Holidaze – Day 1

We slept in to 1030!!! Holy Cow! We never do that! But it was so good to sleep. I don’t give my body enough sleep, obviously. Alan and I ate a late breakky thing and then we set up the add-on screen room to the trailer. Once that was done we went to pick up a couple of things we had forgotten (Murphy’s Law) and then came back to start supper – hamburgers served with mushroom, spinach and garlic sauté. Alan’s sister Pat made us some desserts – that was so nice of her. Then after supper and doing the dishes we went on a “honk”. This word ”honk” has been in my family for years. Every night for two weeks at Shuswap Lake Campground in BC Mum, Dad, Rachel, and I after supper would go for a leisurely walk around the campground. The “honk” would inevitably end up at the corner store where we would pick up an ice cream treat. We would spend time visiting with people there and getting to know the store managers – my Dad liked to do this. Then we would meander back to our site and light a fire.
This is what Alan and I did too. Although we didn’t get to go to the ice cream store we had a lovely “honk” down by the lake and around the town. We came back and lit a pithy fire – the wood was to green – and were in bed by 2300. A lovely day..

Holidaze 2008

So we got away at somewhere around the 1600 time after finishing packing all our gear in to trailer and double checking to make sure we hadn’t forgotten anything. We arrived in Riding Mountain National Park about 1930. The park is beautiful and upon first glance we were very glad we had chosen to come here.

We get our campsite and are traveling around the bend where our site is located. A guy and what looks to be his son flag our truck down. “Just to let you know,” he says in a hushed tone, “a bear just went across the road.” Oh great, a bear. Nothing freaks me out more when camping than bears, or even just the thought of bears. Images fill my mind about the bear in The Clan of the Cave Bear ripping peoples heads off. I know this is a bit extreme and would probably never happen but the possibility is there, I’m sure! Although when I was younger our family had a couple of experiences with bears up in Loop Creek at the top of Rodgers Pass in BC. One time the bear tried to get into the tent trailer and its snout was coming through the canvas. My Mum was clanging pans together and My Dad took a cast iron frying pan and swung it like a baseball bat. It hit the bear smack on nose – we could hear it yelping as it ran away. So from that time on I have been very afraid of bears.

When Alan and I hear this news about the bear being in such close proximity to us Alan turns and looks at me; my face must have told him a thousand things. He asks, “You going to be ok with this?” It takes me a minute or so to answer as I am mentally weighing out the pros and cons of the situation (my husband deserves a medal for all the mental waiting with me he has to put up with) but finally I say it will be fine. We scope out our site and get things set up and fall into bed exhausted from the expectation and the realization that we are actually on holidays!!!!! Yay!

Freedom!!!! I predict it will happen at 1136 am tomorrow. Not that I am great at predictions, they are usually wrong. but I figure after I get out of my garb from church and head out the door then it is holiday time. Am I excited??? Nooooooooo. Only a teensy bit! HA!
Tomorrow is a bittersweet day again. It will be the last time for almost a year that I will not be worshiping with my home parish here. I am preaching tomorrow and have not said anything about leaving on internship – I think for my self preservation I shouldn’t – I am a mushface after all.
Peace to y’all who read this. I am leaving for some well deserved R&R for almost three weeks.