2013 Trip 3: Serious chillin'

Murphy's Point P.P. - June 2013

Friday:
On the road right after work. Short drive, about the same distance as Silver Lake, except you head south at Perth. Lots of campers this weekend and there was a line up at the registration booth.
We are trying out another site this year, as our previous sites have been very sloped, resulting in the front of the Alto being really elevated, which makes it a little wobbly as you move around inside. This part of the park is right on the side of a hill, and our site this year is at the bottom not far from the beach. All the sites are pull throughs and our choice this year is a good one. Large, level and good distance from other sites. This is a heavily treed park, which is nice, but the canopy of leaves makes it darker than it really is.

Set up quick, then put the boys out on their leashes. Barley jumped up on the picnic table right away, a better spot to survey the surroundings.

Not long after, a deer appeared across the road, having a dinner of assorted foliage. Barley was facinated, having never seen one of these creatures before. I'm sure he was thinking that this thing could not be a dog. The deer stayed for a while, then bounded off towards the lake. Moved inside as the bugs started to appear in larger numbers and it was cooling off. It will be a great evening for sleeping, a little chill always makes for a good sleep.

Finished up a few mods in the driveway the past couple of weeks that we now get to use. We added the under sink LED light, as well as the same light on top of the microwave, providing ambient light reflecting off the ceiling. We also picked up a nifty little goose neck light with an LED bulb from IKEA. We attached it to the back of the washroom. We had one already, but it had a much larger cone reflector with a spring clamp. The reflector was too large and out of scale, and the spring clamp was slowly chewing up the area it was clamped to. This new one has a much smaller reflector, and a screw clamp to fasten it in place. An overall better solution. The new lights work great. The under sink one is awesome, little wonder it is now a standard feature offered by Safari Condo. The light on top of the microwave also is a success. It adds a nice glow to the inside when you are sitting around or watching a vid. Sure beats the big fluorescent tubes. The new goose neck light does the job nicely too. The LED lights themselves have also improved, being a much warmer light than the first ones out, which were far too cool and blueish light.

subtle light, super efficient on the battery

Got the bed set up, the boys settled in, and just relaxed. Nice to just chill and wind down after the work week.

Saturday:
Nice morning, sun shining through the tree canopy and spreading a dappled array of light across the ground. Good sleep as the boys were not restless. Slow moving morning, which is just fine with us. Coffee, a nice couple of decadent raspberry scones from 'Art Is In Bakery', a fabulous eating and breakfast spot in Ottawa. A little reading, and that sums up the morning.

Tried out the other mod we finished. We swapped out the Propex furnace we installed last fall. After a couple of uses in cooler weather, we realized it did not have enough BTU's to heat the Alto in a reasonable amount of time. They make a larger unit, which I should have chosen to install in the first place. A classic case of over analysis that ended up clouding the correct decision. We contacted the guy we purchased the furnace from and he kindly worked out a deal for us to return the first one and get the larger unit. Cost us a bit, but that's what's called a lesson learned. This unit is only a little larger, and with some re-jigging of the original install, it went in quite easily. The heat difference is very noticeable, both in output temperature and the volume of air the unit moves. A better investment for the long term.

Walked up to the Park store to see if they had a paper of some sort to read in the afternoon. This one is a nice little store, with a good assortment of camping sized food...cute little containers of everything from soup to condiments. They also have a variety dry goods, clothes and camp games. They have coffee and ice cream cones for the kids, we succumbed to getting cones.

not the brightest little guy...sunbathing on the park road. saved  him from a crushing experience.

While Wandering back, we stopped and talked to a couple who had a lovely Nova Scotia Duck Toller retriever, a beautiful reddish brown coloured dog. Got back, read the paper, had a bite to eat, and generally did little else.

Taffy makes some wise editing suggestions to my ramblings

Checked out the beach, not a lot of people there, probably because the water is still cool, it's a tad overcast and there is a bit of an onshore breeze off the lake that can be a little cool.

Hamburger sliders this evening for dinner, from the batch we made up and froze a while ago. We picked up a cold asparagus feta salad as a side. Let's not forget the prerequisite G&T to get it all going. Sliders were yummy, as well as the asparagus side.

the essentials for a successful BBQ

what would motivate this theme for a beer???

A mother and her daughter were walking by when they spotted Barley in the window, and told me they had their cat with them as well. I invited them over to visit the boys. She recognized Taffy as a Maine Coon right away, and it turns out they had one for 14 years who just passed away.  She said her husband is now going on web sites looking for a orange coloured Maine Coon, what a coincidence to meet cat lovers who love orange cats as well? Both of them were really nice and very friendly. That's a huge part of camping, meeting and chatting with people, and most likely, you will find a common connection there that spurs on the conversation. Nice.

Sunday:

Another nice evening for sleeping, although Taffy was kinda restless. In the middle of the night some owls started to make the craziest racket. They seemed to be challenging each other to see who could make the strangest sound. Entertaining, but their sounds are definitely odd and pretty loud. Very dark and overcast this morning, low heavy clouds that are talking rain. Scooted up to have a quick shower, and sure enough, it started to pour down heavily. Looks like this rain could go on all day, so we will wait for a lull and hitch up quick.