Got an early start at breaking camp at Birds Hill park so I could make my appointment at the Land Rover Service Center in Winnipeg, stopping off at a Walmart to pick up a new camera just in case my Casio goes on the blink. At least it is giving me warning [Lens Error] compared to my Cannon which just went on the blink without warning. I have bought my last Cannon camera.
I thought my Birds Hill campsite was devoid of other life except squirrels but changed my mind when a skunk ambled by our site this morning. All it took was a "boo" from me to get that cute little critter on the run. Skunks obviousky do not know that they have thre upper hand (or whatever limb you wish to substitute) when it comes to confrontations with humans, humane humans anyway.
Everything is so convenient in Canada. The Walmart I wanted to go to was just a few blocks off the Winnipeg permineter road on the way to the Land Rover place, which itself was conveniently located right on Highway 1, which I needed to take out of town. I had to rush through my sale and bought a nifty Nikon Coolpix camera for the price Cannor wanted to charge me for the toy they sold me two years ago, which broke one month after my warranty expired. Hopeful that Nikons do not go on ther blink as Cannons and Casios do, I still bought an extra year warranty for $20, and then got on my way, arriving at the Land Rover place two minutes before my 10:15 appointment.
What i thought was going to be a two hour wait for my oil change (etc.) and installation of the AC blower took five hiours, as Erde and I, in our camping finest, sat in the fancy waiting area, sipping the complimentary Starbucks coffee (me), slurping the complimentary bottlked water (Erde), and munching on the also complimentray choicoloate chip cookies (both of us). But the five hour wait was not the worst of it. The bill to install the blower, which with shippinhg and duty taxes cost $600, came to $1000, $1600 total. Ouch. But you do what you have to do, so I paid it and got on the way, but not before grabbibg two cups of complimentray Starbukcs coffe, a handful of complimentary cholcolate chip cookies and a few bottkes of equally complimentray bottled water, which brought the effecitve price of the not-complimentary installatiin to, I figured, $992.
Before the Defender was ready to go, occasionally we'd take a walk by the pond outside the auto center, where the Canadian geese stop off for a few days to rest before they head south. It was nice to see how the peoplke here tolerate the geese. In some places in the states, they declare those who overstay their welcome a nuisance and eliminate them. Maybe someone should rename them American geese to give them some protection on their migration.
By the time the Defender was ready, at 3pm, I hade to make a decison. My plan was to drive the 250 miles or so to Laker Audy in Riding Mountain National Park in Manitoba, where Leben and Erde and I spent two days last year. But the trip would take us about five hours, I figured, which we put us into Lake Audy, which is situated 15 miles off the park highwaty down a narrow dirt road populated by bears and bison, among other creatures, long afrter sunset, which I calculated from the sun would be 7:30. I like to get into camps between 5-6, and certainly no later than one hour before sunset, so I can finish with all the outside chores by the end of usuable daylight, usually one hour after sunset. And I certainly want to be off the highways by dark, especially narrow dirt roads in wildernesses, populated by bison and bears. So, I asked, do I go for Lake Audy and violate a few rules just to stay on schedule, when i really have no schedule? Ort do In stay at Birds Hill one more night and get a fresh start in the morning? Or do I get on the road and drive till I find it necessary to camp at the first site that comes up when I need to stop? Or do I drive to Riding National Park and stay at the camp at the entrance, then travel on to Laske Audy the next day. Or do I drive to the entrance of Riding National Park and make a decision about moving on when i get there? Bear in mind that of the more than 300 days of driving in my seven trips, I have never failed to reach a planned destination, so i carefully calibrate my decisions. Aft some thought, I chose the last option andf got on the road.
The trip to Ridiing Nastional Park was supposed to take four hours, maybe longer with all the road construction delays, but it took only three thanks to the many 100kph signs all along the way. Reaching the park entrance at 5:45, knowing that the trip to Laske Audy would take about 45 minutes, and looking at thr sun, which told me I have almost two hours of sun left, I put the Defender in first gear and headed toward Lake Audy. Fortunately, there were no bison blocking the traffic on the last leg of the trip like last year and we made itto our camp site at 6:30, right on schedule. Good planning. Good execution. On the route, by the way, I needed the AC for Erde for the first time since it broke in NY State. That, too, was an example of good planning and good execution----problem discovered in NY, diagnosed at Matawa Ontario, part ordered from Vermont in North Bay Ontario, part picked up in Thunder Bay Ontario just hours after it arrived there, and then installed in Manitoba, a 13 day, more than 2000 mile solution to a problem solved right on time. Try doing that at home and you'll find that you cannot.
As for Erde, I finally put my foot down on her finnicky eating habits. If she eats her food on her own, fine. But if she does not, out it goes. She'll eventually figure out my new technique. But regardless, she still gets a Busy Bone after each meal to keep her occupied and her mind off Leben. I wish they hadj a Busy Bone for grieving humans, too.
Before I turned off the main highway and out of cell phone range, I looked at my e-mail and found a message from a friend in my condo, who reported on a condo matter I had an interest in, which, because of a breach of ethics, has been decided another way. Since one member of the board is a reader of this blog ---- hello, John --- and to not soil my blog, i will say nothing more about this except to say that in the setting i am in now, i find such trivial matters risible, knowing that people do such things in my absence. That's what these adventures do for you, put things in their right perspective. With so much that is beautiful in this world, some humans haver a way of lowering the bar for what it means to be civilized.
Right now, I am sitting here keying this, with Erde sleeping peacefully next to me, a slight breeze blowing off the lake to keep the mosquitoes away, the water lapping the shore. The sun pops itself out from behind the clouds every now and then, revealing a blue sky that i hope is a good omen for tomorrow. There are no other camperts in this remote, primitive wilderness site, which has no electricity. In front of me, 10 feet away, is a 10-foot high cliff, that drops down to Laker Audy, whose entire 4-mile girth spans my entire peripheral vision of 180 degrees, bordered by an unbroken band of trees of multitudinous shades of green. There are no sounds except for the water lapping the shore, the breeze, the occasional birds on land, on the lake, and in thr air, and that hum of insects that seems to be universal. The only animal life consists of the bison in the reserve in my back yard, squirrels that frequent our site, a bold brown rabbit who is not intimidated in the slightest by Erde, a lone eagle that perches on a tree not far from us, and the shy black bear that ambkled peacefully through our site this morning, leaving his or her calling card nearby. Wouldn't it be wonderful if somehow we could capture the essence of this setting in all our daily lives? How civilized civilization would be.
Back to Erde. In our site, 90 percent of the ground is soft grass, but Erde chooses to lie down in the dirt. I don't think I every saw her so dirty. But that problem was easy to resolve by a walk to the lake.
Today was a day off from driving to give the three of us a break. Tomorrow we are off to Saskatchewan, and then the next day to Alberta where we will reach our first main destination, Jasper, in three days. The route for the next several days will be on the Yellowknife Highway, highway 16, also known as the Highway of Tears, which I have only taken before from Jasper to Prince Rupert.
Photos include....
Our site at Lake Audy
Erde waiting for the sunset at Lake Audy. Those are Leben's ashes to to left of Erde. He is with us in spirt, and his ashes are a reminder of that.
Ed and Erde, On The Road
P.S. Sorry for any errors in this message or posting. The iPad spellcheck is not known for its attention to detail.
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