September 5, 2005

September 5, 2005

West Hawk Lake day 111 of 113

YEAR 2 DAY 80

 

Today was cloudy, very warm, and humid.

This morning I went to the Border Information Centre to get online, send and retrieve e-mail, update my blog, and retrieve some investment data. Then I trimmed my beard. We had lunch. We drained the bathroom grey water tank. We had thought that last Friday was the last time we would use the waste tote, but we had to use it again today. I had already removed the trailer hitch, and reinstalled the hitch receiver brake light. I did not want to remove the hitch receiver brake light, install the trailer hitch, then do the reverse again, so I hooked the waste tote to one of the front tow hooks on Dee-Dee, and backed up all the way to the dump station. It didn’t work great, hooking the tote to the tow hook, but it got the job done.

We had lunch, then I did some maintenance on our longest sewer hose. I needed to cut the last few inches off it. We cleaned the waste tote, then I hauled it up onto the roof of the trailer, and tied it down to the roof rack. We bought it specifically for this summer here at West Hawk, and have not travelled with it up on the roof, except from Winnipeg to here. I hope it’s going to be okay tied up on the roof. The alternative is to have it in the back of the truck, where it would take up a lot of space, and be vulnerable to theft. I guess if I have to keep it in the back of the truck, I could padlock it to the fifth wheel hitch. But that would still leave very little room for firewood, or anything else we might want to carry in the box of the truck. The box of the truck is already ¾ filled with the large aluminum tool chest, a large Rubbermaid tote, and the fifth wheel hitch. While up on the roof, I swept the summer's accumulation of wet pine needles off the roof, and the tops of the slides. I lowered the radio antenna to the travel position. I drove around the campground, and scavenged firewood. Many campers left firewood behind, this being the last weekend of summer. They also left broken lawn chairs, broken barbecues, torn tarps, torn mats, and plenty of empty water bottles, beer cans, and beer bottles. A real pig crowd this weekend ! We went to say goodbye to Peggy in the campground office, and to turn in our campground host daily journal reports, time sheets, and year end evaluation form. Our "supervisor" is away fora few days, and will obviously not be seeing us before we leave. This comes as no surprise. We have seen her a total of four times this summer, and the first time we saw her was 9 days after we arrived and started our jobs as campground hosts, with no idea at all what was expected of us, and what our responsibilities were. This is in keeping with the overall mismanagement of just about everything in this park. Manitoba Conservation seems to be an organization in dire need of some improvement. We took Bo for an obedience training walk. We visited with Billie and Elvira to say goodbye. We took Bo off his leash, and allowed him to run free for awhile. Bad idea ! I should know better. He disappeared into the forest, tracking the deer and two fawns, I think. Rather than go chasing him into the forest, we just ignored him and waited for him to return. He finally came out of the forest, but not exactly where he went in. We found him coming out of the forest in section H, probably about 500 feet from where he went in. We gave him a bath. How's that for punishment, Bo ? HA HA HA !

I printed some investment data and corporate accounting documents, then put the printer away for travel. I decided to go fishing at 6:00 P.M., and we would have a late supper when I returned. As I was leaving for Star Lake, our friends Erbon and Lorraine, from Ottawa, phoned from San Francisco. They have been travelling for 3 months, from Ottawa, to here, to the Yukon and Northwest Territories, and now to California. They were calling to see if we can co-ordinate a meeting to visit, perhaps in 3 weeks or so, perhaps in southern Alberta. They want to be home in Ottawa in about a month. From San Francisco they will head to San Diego, then the Grand Canyon, then start heading north towards home.

I fished at Star lake for about an hour, catching and releasing one perch. When I returned to West Hawk, I started a campfire. We sat around the campfire eating a salad, then roasting wieners. Haven't roasted wieners in a long time ! Just as we were finishing dessert, freshly baked brownies, it began to rain. Joanne went inside to wash dishes, and I took Bo for his last bathroom walk of the day. We watched the news, then I worked on this journal entry, getting sleepy listening to the sound of light rain on the roof.

DSK