Today was a day of adventure, heading north to Gull Lake where Tom and Beth's families are camping. Beth and Tom and Nancy are all brothers and sisters. Beth and Stuart's children are called Nathan and Emily, and Tom and Roxanne's are called David, Nicole and Matthew. David is the only one not there - he's the oldest and is on holiday in Mexico.
Also present was Beth's dog who is called Blaze. We met him last year when he was just a puppy, but they have now trained him to do all sorts of cool tricks - high fives, rolling over, pretending to drop down dead when you say BANG and point your fingers like a gun.
Part of the day's plan was to go for a cycle so after we'd had a 'snack' for lunch and admired their two trailers, complete with pop out sections, I put on some of Nancy's padded pants and we headed off to the nearby townlet of Bentley. Nathan and Emily decided to join us and then at the last minute so did Andy, who took Beth's bike.
After a pleasant little potter through the campsite and across a nice boardwalk over some wetlands we started up a long ascent into the town, making us work (and sweat) a little harder (it was a very hot sunny day). I am pleased to report that I kept up with Nancy and ahead of all the others and only went down 2 gears. To be fair, Andy hadn't been on a bike for about 15 years (apart from half a mile up the front drive at Champneys once) and discovered some muscles he had forgotten all about.
In Bentley we had a little rest, the kids got ice creams and Stuart (who had come after us) got some bits in the eccentric general store before we all headed up out of the town back towards the nice long downhill version of the hill. Unfortunately the pedal on Beth's bike then dropped off so Andy didn't get to enjoy the best bit.
Back at the campsite everyone else was playing Tonka so Nancy, Andy and me seized the day and went down to Gull Lake to cool down. The lake is really high because it has rained quite a lot so half of the usual beach is underwater, and the whole of that plus the grassy area behind was completely packed. Andy manfully guarded our belongings and Nancy and I went for a quick dip, although we didn't dip very much of ourselves because the slope was so shallow that we were only up to our waists by the time we reached the buoys at the edge of the swimming area. When we came out everyone else had come down to join us so we sunned ourselves and and chatted for a bit until a little girl came running up and (presumably by mistake) tipped a bucket full of sandy water all over Nancy's towel and my shorts, and we decided it was wiener time.
The wieners were not just any old wieners, they were made of moose, elk and deer hand-shot by Tom, Matthew and David. Matthew was responsible for the shooting of the moose and they had to chop it in 4 pieces and transport it piece by piece on a cart and on their shoulders just to get it back to their truck, stopping every 100m because it was so heavy. Tom has trained his kids to do all kinds of amazing outdoor things.
Matthew has been diagnosed with scoliosis and is going to have to have an operation to straighten his spine using some rods - at the moment it is kind of like a corkscrew. Hopefully he'll still be able to do active things after he's had it mended.
Back to the food though. We stuck our wieners on sharp forks and held them on the fire to heat them up ready for mustard and ketchup action. After that, Nathan was enlisted as the smore expert and made us some smores with the help of his assistant Emily. Emily toasted the marshmallows and Nathan assembled them in a graham cracker sandwich along with some squares of chocolate, and these were held over the fire in a special smore toasting gadget to melt the chocolate. All most tasty and excellent.
We didn't leave until about 9 which meant that Nancy ended up having to drive in the dark while we all fell asleep and were no use to her whatsoever. She got all the way back without dozing off though and delivered us safely to our nests.
Also present was Beth's dog who is called Blaze. We met him last year when he was just a puppy, but they have now trained him to do all sorts of cool tricks - high fives, rolling over, pretending to drop down dead when you say BANG and point your fingers like a gun.
Part of the day's plan was to go for a cycle so after we'd had a 'snack' for lunch and admired their two trailers, complete with pop out sections, I put on some of Nancy's padded pants and we headed off to the nearby townlet of Bentley. Nathan and Emily decided to join us and then at the last minute so did Andy, who took Beth's bike.
After a pleasant little potter through the campsite and across a nice boardwalk over some wetlands we started up a long ascent into the town, making us work (and sweat) a little harder (it was a very hot sunny day). I am pleased to report that I kept up with Nancy and ahead of all the others and only went down 2 gears. To be fair, Andy hadn't been on a bike for about 15 years (apart from half a mile up the front drive at Champneys once) and discovered some muscles he had forgotten all about.
In Bentley we had a little rest, the kids got ice creams and Stuart (who had come after us) got some bits in the eccentric general store before we all headed up out of the town back towards the nice long downhill version of the hill. Unfortunately the pedal on Beth's bike then dropped off so Andy didn't get to enjoy the best bit.
Back at the campsite everyone else was playing Tonka so Nancy, Andy and me seized the day and went down to Gull Lake to cool down. The lake is really high because it has rained quite a lot so half of the usual beach is underwater, and the whole of that plus the grassy area behind was completely packed. Andy manfully guarded our belongings and Nancy and I went for a quick dip, although we didn't dip very much of ourselves because the slope was so shallow that we were only up to our waists by the time we reached the buoys at the edge of the swimming area. When we came out everyone else had come down to join us so we sunned ourselves and and chatted for a bit until a little girl came running up and (presumably by mistake) tipped a bucket full of sandy water all over Nancy's towel and my shorts, and we decided it was wiener time.
The wieners were not just any old wieners, they were made of moose, elk and deer hand-shot by Tom, Matthew and David. Matthew was responsible for the shooting of the moose and they had to chop it in 4 pieces and transport it piece by piece on a cart and on their shoulders just to get it back to their truck, stopping every 100m because it was so heavy. Tom has trained his kids to do all kinds of amazing outdoor things.
Matthew has been diagnosed with scoliosis and is going to have to have an operation to straighten his spine using some rods - at the moment it is kind of like a corkscrew. Hopefully he'll still be able to do active things after he's had it mended.
Back to the food though. We stuck our wieners on sharp forks and held them on the fire to heat them up ready for mustard and ketchup action. After that, Nathan was enlisted as the smore expert and made us some smores with the help of his assistant Emily. Emily toasted the marshmallows and Nathan assembled them in a graham cracker sandwich along with some squares of chocolate, and these were held over the fire in a special smore toasting gadget to melt the chocolate. All most tasty and excellent.
We didn't leave until about 9 which meant that Nancy ended up having to drive in the dark while we all fell asleep and were no use to her whatsoever. She got all the way back without dozing off though and delivered us safely to our nests.
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