September 20th, 2009: Missed again! We were at Manitou Regional Park last weekend with our Sunseekers group. There was supposed to be wireless Internet, but it didn’t reach where we were camped (and I was too lazy to carry my laptop up to where it would work!).
We had another great weekend and the weather was perfect, warm during the day but cool at night, which makes for great sleeping.
On Monday morning, we woke up at 6:00 AM to a rousing great thunderstorm complete with lots of rain. One of the other campers said he could hear hail drumming on his ventilator covers, but we didn’t notice any. The news reports said it was a very widespread system, with thunderstorm warnings all the way from Saskatoon to Foam Lake. It put a sudden stop to harvesting, which was well under way where we were, but with a forecast of temperatures in the high twenties, and nothing but sunshine all week, the combines won’t be stopped for long.
Manitou Regional Park is quite large, with lots of campsites from no services to full services. We had water and power, which is all we needed; in fact, we don’t even use the water since we can carry enough for five days and to spare. We had a nicely shaded site, too, and never needed our air conditioning. There are three buildings strategically placed with men’s and ladies’ toilets and showers, very clean, and two large camp kitchens available for rent.
The Park is about five kilometres from Watrous, and a couple from Danceland. It is right next door to the drive-in theatre where there was a monster flea market on Sunday. It is also quite close to the Manitou Village Community Hall, where we had a pancake breakfast Sunday morning. As usual, we went out a day early and came home a day late, so we had a nice, five-day campout. There are always a few couples that go early and some who stay over the extra day, so we have company.
This was to be our last campout of the season; we were all set to drain the tanks and get the motor home ready for winter, but with such a good forecast we decided to see if we could get another outing or two this fall.
With harvesting going full swing, the demand for grain cars will be great. If you are told there is a shortage of cars, remind them that there must be a thousand of them on the branch line from Young north almost to the Mosaic Potash Mine.
Thursday, the temperature got up to 32°C, breaking all records. That and the strong winds should make for excellent drying conditions; with no sign of an end to good weather, harvesting must be booming right along. Isn’t that something? Past the middle of September and still no frost. What looked like a disastrous year for the grain farmers may turn out to be decent after all.
The outlook for the weekend is pretty good, so we are going to take the motor home down to Greenwater for a couple of days. Hopefully, we will have coffee with the old gang, and lunch at the rummage sale in Perigord. We will also drop in to see our great grandson, Logan, and his parents at their new (to them) home in Tisdale. We should be back Monday, but if the mood strikes us, it may stretch out to Tuesday, Wednesday, or even later.
