July 6 - Time to Stop for the Day

Dewberry to Elk Point - That was the plan. However, as you've likely guessed, this quickly changed. Along the Hwy 41, I saw signs for Whitney Provincial Park Campgrounds. The boys and I agreed to check it out. The signs led us to Ross Lake Campground, which is within the provincial park. We drove around a few of the loops and all agreed that it would be a great place to spend the night. We were all ready for the rest. You see, I used to be so afraid of driving that I'd barely leave the city, I eventually did some short highway driving and then a few longer trips, but nothing as long as this. Crazy since I've had my licence for over 16 years.

We chose spot A9, given the easy access to the water. We set up our tent - with only a bit of bickering, and decided we should start a fire. So, off we went to buy some firewood. Another fork in the road - firewood was not for sale at this site on Tuesdays. We went back to the tent, the wind started to blow, the rain started to pour and we were stuck with no firewood, no candles and no flashlights. This was my moment to panic. I did what I think everyone expected of me all along, I called my husband crying.

"I can't do it. I don't know what I was thinking. It's raining and cold. We have no firewood and we can't buy any. You told me everything we needed was in the camping tool box, but there are no candles and no flashlights. The tent is blowing in the hard wind and getting wet. I'm taking the boys back to Lloyd to stay in a hotel."

"Ok," was all he replied.

I hung up my cell, looked at the boys, and shock myself off. Ok, 'I am not a girly-girly, I can do this.' So, I told the boys that we were staying. There response, "Dad said no to the hotel didn't he." Not even my boys believed that we could do this. Here we were at this beautiful campsite and we were going to make the most of it.

We drove back to where they sold the firewood; perhaps we were hopeful that we'd read the sign wrong, but of course we hadn't. We drove down towards group camping to see if we'd missed anything on our first drive-thru of the park. On our way back towards our campsite I decided to stop by and visit the campground hosts, perhaps they could help me?

Was I ever correct. Not only did they give us enough firewood to get us through the night, they gave us a fire-starter candle, some maps of the area, a few activity ideas and offered my boys the use of their paddle boat and life-jackets. Maybe it was their kind spirit that help to part the skies and let in the sun, because shortly after our visit things started to somewhat improve.

It took us almost an hour to get our first fire started (keep in mind some of the wood was wet), but we did it. Once we got it going the boys decided they wanted to go to the beach. This meant putting out the fire that we'd tried so hard to start; I was a bit annoyed but realized this was to be as much their vacation as mine. We got back into he van and drove towards the lovely sanded public beach. We tied Buzz leash onto the 'no dog's allowed on beach' sign and went down to the water. It was chilly, but you quickly got used to it. After a brief bit of water fun, it was time to go back and attempt to start another camp fire. Surrounded by ants, we laughed about how we might get rid of them, pocking them with hot sticks, dumping boiling water on them or a few other possible options. Eventually we gave up, and after a few bites to my feet I barely noticed they were there.

This time we managed to get one up and going in almost half-an-hour; pretty awesome if I do say so myself. We roasted marshmellows, talked and giggled. I read a chapter of our book and then we went to bed; another big day ahead of us tomorrow.