Fri, Sep 19 2008, Sat, Sep 20 2008, Sun, Sep 21 2008 - Pinery Provincial Park - Car Camping (View Original Event Details)
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After the "psycho wood guy" had a hissy fit because we decided we didn't want to buy his wet lumber, then the pizza dudette wouldn't even take the phone call because "I'm busy right now, okay!", and we discovered the ad for horseback riding in the park's magazine, is just a big old fake really, I started to wonder what would lead me to think I wanted to come back to this place and bring other unsuspecting people with me. But then I remembered....
It was simply beautiful here. There are the protected sand dunes, forests and the beaches.....gorgeous. But more importantly -- it wasn't like this the last time I was here!
Par for the course, I guess. Your very first overnight event as a volunteer is going to be wrought with challenges, simply because it is your first. I knew that.
What I didn't know was that Laura is actually the "insect whisperer" and can, among other things, get a jumping spider to "play" with her as if it were a pet cat. I didn't know I could finally like couscous until Christine presented us with one of the tastiest dishes I've ever eaten, with or without couscous in it. I also didn't know that I was going to end the weekend as the legal guardian of a twig animal named Randolph, but here he is, next to me -- watching a CLASSIC movie (which apparently NO ONE but me has EVER seen before!) that has big sand dunes in it -- just after having his first bath. An organiser's job is never done.
While Laura and I -- and later Laura, Rogelio and I -- travelled back and forth down the Bluewater Highway , 70 or 80 times in search of the elusive horseback riding stable (3 or 4km on the left, from town) that was either next to the old fun park (which doesn't exist anymore but you should still see "big wheels" left over, or was it the museum, back on the other side of the road, 2km from town, or 6.5 km from town back on the first side of the road next to the firewood store (there are twelve of them), or maybe it was next to the old ranch or the Deer Run development, which could be on either side of the road....well, there's always GoKarts in Exeter.....ANYWAY....we managed to meet and now know the names of everyone in Grand Bend, which I think we all felt good about. For Laura's sake, I wish one of them had been named, Trigger. (But she and I did see a family of white tailed deer up close!)
Vika and Christine, Desiree, Colin and Laura canoed the Ausable River and Vika managed, I think, to hike all of the park's 11 trails and took many others with her. One of the trails was a beautiful oak savanna, where we saw a heron and I was challenged to climb a tree. Of course, I DIDN'T rise to the challenge. Vika called it the "Googling weekend", because so many things came up that we wanted to know the name of, or more info on...(oops, pardon the interuption, I just remembered and had to Google Christine's introduction of the Heineken penny backpacking stove - wow!)....and that we'd all be Googling a lot back in the city and should write them down. She was so right!
(Google: herons and their mates!)
Vika and Ruhee and Desiree, started many interesting and varied discussions around the campfire, Friday and Saturday. Everyone was up for debating and adding to the topics. This kept us up until 2:30-3am the first night. We went to bed early - about 1- 1:30am, the second night after watching the stars at the beach. The whole park seemed to think it was going to rain earlier that night-- and for a while, the wind picked up and an icy chill temporarily blew through our campsite as the waves could be heard crashing just over the dunes. There was lightning and thunder seen and heard, as other campers came by and warned us they saw the storm heading our way in about an hour... but....WE knew we were safe in "the bubble" and it wasn't going to rain! In the "Grand Bend Bubble", storms can often be seen all around the place but not here. I was counting on it, and indeed, the weather was just perfect the whole weekend and the water still warm, allowing for swimming and canoeing. Desiree, Colin, Dawn, Justin and I went into the water. Ruhee and Rogelio preferred the drier aspects of the sun and the soft, sugar sand beach. It was the last summery, beachy outing, I'd hoped it would be.
(Google: pure white "fluffy" caterpillar!)
I'd like to take this wonderful bunch of people back to this park next year - a month earlier - when the regular, summer staff is there and not the alternate staff who were suddenly inundated with 350 reservations in one day because the forecast was extraordinary! That's possibly 350 pizzas for the dudette too. I hope she made it through the night! Aside from "psycho wood guy", who we are told by the "good wood lady" is ALWAYS a psycho (and apparently runs a restaurant as well....offff course?!), the park people and the people of Grand Bend are lovely and helpful and the raccoons don't normally sit right next to you on the picnic table and proceed to eat your food right in front of you! (Desiree had to actually shove him off the table! We think Laura was sending out her animal-loving, "whisperer" vibe and he picked up on it and wasn't AT ALL afraid of us.) I'd like to show them THAT Pinery.....but I think they enjoyed the one they saw this weekend anyway.
Thanks to Lorne, our neighbour, who showed me how to open a can with an axe. Can't wait to try that one! (Fortunately, Rogelio found a cleaner, less dangerous method to open the tuna this time). Thanks to the birth parents for giving up their beautiful twig baby, Randolph, so that I could have the opportunity to know and parent him. And thanks to everyone on this trip for making it so interesting and pleasant the entire time going, being there and coming back from this exceptional provincial park!
(Google: yami yami or is it, jami jami?!) (Rogelio?)
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