The Mid-Week Dash - Day 3

The hound, looking less than impressed

A storm-free night gave way to a cooler, brighter morning, one that led me to re-deploy the awning, if only for the comfort of the hound. I'd walked her a fair bit around the campground and this fine morning she seemed more reluctant than ever to take a stroll. She needed to be dragged, almost, away from the trailer and all the time that we're moving away then she's into sniffing everything and showing a great degree of interest in the squirrels, chipmunks and birds. As soon as I turn and start to go back towards the trailer she scoops up the loose leash in her mouth and gently tries to lead me back, ignoring all the things that had so interested her earlier. I think that this is because she's uneasy on the unfamiliar territory and is keen to get back to what she knows. Either that or she's bone idle.

I have to have a moan about the normally wonderful Park showers. Two days running, now, the water's gone cold and shown no signs of recovering, which is very poor and rocking my faith in the Ontario Parks system. Alright, I might be taking things a little too seriously here, they're only showers after all, but for me a good hot shower is something the Parks normally excel in providing. I feel an official complaint coming on!

So, it was time to pack, hitch up and leave. The un-hitching issue of the ball on the hitch being too high became the hitching issue, if only by a couple of inches. Mrs T came to the rescue, though, with an immediate solution; an angled approach to avoid at least some the awkward rise in the ground, thus getting one side of the car down lower and allowing the trailer to be dropped onto the ball - she's a clever one that Mrs T.

We had fun driving home with some construction work delaying us and meeting a whole plethora of very wide farm vehicles, police cars and busy junctions. Still, it's all experience and Mrs T was only fretting a little about getting to her 3.30 appointment. As a counter to my appalling backing up onto the camp site two days earlier, we managed to get the beast backed onto the driveway at home in matter of a minute or so; you win some, you lose some.

I have to say that this had been an unusual trip. It was a short, midweek break and I kept on getting my days muddled up, thinking Tuesday was Saturday and Wednesday was Sunday, but that could be just age I suppose. We haven't socialised on one of our jaunts before (we are anti-social sorts at the best of times), so that was quite interesting, what with catering for eight rather than four. We also didn't get to do a lot whilst there, mostly because the weather was so unpredictable. Lugging two bikes down there didn't really work as the big tadpole realised that he couldn't text whilst cycling so retired to his nylon cave in disgust, and I was still suckered into pumping up the tyres on the small tadpole's bike before she raced off and covered all her clean clothes with a brown muddy stripe from the wheels. Mudguards - old fashioned perhaps, but useful in my view. The tent worked quite well, though, even with the half fly-sheet (tut). I think that particular piece of equipment will accompany us on future tadpole trips. 

What next? Well, it's prep for the big trip, Toads Go East, where we hit the eastern seaboard of the US then head north to the Francophone heartlands of Quebec, quickly followed by some time in Canada's Capital city and the St Lawrence 1000 Islands region. Watch for rolling updates, toad fans.

As a postscript, I need to let you know that for some reason best known to Google, I can't view any of the comments you make on the blog. I see them in the Blogger Dashboard as published comments but can't see them as part of the blog, nor can I reply to them. I've raised a work ticket with Google but like most of these things it'll disappear into the machine, never to be seen again. Pffffft.