Alberta Adventure Chapter 5 -I’m Starting to Have Fun

Nipigon to Kenora

We were up early again, and on the road before we knew it. When we were getting ready to go, Laura had started singing a silly song about being 'on the road again'. It makes me a little bit excited. I was happy that we weren't staying at this campground for any longer.

We drove for a while and then pulled off into a beautiful park with squirrels running all over. This was very exciting, but Laura got mad at us for pulling on our leashes. Then we went and stood near a statue of a man Carm said was Terry Fox. There was a hush that I could feel. He must have been a special person to get a park with squirrels and a statue overlooking a big lake. I wondered if we'd get to swim in that lake.

We spent the rest of the day driving. I managed to nap a bit, but I was mostly wondering when we'd get there. Sometimes I closed my eyes and imagined how wonderful Alberta would be and that there would be squirrels to chase everywhere, and that we wouldn't have to wear our leashes. Would the next campground be Alberta, where we'd be staying for our holiday? Or were we going to be driving forever.

In the middle of our drive,  Laura and Carm seemed really stressed out. They were talking about something called a 'grey tank' and that it was leaking when they put too much water in it. In a little town they drove around trying to find someone to fix it, but didn't have any luck. I do like driving thorough towns because there is so much to see - sometimes even other dogs.

They didn't find anyone, so we kept driving. We started driving through another town; there were lots of stores and cars. This didn't seem like it would be a campground, but soon we turned onto a smaller road and pulled up next to a building. Carm and Laura went inside for a while then came out smiling. We didn't have to drive very far before we were backing into a spot and Laura was making our camper home.

The truck and camper were starting to feel more like home to my sisters and I. It seemed that we'd be doing this forever and I was starting to feel that would be okay.

We went for a really lovely walk. There was lots to see and smell, even some deer! I remembered that my sisters and I had eaten some deer the previous winter, and my stomach rumbled a bit. It had tasted good. I thought maybe I could try to catch the deer, but Laura got mad when I pulled on the leash. I was having such a good time that I thought maybe this was Alberta and that we'd stay for a while, but Laura told us we were in Kenora.

On our walk I saw a gray bird that I thought might be Grace, but then it flew away, and I remembered that Grace was staying with Ruth. I missed her a little bit. I think Kabira missed her the most though.

There was a lake at the campground that Laura said was "Lake of the Woods"; it wasn't warm enough to swim in. It was so cold out that Laura and Carm wore sweaters, and I think Kabira would have liked a sweater too. We had driven into winter when we left North Bay, I hoped that we'd drive back to summer soon.

We slept in Kenora for two nights. We had lots of nice walks there, and it was great to have a day without so much time in the truck. We did drive around a bit without the camper, Laura and Carm even stopped and ate lunch in a building and left us in the truck. We could have eaten lunch too, but they must have forgotten. I wished a bit that they would have left my sisters and I in the camper to sleep, but I do prefer to be with Laura and Carm. If I can see them, then I know they won't go away forever.

My people stopped being worried about the 'grey tank' and started pouring the water from the sink into a bucket. Then they'd dump it into the stinky tank. I often think that people are strange. Why would they carry a giant tank of business with them everywhere when they could just put it into a bag and throw it in the garbage like they do for mine?

to be continued…