Our most expensive campground ever!

We didn't want to overstay our welcome in the overflow parking lot at my mother's building here in Ottawa. And although it wasn't ideal, it was okay for a couple of nights.

So, what were our options? 

While Igor is well set up for boondocking, there aren't a lot of suitable places to do so around Ottawa. And, we've got a furnace arriving Monday, and the new refrigerator arriving Tuesday. And both require installation and somewhere convenient to do those jobs.

So we could have taken off for the weekend and driven out of town. 

Of course our original intention was to be house sitting for the month of October. But after that fell apart, there haven't been many suitable opportunities and while we've applied for a couple, we've been only just  too late. 

Renting an Airbnb for a week or ten days was a quick thought, but of course anything half decent in Ottawa is well over a hundred bucks a night.

There is a municipal campground on the outskirts of Ottawa's west end. It's been there since 1967, and operated by the city until 2012 when it was taken over by the Wesley Clover Foundation as a "non-profit" entity. We've been there before as visitors, and it's quite a nice park with lots of well shaded and separated sites. I figured that maybe we could get a decent enough deal for a week at an unserviced site.

They aren't by any means cheap though. How they can be considered "non-profit" at these rates is a bit of a joke. The profits are obviously being funneled somewhere!

Igor in his site at Wesley Clover Park Campground.

We drove over there yesterday around lunchtime and had a look at the available sites. Unfortunately the unserviced ones were all heavily shaded. Great for hot weather, but not great for getting some power into our solar panels. And, it's actually supposed to get chilly next week.

The next cheapest option was the 15 amp sites. But they are winding things down because it's the end of the season, and they have already closed that section off! We spoke to the manager and they agreed to give us a 30 Amp site for the 15 Amp price. He saw Igor, and realized that we wouldn't be heavy users of electricity.

But, just like a KOA (Keep On Adding), you have to add on a $6 administration fee (??) and a $6 a day fee for the extra vehicle. However, he agreed to make it a one time fee of $6 for the car.

And then of course 13% tax on top of all that. Total bill for the week comes to $379 CAD ($279 USD) or $54 CAD ($40 USD) per day. I think this might be the most we've ever paid for a campsite!

Oh well. We're now set up for a week, and it will be no problem doing the work that I have planned on Igor. And, there are lots of hiking trails on the 500 acre park property, and we're only a 15 minute drive to my mom's place.

After we got set up, Ruth and I went to have a coffee with an old friend of mine Tyler, and his lady friend Sheron. I originally met Tyler when I was working at a body shop way back in the early 1980's and he was the accountant there. He also owned a mint condition 1957 Chevy Convertible! Oh... I still have some photos of that car!

1957 Belair Convertible.

Wow, indeed!

This car was rare, in that it had every available factory option.

I remember that Tyler had to dispose of this car as part of his divorce! If I remember correctly, he sold it for $40,000 USD around 1993 which of course was a big chunk of money. The same car today would likely fetch about $140,000 USD.

Always fun getting together with Tyler and Sheron. We try to do that once a year when we come back to the Ottawa area. We forgot to get a photo together! Oh well... next year!

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