Magnus Goes North With Summer, Day 6

Sunday June 1

Very odd to admit this, but I woke up an hour before my alarm went off. The window shade was open and it was clearly daylight outside. I snoozed for a bit, but ended up getting up and getting outside by six-thirty. Molly got a long walk around the campground, then I had a cup of coffee, then she got a short walk up and down the road to another campground, and then I had a second cup of coffee. Ed didn’t get up until eight o’clock and that was because I went inside and made a tiny bit of noise sort of on purpose.  (We didn’t have a long drive, but we still needed to leave by 10:30 or 11)

Very unusual, I admit. Mainly it was my leg hurting that woke me up. I slept in the bed all night and it was pretty miserable. Maybe I’ll try the floor again tonight.  On the bed I’m comfortable only if I’m on my stomach, and on my stomach on that stupid foam pad it gets really hot and I wake up drenched in sweat. On the floor I’m only comfortable on my right side and it’s hard to sleep in the same position all night.  I really want my old bed back.  Maybe I’ll bring it up…maybe we can do halfsies with the foam pad…I dunno.

During the drive it was still very hazy from the Canadian wildfires. I was fascinated by all the little lakes and ponds we kept passing, some of which would have been sloughs back in the Little House era and some of which were still sloughs. Do they call them “prairie potholes” nowadays?  Were some of them old buffalo wallows?

 

 

 That's South Dakota, by the way 

 

 An episode from The Long Winter: Pa Goes to Volga

 

We had a fairly easy drive to Lake Thompson Recreation Area. It’s a huge lake and a lovely campground, and we got a nice long site by the water.  We had a little trouble at the gate—no body was working there, so I had to use the kiosk pay the state park entrance fees. It wasn’t difficult but very annoying, because I ended up having to buy an annual pass for both the jeep and motorhome. I’d been warned about this, but I was hoping I’d be able to get the jeep in for free.

Then we had to fill our water tank, but since I’d printed out a map and located the water fill stations ahead of time, that wasn’t too bad.  Always print a campsite map!  That saved us a lot of aggravation.

And so we arrived and the campground was mostly empty except for birds and ground squirrels.  We took a long walk along the lake and then around the campground. Very, very pleasant. And then it was suppertime.

In the time it took to go inside, prepare tacos, eat them and take a shower, the campground ceased to be a peaceful place. Hordes of campers with dozens of children each—or so it seemed from the noise—moved in on us. People were camped on either side of us and across the drive.  I even saw a loose dog, but I was hoping that was a short-term event.

No matter, once upon a time we were parents with small children. And this is a great place for camping with children—there’s a beach (swimming area), a playground, and lots of nice flat driveways for bicycling on.  I don’t mind their existence, just their noise. But that’s part of it. The only real issue with all this is how I’m going to get Molly a walk without mayhem ensuing. Maybe we’ll go along the lake. There’s  a lovely little walking path of short, mowed grass along this side of the lake. And at present, I don’t see any kids down there.

It was pretty warm weather; I was wearing a hoodie and sweatpants all day.  But the bugs were horrid—the wrens and peewees were hard at work but not making a dent in the bugginess.

Our lovely campsite before all the people moved in: