Inverhuron is up north - Saturday

A cold night, to be sure, but one where I slept for almost nine hours straight; that's virtually unheard of. Even the dog failed to cause me sleepless time, although I don't think Mrs T saw it quite that way.

It was certainly bright and sunny outside, even if the thermometer was still in single digits. No sign of the kids so I fed the hound and took her on a little stroll around the immediate area. We were in a densely wooded area with such a variety of trees and shrubs that the only space to move about in was on the roads and the camping sites that had been cut out of the forest. Where the sun shone through, it was warming up, but where the canopy obscured the sun it was stubbornly cold.

There are upwards of 200 camping sites at Inverhuron, but such is the woodland that unless you're on the access road, you can barely see any of the other sites, so hidden are they. Of course, this being Ontario, the place was busy with people who'd no doubt been up since first light, which is what they do here. The smell of wood smoke and cooking bacon filled the air and the hound's elongated snout was more flexible than ever, getting in some of those lovely bacon fumes.

When I arrived back at our site, the big Tadpole was cooking a huge pan of "Homefries" (diced, fried potatoes out of a bag), eggs and bacon and looking quite pleased with himself. He hadn't slept much but this boy will endure anything for a big breakfast. He was cooking on the little propane range rather than the camp fire, but I think speed and efficiency were uppermost in his mind. Must. Have. Bacon; his motto.

As I was about to head out to the showers, I discovered that I'd not brought any shower gel with me, proving again how unprepared we were. We had to go out later, anyway, to pick up some other camping supplies that we'd either forgotten or decided that we needed now we were out and about, so I decided to shelve the shower and go out in stinky mode.

Mrs T hadn't had such a good a night as I and was looking at the hound in such a way as to suggest an impending dog killing, but other than that, spirits were a little improved from the previous evening. In fact, so improved was the mood that we jumped in the car and headed out to the Canadian Tire store in Kincardine where we picked up everything on our list, including some shower gel; who knew they sold that stuff?

Back at camp, we settled into a quiet afternoon and soaked up some sun. Actually, it was really quite warm when out in the sunshine, but get into the shade and it was really more like April than May. Our plan was to head out for supper in Port Elgin; fish and chips from Lord Elgin's and alfresco eating on the boardwalk whilst enjoying the view of the beach and marina. It all went as anticipated, except that my memory of the streets around Port Elgin was a little sketchy and it took me two attempts (including going down a closed road) to get where we needed to be. The hound went crazy for the fried food, and more than a little anxious as part of our enlarged group walked out onto the harbour wall; I think she imagined that they weren't coming back. A curious thing in Port Elgin was the big Canadian Tire gas/petrol station with no gas/petrol. I know it's the long weekend but you'd have thought they might have provisioned a little better, especially as all the other gas stations were fine.

On our return to Inverhuron, Mrs T and I settled into a DVD and some beer and wine as the evening closed in and things became a little colder again. I mention the beer and wine because it was completely illicit. This weekend is traditionally alcohol-free in Ontario Provincial Parks due to some past years bad behavior from the High School set. Why grown ups can't be trusted with a drink or two I don't know, but had we been found out we could have been fined. That said, we did get news that a boy from Will's school had been killed in a drink-driving incident the previous evening after being ejected from Rondeau Park by the Police, so there's obviously still a problem. On the DVD front, we were trialing our new $95 Blu Ray player after the built-in DVD player in the Airstream gave up on us last year. Not using the built-in sound system left us with the tinny TV speakers but a quick tie up with my Bose portable and we were back in full aural business.

The night was getting colder, even more so than Friday night, but the tent dwellers decided to tough it again, even though they were all suffering from a lack of sleep. At bedtime we caved in and fired up the furnace for a short while, just to take the chill out of the air. It was just 4C out. Tsk.

The weather looked set for the weekend, despite a late shower just as we were turning in. It just needed to warm up a bit. Still, we were nice and snug even if the kids weren't.

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Oops! Beer.