Thursday 1 November 2012

They Think It's All Over...

... well, it is for this year.

Winding the camping season up, we headed again for Rondeau, which was resplendent in autumn colours. Tadpoles in attendance (of course they really wanted to come and leave their home comforts for a weekend!), we drove down under ominous looking skies and set up on pitch 67, the one we had used last week. 

Site 67 - very autumnal for Towed Haul and the Toadmobile


I still didn't get the backing up right, despite a much better approach. I turned a bit early and, looking over my right shoulder I couldn't see much. My trusty spotter, Mrs Toad, pointed out the error of my ways so I did what all chastened backer-uppers do and went forward to come in again. The pesky tree was in the way once more but we rolled gently back onto site and decided we were positioned well enough. Pushing a trailer backwards requires you to turn the front wheels of the car away from the direction you want to go in, which is confusing enough, but viewing that through a mirror as I was, my tiny brain sort of imploded. Hey ho, we landed safely.

The plan was to cook burgers and sausages on the fire but, just about as soon as we were ready to commence, the rain started. Lighting fires in the rain isn't so hard but the wet stuff just kept falling from the sky so we retreated inside, hoping it would stop. No such luck, I'm afraid, as it just fell all the more. Mrs Toad made an executive decision and we boys were despatched to Godfather's Pizza in Ridgetown for vittles. You may remember Godfather's from a previous trip, the purveyor of gold-plated pizzas; this time Mrs T whittled them down to a pair of silver-plated 'half and halfs' so thankfully we didn't need to consider selling the dog in order to pay for our meal.



The rain kept up all night whilst we had a game or two of Yahtzee and, for once, headed to bed at a reasonable hour. I did give the hound her nightly constitutional at about 10pm and wasn't surprised that most of the other campers were hunkered down for the night, lights off and probably snoring their heads off.

Saturday was grey, grey, grey but seriously enlivened by a lavishly hot shower at the excellent Comfort Station, that is after Doggie and I had explored the camp site in the morning gloom. One other Airstream to report, a 2011 25' Flying Cloud that hailed from Can-Am RV, as does Towed Haul. I was a bit cheeky and walked right through their campsite to get a look; it's not a heinous crime to crash another's site but it is poor form, although I don't think anyone was stirring in said Flying Cloud so I wasn't noticed.  I did check the dumpsters for trapped raccoons and, sure enough, a pair of eyes glared up at me from behind a furry mask in one of the skips. At least I could see now how they get in as one of the heavy plastic lids was skewed off to one side. I thought of lifting the hound up so she could have a look but I'm not sure what she'd make of a trapped raccoon so I demurred.

Dank Saturday Morning


When finally the rest of the Toads surfaced we drove out to Ridgetown and to Pinnell's Bakery. They didn't have any big meat pies in but we did get some sausage rolls (quite good, I can report to my fellow Brits) and cakes. Methinks we shall have to head out to Pinnell's more often, even when not camping. Lunch was acquired, once again, at Mr Horton's fine coffee house and we motored back to the Park to consume it.

Camping seems to assume a routine and that afternoon, as seems to always happen on a Saturday, we bundled the hound into the car and headed for the dog beach. Two poops and two pees plus a load of very excitable running and the dog-faced one was done in, ready to catch up on those 20 hours sleep a day that she tries to maintain. It's great letting the beast free in the open spaces, despite the park rules, and lovely to see her at speed. I'd probably have leashed her had there been anyone else about but we had that section of the beach to ourselves, so running was the order of the day.

Saturday evening was dedicated to a rather splendidly built camp fire and some sizzling sausage and burgers. The big tadpole is getting better at cooking over the inferno but he still lacks that essential bit of insanity that's required to get close to the conflagration. I keep telling him that it's only a bit of smoke and flame but he seems to object to regular singeing for some reason. He's a strange Tadpole, that one.

A splendid fire


We watched a serious DVD after supper, but don't ask me what it was about because I don't remember! I do remember remarking that it was a reasonable film but clearly it didn't move me. 

A dry but cold night morphed into a bright and sparkly Sunday morning so, armed with Smartphone and dog I headed out to take some photos. First stop was the dumpster to see if I could get a picture of the trapped raccoon. Imagine my surprise to find a whole family of the blighters in there, looking pretty scared but at least getting some comfort from the presence of their kin. I think it was big news amongst the campers because a few people wandered up and, like me, took pictures. I didn't find out until later but there was a lone raccoon in one of the other dumpsters, too; pesky varmints! Being a good Alumaholic, I did manage to sidle up to another Airstream that had arrived the previous afternoon. The lady of the house was quite strident and was happily bellowing at her dogs so I didn't engage the owners in conversation.

Slightly nervous 'coons

 
On these weekend jaunts, by the time we're all up and breakfasted (about 1pm!), it's time to be packing up, which is what we did. I was a little melancholy knowing that this was our last trip of the year but the relatively fine weather was cheering enough to put that smile back on my face. 

So that was it. Heading home and thinking about clearing out and cleaning Towed Haul ready for winter storage. A brief season for us but enjoyable all the same. The tadpoles sort of enjoyed it, the hound certainly did; as for us toads, we can't wait for next year.

As a postscript, young Willow picked up a couple of Deer Ticks on the trip, one I managed to get out properly, the other I made a bit of a mess of. Dog lovers everywhere will be pleased to hear that the hound will be having tests for Lyme Disease next year but that as the Ticks were pretty immature, the likelihood of infection was low. Fingers crossed, eh?


Sunny Sunday