June 2023 Review

June 17th 2023, and we have finally succeeded in getting the swimming pool open here at LHR (Lake Huron Resort) and while that may not sound like a big deal, this year I was given the task of getting this done. It is usually a task that is shared with Richard and all his years of experience, but as he tries to step back from some of the day to day operations, this is an example of where I need to step up and just get the task completed.

It is father’s day weekend and saturday afternoon the park does not seem as busy as we might have expected. Miss Laurie has finally closed a deal on one of the for sale units in the park, there have been some people looking but not many people buying, as the vacation market has changed from being the sellers market of the last few years and is now a full blown buyers market. The cost of borrowing money has just gone up again this month, so some of the sellers that were trying to take advantage of the inflated prices of the past years are now finding out that true market value price is what someone is willing to pay, not what you think it should be. And quite frankly some of the units for sale have not been shown any real love for a number of years, and when so many units are for sale at once it is the pretty ones or the best priced ones that go first.

We have been left without supervision this weekend, as Bonnie & Rich are at the other park catching up on some work as well as a bridal shower for Bronte, Bonnie & Rich’s daughter who is getting married here at the park in September. And so far all is moving well, the campfire ban from last weekend has been lifted already and there were lots of fires last night as people were trying to stay warm, everyone seem well behaved and that is always a blessing on a cold night. The pool opened today and seemed very popular at times even with the cold breeze off of the lake, I know I wouldn’t be getting wet when it is this cold. It appears that the thermometer will be climbing tomorrow as the weather improves to more summer like temperatures.

Sunday June 18th, “fathers day” which also means the final round of the “US Open” golf tournament, just like the Canadian Open last weekend this tournament is open to anyone who is able to qualify. There were over 10,000 people who tried to qualify this year for only 160 openings so as you can imagine only the best of the best can raise to the level needed to succeed. The tournament is put on by the USGA (United States Golf Association) and just like the Canadian version the venue moves around the country from course to course, this years open is being contested at the Los Angeles Country Club which is located in the centre of Los Angeles, apparently an easy walk to Rodeo drive, and has almost every stroke played covered by television coverage. I have been watching the play all week on the USA and NBC network and coverage so far has went on till eleven o’clock at night, since it is three hours different the final group will not tee off till 5:30 our time, so the final round will not end till at best ten o’clock tonight.

I’m sitting on the patio, under the awning, watching our basement television, drinking my last Mexican craft beer, and we’re still over two hours from the last tee off time of the tournament leaders. The sun has made an appearance today, but it is still not warm yet by anyone’s imagination, I do have on shorts today but I’m also a sweatshirt hoodie to try and keep warm.

Monday & Tuesday our days off, the day we get to catch up on our chores around the site, today I was weed wacking with our battery powered trimmer, it has always preformed reasonably well but it was one of those purchases that has never felt like a good purchase, but it was on sale and fit the requirement when I purchased it, and I have used it for six years, so it was not a terrible purchase, just one that I kind of regretted from the beginning. But know the battery seems to be failing and a replacement battery is somewhere between ridiculous and crazy in price, so some research will be required before this guy spends that much money, jus’saying.

Well Monday evening just took an ugly turn, we were enjoying a good day off, and we’re planning a kayaking adventure Tuesday morning with Dale & Fiona, the plan is a down river adventure so a couple of vehicles will be required. So I had pulled out the kayaks and loaded them into our toad. Then Miss Laurie got an unexpected text from Miss Bonnie, asking us to meet them in town for dinner, now dinner with Rich & Bonnie is not an unusual thing, but a dinner with no pre-planning made it seem a little strange, but we agreed to meet at the Park House at 7:30. So I unloaded the kayaks and we headed into Goderich for dinner.

Now I always enjoy visiting the Park House, as one of the staples on the menu is liver & onions, and I know some of you are going to be going oh gross while others are thinking oh that sounds yummy. But this paragraph is not about a debate over a menu item. No this dinner was to break some bad news to us, that the other half of the “dream team” had just given two weeks notice! Just when we were thinking that all was going well, and now the other couple who signed the same season long contract that we had, are quitting, bailing out, or to put it simply are just not going to honour their end of the contract. Are we disappointed, well hell yes we are disappointed, but in the next breath whatever, it will all work out, I was just brought up in a world where your word actually meant something. We could have bailed out of our job last summer when it wasn’t what we expected, but that’s not how we operate, when we commit to do something, we always fulfill our end of the contract. But on a happier note the liver was just as just as good as I remembered and the draft beer was just as cold.

