2013 Trip 2: Firefly light show...

Silver Lake PP - June 2013

Friday:
Headed out after work, traffic was light and moving well. We made a quick stop and Dale popped into Home Despot to look for an outdoor mat for the boys to lay on when they are outside. Out she came with a nice one, and on sale to boot.
Yes, this is trip 2 with the boys. Really, no reason not to take them, especially to local provincial parks. Seems to make them happy to be along. Pulled in around 8:00, pretty quiet spot this weekend, we are one of only 14 campers here.
Mostly likely a factor of being early in the season, and it is prime time for mosquitos. They are out in full force, which only spurred us on to get set up and inside pronto. The boys settled in quickly, settng up camp in front of the windows and enjoying the new sights and smells.

Cracked a beer, glass of wine for Dale, and we settled into chill mode, the whole point of our getaways.
Barley stops for a moment before more exploring
Feeling the munchies, I found the bag of Hawkins Cheezies that are now the go to snack in the Alto for me. If you have never had Hawkins, then find and try them, regardless of whether you like cheezies or not. If you are not a fan of cheezies, it is probably because your taste buds have been suffering through those air filled extrusions that those other guys try to pass off to the masses as cheezies. Hawkins Cheezies are the real deal...real cheese, real taste, real solid snack. Every unique piece a taste explosion. Trust me, you will be hooked.

Lots of little bugs (smaller than mosquitos) made their way inside, attracted by the lure of the inside lights. Pretty sure these tiny guys are making their way right through the screen on the door. I may investigate the screening options available, as it is an easy job to replace screen material. Watched another episode of Mad Men, the story line is really starting to develop. Really warm this evening, we are enjoying the feeling of summer so we have resisted turning on the A/C.

Turned out the lights and through all our windows we are amazed by the light show going on outside, fireflys were everywhere, close to the windows and up into the trees flashing their lights. We have not seen that happen before, at least not from inside the trailer.  The firefly lights appeared to be reflecting off the inside ceiling of the trailer.  Woke up many times at night and the light show never stopped, how very cool.

Saturday:
Restless night for Taffy. He could not stop moving around and meowing, which then translated into a restless night for me. Finally did get him to sleep a bit right up with me. Through all this the other 2 occupants of the Alto were blissfully unaware and deep in sleep. Looks like it will be a nice day, although they are calling for rain...but do they really know? 

Lots of dragonflys zooming everywhere, and little wonder given the abundance of their favorite meal, the mosquito. Always been a fan of the dragonfly, delicate, beautiful to look at with their massive twin sets of transparent wings, little wonder that they are marvels of movement through the air.  One dragonfly landed on my chest as I was just standing there, and I looked down to see these massive irridesecent green eyes looking at me. Then I saw that he was munching away on a mosquito, just motoring right though it actually, it disappeared in seconds. Then he was off hunting again, and back to my shoulder to perform the routine again.
this guy needed a little gentle help to extricate himself from the screen
It was so active that I saw multiple dragonflys snatching mosquitos right out of the air before my eyes. Very cool. Put the boys out on their leashes for a good 2 hours this afternoon, they seemed to like the experience, and we put out the new mat gives them a nice spot off the bare ground, although Barley preferred the top of the picnic table and Taffy curled up in the folding chair.


The project this weekend is to install an LED light strip over the sink. This is a new feature on later models, so I contactd Safari Condo, and ordered the parts to do the job myself. Actually, I ordered a few sets of lights as we have some ideas where else to put them. First I had to figure out how to best tap into the 12v power. The rocker switch that raises and lowers the back bench turns out to be the best spot as I do not want to screw with any of the wiring going to the gas water heater. Pretty ingenious how they run power to the motor, although looking at the 6 pole switch was a tad confusing at first, because the wiring looked like it was mixing the positive and negative, until I realized that this was how the motor both raised and lowered. If you switch polarity, the motor spins in the other direction, thus, the up or down. Figured out the best location for the on/off rocker switch for the new light (actually Dale did), but ran into a snag when I realized I did not have the correct size drill bit for the protective wire sleeve. Thought the whole job out a bit more, then packed up my tools.

Walked down to the beach, a few people in the water, but it a little cool. Headed over to the point, which is a marvelous place at this park. A rocky point, a lone scraggy pine, and a great view down the lake. We always spend a little time here, just sitting and absorbing all around us. Some serious rain clouds are rolling in towards us, so we headed back to the site and Dale made us some G&T's while I put together the pizza for dinner.

Baked a chicken breast before we left, fried up some onions and mushrooms, and on a base of pesto, this became the pizza. Got it on the Q just before the sky opened up...and boy did it ever come down hard. Scooted out and turned off the grill, then waited out the rain. It stopped momentarily, then back down hard again. It finally passed and on went the Q to finish the cooking. Serious chilling in the evening, a couple more episodes, then lights out.

Sunday:
More rain last night, but not the pounding type, just nice and steady, great for lulling one to sleep. Taffy was more relaxed this evening, which means we all slept better. We had to pack up earlier than usual this morning so that we get Dale home in time to attend our friend's daughter's wedding shower.  Being still dismal weather-wise we just as happy to leave early.   

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