July 3, 2005

July 3, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 47 of 113

YEAR 2 DAY 16

 

Today was sunny, warm, and humid. During the night there was a heavy thunderstorm. It knocked the power out for a couple of hours. Bo snuggled between our pillows, and seemed secure, but Teddy was freaked out. Poor Teddy. Just now ( 5:30 P.M. ) another thunderstorm began. The first minute or so was large hail. Ouch ! I hope the trailer roof and truck aren't damaged.

This morning I walked Bo, then went to shower. When I returned, Joanne and Bo were still in bed, so I crawled back into bed with them, and spent the morning lying around, dreaming and planning. The campground began to empty out by noon. Just before lunch I went to help a camper whose truck wouldn't start. It was an old, large, dump truck. I didn't ask why he uses an old dump truck to go camping. The starter was dead. I used Dee-Dee to tow him out of his campsite, then up to the top of the hill on the road in the campground, right behind our trailer. We are in the highest campsite in the campground. The dump truck had a standard transmission, so he was able to get it started by rolling it down the hill, and popping the clutch. Dee-Dee to the rescue once again. She's a powerful truck.

We had lunch, I read, then napped. So what else is new ? I did regular daily preventive maintenance, then we headed to Falcon Lake for groceries, fuel, and phone calls. The 11 km. from West Hawk to Falcon, on TCH 1, was pretty heavy traffic, heading home from cottage country to Winnipeg. There was a car rolled into the ditch near Falcon Lake. I reported it to Falcon's Park Patrol when we got there, but they were already aware of it. I dropped Joanne off at the grocery store, then went to fill up with diesel. There were line ups at all the fuel pumps. When I finally got filled up, I headed back to the grocery store, and made some phone calls to our sisters while waiting for Joanne to finish grocery shopping. When she returned, we drove into the Falcon Lake Campground to visit the campground hosts there. We had not met them yet. We stopped and visited with the Falcon Lake campground hosts briefly. Falcon's campground is larger, with roads nicely laid out in a grid pattern. There were a lot more big rigs at Falcon. It's definitely more big rig friendly than West Hawk, although the campground hosts, Sharon and Terry said a large fifth wheel making a u-turn in the campground yesterday hit the back window of its truck, and smashed out the window. That sounds like a truck with the fifth wheel hitch incorrectly located, or a short bed truck, which shouldn't be used to tow a fifth wheel anyways.

The thunderstorm has just ended, after 20 minutes. The air has cooled, and the humidity has diminished. The sun is trying to peek out.

We took Bo for a long obedience training walk. After 6 months of training, we've concluded that he understands our expectations as much as he ever is going to. Now we're trying to get him to respond appropriately without a biscuit reward, and without wearing a choker. After walking Bo, we cleaned up all the litter in sections H and B of the campground. Litter clean up is not part of our campground host responsibilities. I just can't tolerate a litter strewn campground. Once again, I'm appalled. I remember vividly my childhood lessons in cubs, scouts, and from my parents, that the only thing you leave behind in a campground are your footprints ! ! ! And I really would like to grab some people by the throat and explain to them the difference between a fire pit and a garbage can ! ! ! ! ! I barbecued supper, then sat down to watch a movie on TV. About 15 minutes before the movie was to end, there was a knock on the door. A late arriving camper ( from Ottawa ) wanted assistance finding a suitable campsite. I thought that was odd, since it was 9:45 P.M. and the campground office was supposed to be open until 10:15. I went outside and helped find them a suitable campsite. I couldn't help but notice that the campground attendant who was supposed to have the office open until 10:15 was sitting on her ass outside the campground office at 9:45 waiting for her ride home. I guess it's hard to find good help wherever you go ! ! !

DSK