Week 4, The Attemas

 Thursday, May 25, 2023

1.    The Attemas

A cold, cold morning in Thunder Bay. Sjoerd had coffee ready at seven, so we went to the house, where Bijke found his spot on the couch. It was sunny and a great day for laundry.

Allie and Mia went to school at 9:30 and Ghislaine decided to work from home.

We had a great time with Sjoerd, catching up and drinking coffee.

Femke had to work a shift at the Prime Gelato store. We found it too cold for ice cream, today, but we planned to visit her as soon as it warms up.

We did some groceries and bought roses for Mia, even though her graduation isn’t until the end of June.

At five, Allie had another soccer game. It was a little warmer and she was able to play most of the game. Despite the fact that her school team lost sorely, we enjoyed watching her play. After dinner, Bill and Cathy came for a short visit and to wish us all the best in our last adventure.

Another cold morning, but the weather forecast promised 22 degrees by this afternoon. We were able to enjoy the deck, as the wind blew from the lake.

Femke was excited, that her boyfriend, Domenic, had an interview and got the job at the Ministry of Natural Resources. Domenic graduated last year with a degree in environmental management. Ghislaine had lent him her car so he could get to the interview.

Later that afternoon, Albert and I played being tourists in Thunder Bay. Bijke stayed on the couch, LOL. We walked downtown and visited Femke at the Prime Gelato. As the scooper person she loved talking to people while recommending the various flavours. We both choose a coconut, strawberry cone and bought some pints for Femke to bring home. The waterfront in Thunder Bay is well designed, with a water park, art gallery and marina and many play areas and places for people to enjoy picnics. Today a large cruise ship was docked in the harbour. For the last time we took pictures of the Sleeping Giant, a place we had always wanted to camp, but it had never happened.

Back home, Sjoerd and Albert measured the deck and checked which parts were rotted and which parts could be saved. This big project will keep Sjoerd busy, all summer.

Allie had to tutor a little girl down the street. She is in grade one and needed help with her reading in the French language. We had supper with the whole family, as none of the girls needed to work, which was great. Sjoerd had made hamburgers on the BBQ and we roasted potatoes and sweet potatoes in the oven. A colourful salad complimented the meal. For dessert we had coffee gelato and double chocolate ice cream.

After supper Domenic, returned the car. He seemed very excited about his new job. Femke and Domenic went to a bar with some friends. They were going to watch a band, but neither one of them knew what kind of band, the type of music they played or the name of the band.

Back at the snail house, we answered email and checked real estate on Vancouver Island, but there was nothing listed that we would be able to afford, except for the little house in Lake Cowichan.

The temperature was more seasonal when we went to bed.

Saturday morning greeted us with a blue sky and a bright shining sun.

We went to the pet store to stock up on food for Bijke and to the health food store to get some specialty items for us. We spent lunch on the deck, but Bijke hardly left the couch. 

Later, Sjoerd and Allie took us to the Thunder Bay Art Gallery. Allie had two pieces of art in the Highschool exhibition. We enjoyed the display of artwork, that was created by secondary students. Some pieces were creative, moving and others very powerful, especially work created by first nation students. Allie’s painting of the rooster was so realistic. As a grade nine student it was quite an accomplishment for her to be part of the exhibition. Her second piece was a picture of an amazing library. She is a very talented girl. In the windowsill in the dining room sits a birdhouse that she made in art class. She used small pieces of scrap wood, painted the outside in red brick with added graffiti. Her mark was 100%, well deserved. On the way home, we picked up some more groceries.

Mia was working at McDonald’s. Femke was celebrating Domenic’s birthday with a group of friends at Paintball Mountain. Ghislaine had baked an orange, date cake and Sjoerd made vegetarian Sloppy Joe. It was just the five of us for dinner. We spent the evening outside on the deck and stayed till nine, when it finally started to cool down.

Sunday morning was another glorious day. After breakfast, we did our laundry and got the last of our groceries for on our trip, tomorrow. We even vacuumed and cleaned the snail house. We spent another beautiful day outside and watched Sjoerd mow the lawn for the first time, this year.

