Thursday, August 12, 2010 (The Pas, MB to Reed Lake, MB)

We had a few things to pick up in The Pas this morning before we left for Reed Lake. Steve still needed to find some axes and we also needed fishing licences so we figured that the hardware store would be a good place for both. We got the axes (plus a few other things) but they did not have any non-residence fishing licences. She did, however, give us directions to another store that would have them. So after a stop at the pharmacy for some Reactine, we found Michael’s Convenience Store and purchased our fishing licences. One more stop...at the liquor store...and we were good to go!

It was a short drive today (about 150 kms) to Reed Lake which is in the Grass River Provincial Park. We arrived at 12:30 p.m., parked the rig and after getting a map of the campground from the office, we set out on foot to take a look and pick out a site that we could fit into. As it turned out, there were plenty of large sites that would fit us. There were only a handful of sites taken which surprised us but Dave said that it is mainly a fishing camp and is very busy in June and July. A lot of Americans come up for the fishing but come August the fishing slows down.

We decided on site 43 and after some manoeuvring, managed to get the 5th wheel backed into the site. Eventually and with more practice, I’m sure this backing up thing will get easier!

The site we picked is really nice, backing onto the forest but unfortunately is not great for the solar panels or the satellite dish due to all the tall trees. Well, we have plenty of movies downloaded so we really don’t need TV...besides, we’ll only be inside if the weather turns really yucky. As far as the solar panels are concerned...well, thank goodness we have a generator!

Speaking of generator...it caused us a little grief this afternoon. Steve fired it up because I wanted to vacuum all the dust out of the trailer...it was very dusty after our long drive on the gravel road the day before. To make a long story short, our brand new, only been used a couple of times, generator decided to pack it in...sheesh, what next?!!! We have come to the conclusion that there has not been one thing that has not caused us problems of some sort except for the ATVs! (knock on wood) At this point, I decided to take a walk up to the office to pay for our site. When I returned, Steve had the generator apart and was cleaning the spark plug. Apparently it was really clogged up which was odd since we had hardly used the generator. Once put back together, Steve started it up and it ran perfectly...whew!

We had just sat down to relax with a drink when Dave arrived. When we had spoken to him last week, he had not been sure what day we would get here...either Thursday or Friday. He had been down in Winnipeg getting his boat motor serviced and had just returned to Thompson the night before. He had quickly packed up today and drove the 2 and a half hours to meet us here. His girlfriend, Kerry will be driving out after work Saturday and will bring Dave’s son, Jon and his friend as well. We were really looking forward to having a good visit with Dave...it has been 4 years since we last saw him!

Needless to say, we stayed up late and drank way too much as we sat around the campfire visiting.