, and also stayed to watch the race get underway on a Monday - how exciting! Mommy J had a blast and met some new people who will likely be friends for a lifetime.
A new camping experience for the Rolling Estate, and mostly so that we could see family and visit Santa's Village! The Rolling Estate family pulled in and had a 4 day wonderful stay at this little place. Interestingly enough, it use to be a KOA campground, and has since gone private. There is so much to see and do here - canoeing, fishing, hiking, and watching the gophers!!! This was sometimes our favourite part of camping here; in the morning when you woke up, they were everywhere!!
The added bonus for us was the heated pool as the temps were not as ideal as we would have liked them to be!
A great trip, and a great place. We will definitely be back here!
Our trip to Barrie was filled with some laughs, some tears, and of course making friends - because that's what camping is all about!!
Little R had so many other littles to hang around and play with, and even made a friend that lives fairly close to us! Mama S, and Mommy J spent some time cleaning and rearranging things in the trailer. We had a perfect corner lot, although, it was on a bit of a hill which made levelling it very tricky.
We went exploring to the Wye Marsh, and out with Family on their boat which was pretty amazing - we toured most of Georgian Bay which was pretty incredible! The following day we did a day trip out so Beausoleil Islands National Park and went hiking. You can only access this national park by boat which was pretty cool. There was a rich sense of culture and a lot to see and do while we were there - in fact, we even saved a Monarch!
Ah, the final trip out for the season! This trip is always bittersweet. We always head out to try and catch a glimpse of the Monarch migration, and this year was slightly disappointing as the weather just wasn't right. The funny thing with nature is that you're either too early or too late and this year, we were just caught in a bad week of weather. We did see a couple, but not as many as we had of liked, and we did make it out to the point which was quite different this year in comparison to previous years. We got our picture down at the point, which was a much shorter walk this year.
Overall, this trip crossed off the third of the 5 great lakes for us! We're looking forward to 2024 and crossing off the last two!
This summer we drove a total of:
Trip planning in progress!
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