Ghislaine baked a chocolate birthday cake for Domenic. His birthday is next Wednesday, but we decided to celebrate, tonight, with takeout from the Masala Grill, everyone’s favourite Indian restaurant. Nobody was working on Sunday night and it was the perfect ending for our last night.

Bijke threw up on the deck, it looked like his breakfast, but we noticed other unidentifiable bits as well. He seemed better after he’d emptied his stomach, so Albert fed him his regular supper.

We set the table for eight people outside on the deck.  Albert and Sjoerd picked up dinner. There was butter chicken, Pad Thai, pakoras, rice and vegetables in delicious sauces, naan bread, chicken etc., something for everyone. We enjoyed the food and the company.

We sang Happy Birthday for Domenic. Poppy, the black lab, decided to join the choir, with high and long barking/howling sounds. It was hilarious.

The cake was delicious and Domenic thanked everyone, he hadn’t expected this much celebration just for him. His family lives in Oshawa, so they couldn’t be part of his birthday.

After the cleanup, the three of us retired to the snail house, organizing and packing away dishes and cups we didn’t need to use in the morning.

Around five a.m., we woke up. Bijke was throwing up again. His bed was clean, but the blanket and some towels were covered. We threw them outside and washed the floor, before getting back into bed.

2.    Blue Lake Provincial Park

At six-thirty, the alarm went. We dressed had breakfast and then Sjoerd helped us get the snail house out of his backyard and onto the road, where it was much easier for Albert to hitch the trailer to the car.

The difficult part of our visit came next, saying goodbye to the family. We don’t know when we will see them again.

Close to the highway, we found the dump station. The weather forecast predicted 24 degrees for Thunder Bay, but 30 for Blue Lake. We had wished for a bit warmer weather, but 30 degrees...

At Kakabeka Falls, we decided to take some pictures, but we had to register at the park office and buy a pass, so we decided to pass. We’ve visited the falls many times in the past. The road ahead was steep at certain points and we climbed slowly, to preserve power.

At the first charging stop in Upsala, we noticed that we had gained an hour as we’d entered the Central Time Zone.

Bijke was still listless and sad and we decided to feed him water with only a few pieces of kibble.

The landscape changed as we drove through an area with a thousand lakes. A moose crossed the road ahead of us and a little later, we saw a moose with a big rack standing near the shore of a shallow lake. We passed beautiful lakes and fishing lodges and resorts. Closer to Ignace the scenery changed again. In previous years, wildfires must have rushed through this part as black trunks stood like sentinels in a barren land. Fields and fields of clear cut forests made us feel depressed. Abandoned houses and buildings surrounded by car wrecks and rusted machinery littered both sides of the highway.

In Ignace we ate lunch while the car was charging. On our way to Dryden, we passed through farmland. Large dairy farms dotted the land on either side of the highway. We topped up the car in Dryden, before we went to Blue Lake Provincial Park. As we registered, the attendant told us that we needed to get back into town to buy drinking water. The campground pulled its drinking water from the lake, but with all the rain during the last few weeks, there was still bacteria in the water and it was not safe to drink.

We set up the trailer and then Albert went back into town to pick up a large bottle of water. In hindsight it had been a good idea to top up the car in Dryden.

The thermometer said, 30 degrees and the mosquitos were out in full force. There were hardly any campers at the other sites. It was very quiet. Two campers with licence plates from Manitoba were camping further down. Vermillion Bay is said to be the Muskoka for Manitobans.

We showered, laundered Bijke’s dirty blankets and towels and ate a delicious dinner of leftovers from Masala Grill. The sunset at the beach was amazing. The loons were calling but we couldn’t spot them on the lake.

Before I fell asleep, I listened to two loons calling each other, sometimes haunting other times like a conversation back and forth or performing a song for each other. I hoped they had a nest with eggs or even offspring as the loon population is in decline due to pollution.

Bijke woke us at six, he was still in a different time zone. We told him to go back to bed and to our surprise, he did. The rain started at seven, when we decided to get up. After breakfast we walked along the beach, but the mosquitoes were eating us alive and chased us back into the snail house. Bijke had brought many bugs inside, that were hiding in his coat, so we played the game, who could kill the most mosquitoes. All bug bites were treated with vinegar, but it didn’t last very long or the itching started again.

