Camping in July

This past weekend we headed back to our camping spot for a couple nights to get away and enjoy the summer.

It was much warmer – we didn’t need the furnace! But still only 12C or so during the days.

Which meant the herd of mosquitos was impressive. And some black flies. And some sort of sandfly.

All were manageable with bug spray, mosquito coils, and having the campfire going.

We were solo on Friday night. On Saturday afternoon several people stopped, including the Tombstone Park Ranger and our neighbours from in town, just as a big downpour moved through. There were two vans that stayed Saturday night, sleeping in their vans, but the area is so big we didn’t have any interaction.

It was really easy to pack and get out of town, when the camper is all stocked up. We just had to grab a couple changes of clothes, a few fresh towels, and our food.

We forgot to grab any seasoning, like Montreal Steak Spice or BBQ sauce. Jeff barbequed chicken thighs one night and only used salt and pepper, and it was fabulous!! Better than anything we usually use!

The river was also much lower, at a normal July height. You could walk across it in some places just in rubber boots. Jeff went fishing a few times and caught about 10 grayling, but tossed them all back. I had my GoPro on a stick again, but couldn’t catch any fish in my underwater stream videos this time.

We played more Trivial Pursuit, a game each night. It has become our go-to activity in the evening.

This week I was supposed to be in Philadelphia for work, meeting with all my coworkers. We’re trying to do a virtual annual “Grand Meetup” instead this week, and it is going better than I expected. It’s been a good mix of workshops, break-out sessions, social hang-outs, keynotes, and talks. Juggling our timezones around the world are tricky, and I’ve had a 6am start a couple days, but our company’s event planning team found a way to make it work really well for most of us.

This morning at 6am, it was only 4C at the airport. My home thermometer is showing 7 and it is really foggy. It feels like we are rushing into fall without ever having any normal summer heat. My tomatoes are just flowering now! Here’s hoping we get some warmth before the frost comes. Remember our first summer up here when the first frost was August 3?