May 30, 2005

May 30, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 13 of 113

DAY 347

 

Today was a beautiful, warm, sunny day, from beginning to end.

This morning I made some phone calls, from the pay phone. Our cell phone reception in the campground is almost non-existent. I used the pay phone to conduct some business, dialling toll free numbers, while Joanne drove out towards Falcon Lake to use the cell phone to phone our sisters to advise them that we'll be coming to Winnipeg tomorrow, and would like to mooch meals from them. I telefiled Misty Venture's quarterly GST remittance report, then phoned Ontario's Ministry of Transportation. I returned three license plates to Ontario last August for cancellation and refunds, and have not heard anything back from them yet. After being on hold for 15 minutes, I got an agent who pulled up my 3 license plate numbers, and they all show as being cancelled and refunds issued. Great ! That probably means the refunds were in the batch of November mail that Sharon forwarded to us in December, which we never received. The agent assisting me initiated a trace on the three refund cheques, and somebody, some day, will get back to me. I'll try not to hold my breath !

After lunch I installed the second tow hook on the front of Dee-Dee, then filed the fibreglass repair on the dually hip. It's ready for drilling and reinstallation of the mud flap. I unloaded the firewood in the back of the truck. We've been towing a load of firewood from the Missouri Ozarks since last November. We didn't have many camp fires this winter. We cleaned and waxed another section of the trailer. Finally, we went on a hike. West Hawk Lake campground is built around a huge granite rock outcropping. There is a hiking trail up, over, around, and back down the cliffs overlooking the lake. It's a short, but difficult hike that takes about an hour. Of course, we took a garbage bag with us, and picked up a lot of litter. Some of it's too disgusting to mention. When we got back down the cliff, at the water's edge beside Miller Beach, Bo needed a drink from the lake. He walked into the lake until he began to float, then had his drink. He sure does like to play around in water. I hope the algae that has just bloomed on the lake won't upset his stomach. We got back to our site, and visited with Elvira, the maintenance supervisor. We took Bo for a training session, then I left to go fishing at Star Lake, about 3 km. away. I fished for about 2 hours. Didn't catch anything, but it was very pleasant to sit on the dock, in the sun, on a warm day, watching ducks and loons.

I returned to West Hawk for a late supper, then we did a walk around the campground, meeting and greeting and offering assistance to today's arrivals.

DSK