The First Of The Season - Part II

 

Day two started quietly, although there was evidence of a fair bit of rain through the night in the shape of a mass of tree debris covering every flat surface outside, and a wet Pleasure Dome and picnic table also gave the game away. That said, the sun was climbing in the sky and the temperatures also, as I sat outside and performed my ritual coffee making ceremony.  We live in a part of the world where getting up early is considered a virtue, so there were plenty of people out walking their dogs or cycling to the wash house, so I was far from alone.

As I mentioned earlier, we had nothing on our To Do list, so apart from my other ritual, walking over to the Comfort Station (what a lovely euphemism) for a shower, it was a quiet and uneventful start to the day. I’ve been using Provincial Park showers for many years now and every time I’m struck by what a crazy design the shower stalls are. It’s nice that you’re in a little cubicle, and it’s nice that there’s an area to dry off in, but the shower head is on the wrong wall. When it’s in use, the water sprays out into the drying area, so no matter where you put your shoes, they always get wet, and there is no dry floor anywhere. I often think that someone had the plans back to front, but the design is consistent across all the Ontario Parks I’ve been to. The showers were obviously designed by someone who was never going to use them, which is a common theme these days – see Tower Blocks and School Buses. The other moan I have is that the Park’s management have stopped using a professional cleaning company in the Comfort Stations and rely on the summer intake of students who become “Park Rangers”, to do the work. It’s not that the showers are horrible, they're not, but they’re not cleaned well and there is always a residue of sand in the shower pan. I get it that they want to save money, but the fees go up every year, and the service goes down. It’s sad but true. It would help if the receipts for the campground, and at the Parks’ gates, and from the Parks’ stores, were used to offset the costs, but that’s not how Government things work. Everything in the park, from roads maintenance to shower cleaning is looked at as a cost, and all the receipts end up in a central account back at Queens Park, which means it’s gouge the paying customer time, unfortunately. Anyway, enough of the social commentary.

Before lunch we did have a walk to explore the flora and fauna. There are a lot of oak trees here (Carolinian Forest rules), and a fair few species thereof. We had an idea that we might like a native oak in our garden at home, but like the venerable English Oak, all the native species grow to at least sixty feet tall, which probably won’t work in a suburban front yard. Still, it’s a pleasant task to check out the trees. We had a brief walk along the sandy beach, sadly strewn with the detritus of celebratory balloons, and plastic bags, then headed back to the camp site as the bugs were beginning to bite a bit.

Lunch was taken in the Airstream, an attempt was made to spend some time in the Pleasure Dome but that was aborted on the grounds that neither of us were in the mood for a sauna, then it was nap time. I could feel a bit of head coming on so went and lay on the bed, like the good old codger that I am, and slept for over an hour. I will claim that to be part of the decompressing regime, and it worked, because I felt a whole lot better for the experience.

Come four-thirty, we repaired to the Camp Store to get ice cream. Poor old DW took one lick of the pile of non-dairy ice cream perched atop her cone and the whole heap of it fell on the floor. To give the store staff their due, they did replace said ice cream, free of charge, so DW wiped away her tears and ate the new heap on the walk back to the camp site.

Supper was a home favourite, rice and “Tuna Gloop” (tinned tuna mixed with tinned mushroom soup, sometimes with peas, occasionally with crisps, but this evening neither peas or crisps) for me, and rice and homemade curry for DW. The food was great, and we were able to use our little rice cooking gizmo that we carry in the Airstream, but the cleanup wasn’t so easy. Washing up in a tiny sink and being concerned about what goes into the wastewater tank made it an easy thing to say let’s not do that meal again in the trailer.

As the evening rolled around and the temperatures dropped, we were able to make use of the Pleasure Dome, with the aid of a bug lantern and some beer and wine. We bought new chairs to go inside the Pleasuredome and I have to say that they’re very comfortable indeed. Sitting out there in the fading light we saw two Raccoons, or maybe it was the same Raccoon twice, ambling through our camp site. They’re not cuddly creatures but they do look cheeky with their little robbers’ masks. Mind you, leave any food out and they’ll definitely rob you.

It was a much warmer evening than last, and we both knew that it may be a bit sticky in the night, even with the constantly forecast storms lurking on the horizon. You can’t sleep in these Airstreams with the air conditioning system running because it’s just too noisy, so we opened as many windows as was feasible and I went to bed. Wednesday was looking as busy as Tuesday had been, which was excellent news.