Bijke’s his appointment at the vet in Dryden was at noon and we left just after eleven as it was a 60 km  drive from the campground. He was all excited to get into the clinic. It was a busy place. We could hear cats and dogs crying. He had his front paws on the counter while the receptionist put his information into the computer. He was panting and jumping around. To calm him, Albert said, “Let’s sit in the chair,” meaning, I will sit in the chair and you sit beside me on the floor. But Bijke took it literally and leaped onto the chair beside Albert and sat pretty. Everybody in the clinic had a good laugh.

The doctor checked him over carefully and emptied his anal glands, which he said were not too bad. He was however concerned about the skin at his bum. Bijke had pulled out all the hair and the skin was dry. The diagnosis was a chronic skin infection. We left the clinic with antibiotics, anti-inflammatory medication and a steroid skin cream. As long as his condition improved, we were ready to try anything. While the vet emptied his glands he made a tiny peep, but other than that he was on his best behaviour.

After picking up a few groceries, we drove back to the campground. Intermittent rain showers accompanied us. Once in the snail house we were visited by another thunderstorm and Bijke needed to snuggle close until the storm passed.

The sun came out and the temperature rose to 28 degrees.

We went for a nice walk along the lake, where the breeze kept the mosquitoes at bay. More campers arrived after supper. Later the rain came down hard. It was our last night at Blue Lake, one of our favourite Ontario campgrounds.

The rain had stopped when we woke up, which worked in our favour when we packed up the trailer and hitched it to the car. More campers were packing up and leaving. The people in the small boler, who’d arrived, last night and the people two lanes over. They drove a large motorhome and towed a small red car behind it.

About a hundred kilometres from the campground was our first charging station. In Kenora, we charged at the Canadian Tire store. We drove through downtown to get back onto the highway. The town was built on the shores of Lake of the Woods and the main employer was, the paper mill.

We had almost reached the border of Manitoba, when we hit road construction. At one of the stops we had to wait for an accident. To our horror we recognized the couple from the campground. Their motorhome looked okay, but the little red car was totally smashed and so was the front of a van. It looked like the people were okay, as they were standing around.

After the road construction, we left Ontario behind and entered Manitoba. Ontario was our home for almost 42 years and had visited so many amazing places in this province with its rugged wilderness and pristine lakes. We stopped for lunch in Prawda, while the car charged. The temperature had risen to 32 degrees and it was hot in the snail house, but even hotter in the parking lot.

And then we headed out to Winnipeg. According to the Tesla GPS, the charger was close to downtown, but we went through an industrial area where the roads were in terrible condition. We feared for the contents in our cabinets. Would they spill out onto the floor?

Eventually, we ended up right downtown and it was stressful for Albert to manoeuvre through traffic and into the right lanes. When we finally saw the row of chargers on the right side in a parking lot, we couldn’t get to it. We drove around and back on the street and one more time into the parking lot and approached the chargers from a different side. It was a tight spot with two tesla’s already charging. Albert went back and forth and he managed to get the car at the right spot. It was 33 degrees and Bijke refused to get out of the car. With some treats in a bowl of water we coached him outside.

We talked to one of the other tesla owners, about the range when towing a trailer. We had certainly noticed a difference now that the land is flat and we don’t have to climb anymore steep hills.

Huge factory farms with land that seems to go on forever, lined the highway, but most fields were still pretty bare.

Miller Campground was 79 km from Winnipeg, right on the highway. But we got a site away from the road and the noise wasn’t too bad at first thanks to a bit of a breeze, which made it comfortable to sit outside.

After supper we checked out the other sites, the washrooms, laundry facilities and showers. The showers were disgusting. Black mold lined the bottom of the walls and… it cost a dollar to shower. Most of the people at this campground are seasonals. They have huge trailers with outbuildings, gazeboes and gardens and they don’t use the shower facilities. We were disappointed. Maybe tomorrow… we could use our own facilities…?