July 5 & 6, 2005

July 5 & 6, 2005

West Hawk Lake days 49 & 50 of 113

YEAR 2 DAYS 18 & 19

 

Tuesday ; Today started out cloudy and cool, with light drizzle. The sky cleared, and it warmed up in the afternoon. Turned out to be quite a pleasant day.

We headed for Winnipeg first thing this morning. We stopped in Lorette to pay our Autopac truck and trailer insurance premiums, and pick up a Sears catalogue order. We went to Sharon's for lunch. As soon as we drove into the Danelak's yard, Bo saw a rabbit, and as soon as we got out of the truck, he picked up the scents of rabbits and mice and whatever else runs around the Danelak's yard, and he turned unruly. It angers and embarrasses me. He seems to be so enamoured of their place, that he felt it necessary to claim it for his own by peeing in Sharon's hallway as soon as he was in the house. BAD DOG !

We had lunch, and visited with Sharon, then continued into Winnipeg. I dropped Joanne off at Wal-Mart to return the vehicle wax we don't like, and replenish supplies, and I went off to Canadian Tire to resolve the invoice error from a couple of weeks ago, and buy some dielectric compound / battery grease. I went to Petland nearby to see if they had some Natural Chemistry Waterless Bath. Elvira asked us to buy her some, for Boomer. Petland doesn't carry the Natural Chemistry line. I went to the PET VALU store in the area. It wasn't there any more ! I drove back to Wal-Mart to pick up Joanne. She was just going through the checkout when I got there. Good timing. We drove to GNR Camping World to make an appointment for service right after the Labour Day long weekend, and talk to them about flooring replacement in the trailer. We were not very impressed that, once again, these RV places act like it's an imposition on their time to have a job that will take 20 to 25 hours at $100 an hour ! Screw 'em ! I'm likely to take Harvey to the RV flooring specialty shop in Los Angeles next winter. On the way to the Carlson's we stopped at PET VALU in Southdale to buy the Waterless Bath. They were out of stock, until next week < sigh >.

We went to the Carlson's to visit and have supper. I went online to retrieve e-mail, update my blog, retrieve bank statements, retrieve investment data, and do a bit of research on RV co-op parks in B.C.. I manned the barbecue, while Doug nursed his sore back. Doug had spent the day removing a set of patio doors from the living room to the porch, and replacing it with a wall and windows. We had supper, then I went with the nieces for a walk with Bo. Just before we left, Madeleine and Amelia were playing in the back yard with Bo and some beach balls. It was really amusing. Bo obviously can't catch and pick up a large beach ball, so he ran wildly around the back yard bumping and pushing a beach ball with his snout, trying to catch it and "kill" it. It was amusing until he finally trapped the beach ball in a corner of the fence, jumped on top of it, and bit it heartily, sending it to beach ball heaven. Unfortunately, once he learned that technique, it only took him another few seconds to "kill" the next beach ball. He sure can learn quickly, when he chooses to do so. I don't think Madeleine and Amelia were too happy about losing their two beach balls to Bo's killer terrier instincts. The last remaining beach ball was Madeleine's favourite Barbie beach ball, so it was rushed to safety before Bo could get it.

We left the Carlson's, and stopped at Zeller's in Southdale, to buy one last item Joanne wanted. On the drive from Winnipeg back to West Hawk Lake, from 8:30 to 10:00 P.M., we saw 11 deer. It's somewhat perilous to be driving on the highway at that time of the evening because of all the deer. We were stunned at how wet the fields are, and how swollen the rivers and creeks are. It's going to be a pretty dismal year for Manitoba's farmers.

At 11:00 P.M. there was a knock on the trailer door. A somewhat shaken camper had just had a face to face encounter with a bear as he came out of the bathroom building. I notified the Park Patrol about a bear in the campground, then Joanne and I set off to visit every camper in the campground, to ask them to "bear proof" their campsites. We were surprised at how many camp sites were "bear bait". Dirty supper dishes left on picnic tables, toiletries left on picnic tables, glasses with beverages left on picnic tables, many barbecues and camp stoves left outside, one site with a full bag of marshmallows thrown into the fire pit, etc.. Many campers were not in bed yet, but some were, so we had to disturb them, wake them up, and ask them to come out and clean up their sites. We only had one hostile response, and not surprisingly, it was from one of the worst offenders in terms of having a bear proof campsite. Have a nice night, asshole !

 

Wednesday ; Today was sunny and warm. WOO-HOO !

This morning I showered, then walked Bo. I couldn't help but notice that the two young, blond women in H4 were sitting on their picnic table looking very tired. They were really spooked last night when we came by to tell them about the bear in the campground, and I think they may have spent a sleepless night. When I returned later in the morning to bring them a bear brochure, they were asleep in their tent, so I'm pretty sure they didn't get much sleep during the night. I told them I was glad they had survived the night, because I hated having to clean up little blond bits in the morning after a bear attack. HA HA HA HA HA ! ! ! Poor girls will probably never set foot outside the city again.

I got a phone call this morning from Erbon Dickinson, our former PET VALU colleague and friend from Ottawa. He and his wife Lorraine are at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, just east of Thunder Bay. They will be here to visit us by the weekend. It'll be great to see them again. They sold their store, and retired, shortly before we did.

Beth the Park Interpreter brought her new summer staff for us to meet, and to tell us about this Friday's Amphitheatre program. It's about birds of prey, and will feature a visit by a special guest, a hawk belonging to one of Beth's former teachers. I guess we'll leave Bo home on Friday night. The new staff introduced themselves. "Hi, I'm Samantha." "Hi, I'm Erin." I looked at them and thought ... well, of course, you are ! I guess nobody names their children Daniel and Joanne nowadays.

We had a very busy late afternoon and evening assisting late arriving campers. Wednesdays are now the only evenings that the campground office is not open late. A very long Class A motorhome managed to sneak by us before we could jump out of the trailer and stop him, and he got himself tangled up in section C of the campground. It was a very long, very new, motorhome driven by an inexperienced owner. A "type A" kind of guy, in a big rush. To make a long story short, he managed to back the rig over a campsite marker post, a metal tube imbedded in concrete. He ripped the back bumper off the motorhome, and tore the lower fibreglass skirting of the rig, from the rear bumper all the way to the rear tire. At least a couple of thousand dollars worth of damage on his new motorhome. By the time I chased him down, and caught up with him in Section C, the damage was done. We are usually fast enough to get out of our rig and stoplarge rigs from driving past our site, and getting themselves in where they shouldn't be. I guided them into a suitable site in section A, and tried to console him as best as I could. I know how painful it is to cause damage due to one's own impatience, seasoned with a touch of arrogance. A few hours later, after the stinging of the wound had subsided just a teensy bit for him, I offered some full time RV'er advice. Hey ... now I'm the "old pro" giving advice to the rookies who are screwing up.

Ann the firewood lady came by, and Joanne told her that we weren't interested in purchasing her farm, or business. She expected that. She proposed that we sell firewood for her, from our site. We buy it "wholesale", and sell it "retail", a concept we understand very well. We struck a deal. As of tonight, we are selling firewood out of our campground host site. Ann thought we should seek and obtain the approval of the park bureaucrats. I think, when dealing with bureaucrats, it's easier to obtain forgiveness than permission. We'll just do it, until some bureaucrat actually decides that he/she has the authority to order us to stop.

I ended my day by updating our investment files in the computer. We're down a few thousand from a couple of weeks ago. C'est la vie !

DSK