July 26, 2005

July 26, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 70 of 113

YEAR 2 DAY 39

 

Today was sunny and cool.

This morning after doing regular preventive maintenance we headed to Kenora for a day of shopping. Joanne drove. Shortly after leaving West Hawk, a female mallard and her brood came waddling across the highway as we approached. Joanne managed to avoid hitting any of them, but the car behind us didn't see them in time. As we dodged the ducks, and I looked over my shoulder, I saw the car behind us hit the line of them crossing the highway. AWWWW ... poor little ducks ! All the way to Kenora we were passing bicyclists on a cross Canada bicycle caravan. We figured that out by seeing a few of their support vehicles. Our first stop in Kenora was at the Bank Of Montreal, where we had some banking to do. We used the BMO Instant Banking function for the first time. All went well. From the bank it was over to Tim Horton's for lunch. Many of the cross Canada cyclists, and their support people, were there having lunch. One of the cyclists was wearing an Athens 2004 Olympics team jersey. I wonder if he was a member of Canada's Olympic cycling team ? After lunch we drove over to Wal-Mart, where we bought a fairly large amount of groceries and supplies. Finally, over to Safeway for some groceries and fresh produce that's not available at Wal-Mart. We noticed that the waterfront laundromat across the street from Safeway is now sold. On the way back to West Hawk, we discussed the pros and cons of buying the laundromat at Clear Lake in Riding Mountain National Park. Our business research ( and travel experience ) is leading us to conclude that laundromats are very viable businesses, especially in tourist areas. However, we both agree that we're really not all that eager to go "back to work".

Back at West Hawk, we unloaded our purchases, and while Joanne put things away, I walked the dog. Then I went for a long afternoon nap. I'm still feeling tired and weak. I guess that's just a symptom of a colitis flare up that has persisted for a few weeks now. When I got up, we took Bo for a long obedience training session. He did extremely well. We've discovered a training trick that really inspired him to perform well. The command we really, really want him to respond well to is "come". The command that can save his life, amongst other things, if and when he "escapes" near traffic. He finds it to be great fun if, while oneof us "sits and stays" him, the other one hides before commanding "come". The command becomes a game of "hide and seek", and he loves it. Once again, the office was opened late, and closed early today, so just before it closed we went down to the office to record what electrical sites were still available, for this evening's late arrivals.

While Joanne worked on supper preparations, I did today's accounting and began working on today's journal entry. One of the things we have been doing recently has been to review, on a daily basis, my journal entries from the same date a year ago. It's an interesting look back. As a result of reading last year's entries, Joanne has suggested that my current entries are getting too long, and might benefit from being more concise. I agree, but obviously am failing at my attempts to write less ! I guess part of it is this campground host gig. I’ve got lots of time to sit around being verbose ! I'll work harder on it ... starting tomorrow. HA HA HA !

We were kept very busy tonight with late arrivals, and questions and problems from campers. Where's the dump station ? May I borrow a drill ? What's the cloud of purple, pungent smoke coming from section C, wafting over the campground ? I never was able to ascertain the answer to that one, but it sure left a stinky cloud over the campground.

DSK