On the road again

Day three was by far the best day of the trip so far. With Manitoba behind us, we were looking forward to Sioux Narrows Provincial Park for some camping. We started the morning with breakfast at a nice sit-down Pizza Hut in Kenora, ON. It had a great view of a harbor and the waiter was a hilarious and very friendly older gentleman. We ordered water to drink he replied, “Very good. The only time you have to worry about the water here is when you see me running down there with a bucket (pointing at the pier below).”

After a bit more driving, we arrived at the park and were greeted warmly by a man cutting down dead trees at the gate. “Colorado? Boy you’re really lost.” He informed us that the park manager recently had a hip replacement and invited us to take a look around the park before meeting with her. We made a couple laps around the campgrounds and found a great spot for our tent before heading into her house/manager’s office to say hello. She was laying there in a bed with a huge pile of books and welcomed us along with the man from the entrance. She was very spirited and funny, a hearty old Canadian woman.

There was some confusion, however, because when I asked how much it would cost to stay there she replied, “Twenty-five and twenty-five.” After returning to camp and thinking about it, I didn’t know if that was $25 each, $25/day for each of 2 days, $25.25 or what. So we made another awkward hike back for clarification and it turned out to be $25.25, which seemed kind of random to me…

The park itself was very odd because they insisted on bringing everything to us. We didn’t pay at the gate, rather we set up tent and a few hours later someone came by in a truck to collect the pay for the day. We stopped by the manager’s office again later to ask for wood and she shooed us away, saying someone would bring it to us. For dinner, we took a trip to the town of Sioux Falls a few kilometers away and bought some bratwursts. However, not thinking, we neglected to buy either a lighter or lighter fluid.

Starting the camp fire proved difficult. Not only was it windy, but it had rained and all the wood we had collected was wet. In vain, I squinted hard at the fire but the death rays of my yester-youth failed to produce any semblance of sparks. Jenn impressed me with her ingenuity and lit a citronella candle we had along and poured the hot wax over some of the wood. This acted as a very weak fuel but was enough to get the fire started after about an hour. Soon our sausages were plump and our bellies full.

Earlier in the day, we had tried our hands at fishing -- with no luck -- but after some roasted marshmallows, we decided to have another go. Again, we never caught anything but it was a lot of fun nonetheless. We were some of the only people at the campsite and were pretty much always the only ones down at the water’s edge. There weren’t any real bugs to speak of and the weather was cool.

The night itself was freezing, but we bundled up in the tent and made it through ok. We spent this morning playing around at the beach and stopped by a nearby playground as well. We spent some time messing around on the swings before proceeding to the teeter-totters.

Laughingly we rose up higher and higher. I had a thought that I could trap Jenn in the air so I pushed down as hard as I could at the peak of my arc. I was able to hold her in the air for a few seconds but her momentum slammed her back down hard and launched me haphazardly into the air. I would probably have flown forward over the bar but, fortunately, I caught my groin on the handle and tumbled softly over the side amidst kaleidoscopic visions.

After that, we packed up camp. We had to wait an hour for one of the park guys to get back from lunch so we could pay and check out but then we were on the road again. Today is our 1 year anniversary together so we decided to go on to town for a hotel so we could clean up and go out to dinner.