October 28, 2004

October 28, 2004

Trout Lodge

DAY 133

 

Joanne's Hallowe'en Horror Story, inspired by our return to the trailer from Trout Lodge last night ;

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It was a dark night. A very dark night. And foggy. Very foggy. She waited outside the laundromat. In the dark. In the fog. In the mist. Suddenly she heard it. Up high, over the hill, in the parking lot she couldn't see.

GRRRRRGRRRRGRRRRGRRRRGRRRR.

The horrible sound of a diesel engine starting. Soon it began to get louder. It was coming closer. Before she could see it, she could see the lights, shining up into the fog, from the other side of the hill.

GRRRRGRRRRGRRRRGRRRRGRRRR

She felt very alone. And very vulnerable. < insert scary music here > It crested the hill. OMIGOD ! THE DEMON DIESEL DUALLY ! As it came over the crest of the hill, it caught her in the headlights, like a deer.

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It was another warm, humid day today. I am thrilled to be wearing shorts while working outside on October 28 right up until the end of my work shift at 9:30 P.M.. Today was the first of three days of Hallowe'en events and programs here. Today was "Community Day". The local towns people were invited out for an evening of trick or treating, and haunted hay rides. Our work shift started at 4:00 P.M., with guests arriving about 5:30. My first task was relocating an alligator snapping turtle from Triangle Y Ranch, to the trout ponds area. We were just reporting for work when the ranch called on the radio for maintenance to come and relocate this turtle. I volunteered to do it. The ranch's "cowboys" ... "wranglers" < snicker > were afraid to handle a snapping turtle. I put on gloves, picked the wayward turtle up, and carried it over to the trout pond area, where I placed it beside the creek feeding the trout ponds. That's probably where it came from in the first place. With all the guests coming in for the evening, and hayrides, and horses at the ranch, it was in jeopardy leaving it at the ranch. Damn thing started to feel pretty heavy after I'd been carrying it for 15 minutes or so. And it excreted odour all over my work gloves. PEEUUWW ... they reek ! Later I asked the Outdoor Education people what's the difference between an alligator snapping turtle, and the snapping turtles I've seen in Manitoba and Ontario. Alligator snappers are a type of turtle indigenous to Missouri. Their colouring is subtly different. Yeah ... and they stink more !

Our next assignment was to position luminaries ( tea light candles in a paper bag with some sand on the bottom ) to light the trick or treat path all the way from Trout Lodge to and through Camp Lakewood and all the way to Triangle Y Ranch. We walked to Hillcrest Hall, picked up a couple of old children’s wagons with wonky wheels, filled with these luminaries, and set off to walk from the lodge to the ranch, probably a distance of about a mile, setting out a luminary every couple of hundred feet. When we were done, we walked back to the lodge pulling the wonky wheel wagons. When we got back to the lodge, our next assignment was to walk the same route, and light the candles inside the paper bags < sigh >. Off we went again. Part way from the lodge to the ranch, we found trick or treat station no. 3 ( of 9 ) was unstaffed, and guests were already walking the route trick or treating. We called the “boss”, and he assigned Joanne to the station. I continued down the route, lighting candles. When I got to trick or treat station no. 5, again it was unstaffed. I guess “it’s hard to get good help” everywhere ... a universal business problem. I closed the station, hid the signage, repositioned luminaries to prevent guests from heading to trick or treat station 5, then rushed to continue lighting the rest of the route. It was now about 6:30, and the route was filled with trick or treating kids. When I finished lighting the luminaries all the way to the ranch, I rushed back to trick or treat station 5, and opened it “for business”.

WHEW ! Up and down these hills, back and forth from the lodge to the ranch over and over, was quite an aerobic workout, especially pulling these damn wagons with the wonky wheels. Joanne manned station 3, and I manned station 5, until all the trick or treaters were finished, about 8:30, when we received our last assignment of the evening. Extinguish and pick up all the luminaries, from the ranch back to the lodge < bigger sigh >. We trudged with the wagon back to the ranch, and began extinguishing and picking up luminaries back to the lodge. We finished at 9:30. We returned to the trailer, hungry because we missed supper, and with sore legs.

DSK