Labor Day Weekend

We did nothing all day but as Gary says, “We did it rather well.”

The campground was full of Labor Day revelers, with lots of drinking and carrying on. There were many children around, shrieking to their hearts content with no teachers or parents telling them to pipe down. There's a gradual hill leading down to our campsite, so the boys on bikes and skateboards came down with appropriate vocalizations.

At campsite 14 there were three dogs that yapped when anyone went by to use the toilets. I took to taking the long way around to avoid them. They weren't on leashes so sometimes decided to run at me. “They wouldn't bite,” they assured me but then the only times I've been bitten were by dogs that “wouldn't bite me.” I like dogs, but mostly dogs I know well.

At campsite 15, there was another dog, poor thing. The people rented a trailer that was brought to the site for them. They went off boating and swimming, leaving the cocker spaniel inside the camper. From the standpoint of the dog, they had abandoned him in a strange place so he barked and wailed for hours.

We sat outside in the sunshine and talked about going out onto Lake Ottawa in the canoe but the speedboats with massive engines were towing water skiers leaving wakes. Finally the noise drove us into our own camper which is somewhat soundproofed and took two hour naps.

This evening, the campers are beside their fire pits and the boats pulled into the docks. We finally went out in the canoe, roaming around old haunts. The eagle was nowhere to be seen but the loons were chortling as if to celebrate their release from humans. We skimmed over to a rock pile out in the water where we sometimes take lawn chairs to sit half submerged on really hot days. At one end the rocks jut out of the water and there sat a common merganser. He complained and slipped off on the other side to swim away. I was sorry we disturbed him.

And so we roamed around the lake until the sun set.

Let the weekenders enjoy themselves. By Monday night they will be gone and we will have all of this glory to ourselves until September 20 when Gary will move the camper to Laura Lake where we will stay until the campgrounds finally close for the winter on October 10.