May 23, 2005

May 23, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 6 of 113

DAY 340

 

Today was sunny and warm.

This morning I walked across the highway to the District Office to see if our boss Courtney was there. She wasn't. Today and tomorrow are her days off. I chatted with Tina, the Campground Attendant Supervisor and told her we still haven't had our responsibilities defined for us. She seemed a bit exasperated that Courtney still hasn't come over to see us. I spent the balance of the morning working on repairing the edge of the fibreglass dually "hip" where the bolts in the mud flap ripped through when I ripped the mud flap off trying to wedge the trailer into our site last Thursday. My fibreglass repair skills have improved with experience.

We had lunch, then I napped. We spent the afternoon cleaning and waxing another section of the trailer exterior. It's coming along well, and at this rate the entire trailer will be cleaned of bugs, tar, salt, and road grime, and waxed in 2 weeks. We took Bo for an obedience walk, then walked Bo and Teddy around the campground. It's almost deserted now. There's only a few other campers left. We got a couple of large garbage bags, and walked around cleaning up the litter left behind by this weekend's young campers. Once again, I guess if their mommies aren't around to clean up after them, they're content to live like pigs. I dislike litter anywhere, and I particularly detest it in a wilderness environment. What a lack of respect for the environment ! What ignorance !

We drove out of West Hawk, 2 km. south on Hwy. 44, then 2 km. east on hwy. 1 to the Manitoba Tourist information Centre at the Ontario border. We had 2 reasons for going there. First of all, we wanted to see the snack bar adjacent to the Tourist Information Centre that is for sale. Joanne found the listing in Friday's newspaper. Secondly, I needed to retrieve the MasterCard bill online, and we can't get a digital cell signal in the campground, only an analog signal. We had been told that we could get a digital signal at the Tourist Information Centre. I went into the snack bar called Mad Dog's, and chatted with the owner as if I were a customer, while Joanne phoned her sister. She had phoned her earlier from the campground, but kept losing the call due to a weak cell signal. Mad Dog's sells ice cream, soft drinks, Slushies, and that sort of stuff, as well as hot fast foods like burgers and fries. We'll phone the listing agent in Kenora tomorrow and get more information. I climbed into the back of the truck, hooked up the laptop to the cell phone, and retrieved the MasterCard bill. We drove back to West Hawk, and went to a local business called Major's Service Centre, a convenience store and gas bar that we were told has internet access available. I chatted with the employee there about their internet access service. She didn't know much. I'll have to go back some other time and talk to the owner.

We returned to the campground. I filled a large garbage bag to overflowing with litter left in two campsites' fire pits. I really, really, really detest campers who think that fire pits are garbage cans ! ! ! Filthy, wet towels, drinking glasses, aluminum cans, clothes hangers ... all tossed into the fire pits !

We barbecued a late supper in a peaceful campground. I worked on today's journal while I barbecued, listening to song birds. A pleasant change from the loud music we've been subjected to all weekend. Joanne noticed last night as she walked back from the bathroom that 2 young women were so engrossed in opening their car doors and trunk to allow the loud music out that they failed to notice the deer walking across their campsite behind them.

DSK