Local Locale

We're on the road again, dear Toad fans, only this time just down the way at Wheatley Provincial Park. It's still lake-side but a few kilometres west of Rondeau, our usual weekend haunt. This was a last minute decision because I've only just returned from the Motherland and the smallest Tadpole has a 24 hour birthday party to attend; but that's the beauty of being in a local localem isn't it? We can drop the aforementioned sprog at the aforementioned party and head back to the peaceful setting that is the Provincial Park.

I hadn't had much of an opportunity to prepare Towed Haul so she was a tad scruffy, inside and out, as I hitched up and loaded the car in the pleasant sunshine. Twenty-two degrees Celcius is comfortable when labouring around the trailer and she didn't look too bad despite the lack of attention. So it was that we rolled into Wheatley at six-thirty, along with a long line of other happy campers. As I checked in, the young Park employee kept tell me how everything was "Ar-sum", including my signature apparently, and I knew we were in for a "great" evening because she told me; more than once!

Escaping the "Ar-sum" Gatehouse, I realised, dear reader, that I should have filled the fresh water tank prior to leaving home. Dragging 450 lbs of of water that short distance wouldn't have mattered and we'd not have been in a long line to fill up at the one and only tap! Hey ho, you live and learn.

We threaded our way through the woods to site 134 in the Middle Creek Campground and were happy that it looked spruce and clean. When we'd backed in, we opeted for a slight lift of the trailer's left-hand side by driving it onto the Lego blocks we have for that purpose, but I think we overdid it and we're now camped with a slight lean to the right. Stephen Harper would be proud of us. Another live and learn moment methinks.

It certainly was a lovely evening, and very English in that the temperature started to drop off and dew began to form as the sun began to set; often it stays hot at night in these here parts so it made a nice change to have a gentle northerly eddying around the site. I took the hound out for a constitutional and to eye up the other trailers and ended up talking to just about everyone I met; these Greyhounds are certainly discussion topics. The water in the creeks surrounding the campgrounds was very low, leaving big muddy banks visible, which made the place look a bit sad I thought. Mind you, the Snapping Turtles were out in force and enjoying sitting on the mud doing what Snapping Turtles do, which is probably snapping things; who knows?

We had Tuna Gloop for supper, washed down with Guinness, for me and the small Tadpole at least, which was very enjoyable; that could become a camping staple I think, providing Mrs T doesn't find it too fishy of course.

As so it was to bed, a la Wally Byam club rules - "Early to bed, early to rise". That we were knackered had nothing to do with it!

More to follow Toad fans. Saturday looks interesting, well it does to me, so keep an eye for for the next thrilling installment of this Captain's Log.

(A side note: I'm going to try inserting a photograph directly into the Blog using the camera on this Tablet PC. What are the odds that it will work, I wonder?)