A warm night. OK, a hot night, tempered only by the occasional rumble of the air conditioner on the roof, but I slept reasonably well. I’m going through a phase of waking ridiculously early and not being able to get back to sleep, so I was up and about outside the trailer before seven, making up some coffee and reading my book.
Despite the dire weather forecast there had been no storms,
not even any rain, so I brought the awning out again, having put it away the
previous evening. The Zip Dee awnings on Airstreams are great, but they are not
good in windy weather and have a tendency to break their support arms, so it’s
always wise to stow them if the weather looks a bit suspect. The way we’re
parked, we’re in the shade in the morning, but putting the awning out makes it
feel like you have an additional room in your trailer, so out it came, if only to
create an atmosphere.
I did eventually make my way to the “Comfort Station” –
toilet and shower block to you and I – for a shower, and that’s one of the
treats of Ontario Provincial Parks. We have a shower in the Airstream, but it’s
small, and it uses up both fresh water and space in the grey water waste tank,
so I make use of the Park’s facilities. I’ve spoken before about the curious
design of the shower stalls, made to wet anything within range, and the fact
that the authorities have saved money by getting rid of the cleaning
contractors in favour of letting the Park’s own employees do the task,
reluctantly and not at all well. But even a slightly grimy and sand filled
shower stall doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of privacy and copious amounts
of hot water. I always feel better after a park shower.
I do find it odd, though, that people feel the need to drive
to the Comfort Station from their sites. It must have taken me three or four
minutes to walk, in the glorious sunshine, yet my camping neighbours, on the
two sites to the north of us, felt the need to drive. Each to their own, I
guess.
Talking of walking (I’m a poet and I didn’t know it), what
is this thing with electric bicycles? People haul a pair of big electric
bicycles with them on camping trips, then scoot around the park on them, and I
don’t know why. Not the scooting around, but why the need for electric motors
and batteries? Everyone with these bikes looks more than capable of using a
regular person-powered bicycle, especially here as it’s as flat as a billiard
table. I suppose they go a little faster than a regular bike, but it seems a
bit pointless to me. Again, each to their own.
The day was then spent doing the square root of nothing at
all. Well, not quite. I caught up on blogging, wrote a couple of notes to
people, read a third of my book without falling asleep, so maybe it was a
productive day. The main aim of the trip, though, is to recharge a little after
the big UK trip. A holiday from the holiday. In that respect, all aims were
being achieved.
I say it every time we come to Rondeau, but we are so lucky to live close to such a wonderful place. It’s a spit of land jutting out into Lake Erie, has 12km of sandy beaches on one side, and a captive, shallow pond, Rondeau Bay, on the other. It’s also one of the last vestiges of natural Carolinian Forest left in North America and is home to an amazing array of flora and fauna. The bay’s turtles have done laying their eggs, but they’re still around. The snakes, though you rarely see them, are about, and the rabbits and chipmunks are legion. Indeed, so legion that I had one little cheeky chipmunk try climbing my leg as I sat reading my book. The surprise was enough, but DW has seen the event unfold and failed to mention the impending assault. As I’m sat here writing, under the awning again, the chipmunks are skittering around my feet. The little buggers.
Birds are the real draw here at Rondeau, though. As we sat
out in the afternoon, we watched Grackles and Red-Winged Blackbirds bouncing
around our patio mat. A blue jay sat on the fire ring not eight feet away, and
the Mourning Doves and American Robins were everywhere. We saw an occasional
Baltimore Oriel, and some Yellow Warblers, and high above the tree canopy, the
Turkey Vultures circled on the breeze. There are many birds you can’t see but
can hear, and that’s where the Merlin bird call phone app comes in, listening
for birds and suggesting what type of bird it’s hearing. It all great stuff and
is what makes Rondeau such a wonderful place to visit.
It was baked potato and beans for supper, plus beer and
wine, and a squiz at an old movie to wind down in the evening. Our film was “Went
The Day Well”, a classic British wartime movie about a failed German invasion in
rural in England during the Second World War. I don’t know how I’d never seen
it before, and I may have to watch it again, because I managed to fall asleep
during parts of it, and that takes me all the way back to the beginning of this
post, when you wake early, you end up falling asleep early. Still, who’s
complaining?
We’re here until Friday, it’s a long weekend in coming up in
Canada, and so far, we have had great weather, despite the forecast. Let’s hope
it stays that way.