Tuesday morning and we are off on a kayaking adventure, we have always thought that there should be some good kayaking on the Maitland river but have never figured it out, so we are looking very forward to this adventure today. It’s 9:30 and I have the kayaks reloaded, and we are headed to the village of Auburn and to our entry point into the Maitland river, after unloading the kayaks Dale and I drive a vehicle to our exit point near the bell bridge a few kilometers down the river from where we drop off the kayaks and left Dales vehicle there and then took our toad back to the entry point.

The kayaking trip was a longer adventure than we had expected but the views were worth it, there were a number of shallow spots that made us work at weaving our way through the stones. With the occasional surrender to escape being trapped between a couple of larger rocks (or are they called stones this side of the Mississippi?). The bird life was abundant, here are a few of what we seen and heard; Red-winged Blackbird, American Redstart, Warbling Vireo, Yellow Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, Song Sparrow, Common Yellowthroat, Common Grackle, American Crow, House Wren, Kildeer, Downy Woodpecker, Swamp Sparrow, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, and a Green Heron. We also seen a camera shy deer on the bank well downriver from us, the group also spotted turtles, and a blue heron, a hawk, even a groundhog on the river bank, and of course numerous fish of various sizes during our adventure.

We had a number of spots along the route that caused some navigation issues, but the overall consensus was that as a journey it would be worth a redo, either a little earlier in the spring or after a significant rain storm. The down side of that would most likely be the clarity of the water which at this time allowed excellent allowing viewing of the fish. Our most significant rapids was just upriver from our exit point and while more substantial were still nothing to fear, and at our exit point we encountered our first gaggle of Canadian Geese with lots of young goslings. Below are a few of the photos from our adventure:

Well we have made it to the weekend, and while the park is busier, it is usually a time when we as staff can relax a little as well and just spend time answering questions and interacting with the guests. But on the initial check of the pool this Saturday morning we found a major leak, a glued joint on a two inch line just past the circulating pump had failed flooding the pump room, and luckley shorting out the pump which stopped the loss of pool water. An attempt to re glue the connection failed and at that point I was off to town to try to locate enough pieces to at least get the pool back up and running temporarily as the pool is always a popular spot on the weekends. So some three hours later I had managed to secure enough parts to make a semi permanent repair with only one pipe fitting preventing the total repair. Always an exciting way to start a busy weekend but by noon everything was back to as normal as it ever gets at a campground.

The rest of the weekend seemed reasonably calm and rolled by smoothly as the weather has taken a turn for the better and after the fog burnt off on Saturday the sunshine came out to provide us a great weekend. Although a couple of thunderstorms are moving through the area late Sunday afternoon and we are expecting some rain showers through the next couple of days, our days off, but we need the rain very badly to keep the lawn and gardens happy and green.

And almost amazingly we are back to Monday and our days off again, we have nothing planned for this week as we are closing in on the end of June and are starting to prepare for the first long weekend of the Summer season. Canada Day is our Canadian celebration while our American friends celebrate Independence Day, but this is a big weekend at the park with lots of activities planned.

The week was jammed with lots of projects, last minute lawn mowing, the building of the stage for the band, the preparation for a fireworks display, setting out tables and chairs for the vender event. This weekend is always the busiest of the summer, but with Canada Day the 1st of July falling on the Saturday it means that some folks will have Friday off while others have Monday and a few will take both days off which meant the weekend traffic started on Thursday afternoon. As we close in on the departure of the other couple it becomes apparent that they have already checked out as our workload increases.

So as June comes to a close the heat and humidity seem to be building, and our normal westerly breeze off of Lake Huron has disappeared as the now busy parks electrical system starts to suffer from the load of air conditioners as in true Ontario weather fashion we have went from cool weather into sweltering heat in just a matter of a couple of days, the lawns and gardens are suffering as well as some people. And we seen the first issue of a problem with our refrigerator … oh damn!

Let’s all take a moment just to appreciate our great country’s, both Canada and the United States!

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Day 2096