Adventures of Fran and Stephen: Our West Coast Adventure Begins

Our West Coast Adventure Begins

Day One – Overcoming Early Challenges

We officially kicked off our journey to the west coast! Anticipating heavy cottage-bound traffic on a Saturday, we decided to leave very early, hoping to reach a Tesla Supercharger before the rush. Our goal was to charge without unhitching the trailer — essentially, to pull in sideways and block multiple stalls. With a full charge to start, we aimed to make it to Barrie for our first top-up.

But as all good road trips go, plans shifted.

Challenge #1: Headwinds.
We encountered strong winds — a steady 28 km/h, gusting up to 50 — which significantly reduced our range. So instead of Barrie, we made our first stop in Vaughan.

Challenge #2: Busy Superchargers.
At 6:50 a.m., the Vaughan Superchargers were already busy. We had no choice but to unhitch the trailer in order to charge the car.

Now, unhitching and hitching are still time-consuming tasks for me. I’ll get faster, but for now it’s a detailed process. Here’s the quick rundown:

To Hitch the Trailer:

Raise the stabilizer jacks.
Back the car up with precision so the power jack can lower the trailer hitch onto the car’s hitch.
Connect the hitch.
Raise the trailer and car together using the power jack to install the two weight distribution bars and chains.
Lower the jack so the car supports the trailer with the help of the bars.
Connect the two sway control bars (one on each side of the A-frame).
Attach crossed safety chains.
Plug in the 7-pin power cord and the breakaway cable.
Remove wheel chocks.
Check all lights.
Walk around to confirm everything is closed and secure.

To Unhitch?
Just reverse all of the above!

Fortunately, the Vaughan stop went smoothly, if slowly. After charging, we set the GPS for our first overnight stop: Bass Lake Provincial Park.

Now, our Tesla is fantastic at forecasting range without a trailer, but it’s still learning how to adjust for the Airstream. Despite having towed 600 km earlier this month, the high winds today made the car’s energy estimates too optimistic. So, knowing we’d arrive at the campground too early anyway, we stopped again — this time at the Barrie Petro-Canada/En Route station to use an Ivy 50 kW charger.

These chargers are rarely busy, and we were able to pull in sideways and charge without unhitching. Slower charging, yes — but it gave Fran a chance to enjoy breakfast while I had eaten earlier in Vaughan.

Arrival at Bass Lake

After about 40 minutes, we resumed the drive to Bass Lake. This campground holds special memories for me — it was a family favorite in the 1950s. But today, it’s changed. The entrance is in a different spot, and little looked familiar. Still, check-in was quick and easy.

We filled our fresh water tank before heading to our site. Backing in took some time, but it went smoothly. We left the trailer hitched, plugged in, and got the heater running — it was a chilly 10°C, windy, and occasionally rainy. But inside, we were warm and cozy.

Evening with Family

Later in the day, Catherine and Larry (our youngest daughter’s in-laws) called from Port Carling and surprised us with a visit. They picked us up and we enjoyed a lovely early dinner at a local Thai restaurant — great company and a fun way to wrap up the day.

We returned to the trailer for cookies, tea, and a downloaded Netflix show on Fran’s iPad.

A solid start to our westward journey.

— Stephen & Fran

Stephen installed our BRN (Big Red Number in Airstream parlance) the day before departure