Guess what day it is?
Guess. What. Day. It. Is?
Mike! Mike! Mike! Mike! Mike!
Do you know what day it is?
It’s dump day!
Yes, excitement comes in many forms at Camp Hidey Ho, and today I was genuinely excited to get to the dump.
The garbage included the remains of my Costco lobsters, and let’s just say those lobster shells had been making their presence increasingly well known.
It was time for them to go.
The morning actually started on a much nicer note when I heard the loon out on the lake again.
I still haven’t managed to see it, but I definitely heard it.
We even had a conversation.
The loon would call, and I’d answer back in my heavily accented version of loon-speak. Apparently my pronunciation was at least understandable because the loon answered me.
I’m not claiming fluency yet, but we’re making progress.
After disposing of the increasingly aromatic garbage, I decided that since I was already halfway there, I might as well continue down to Calais.
I needed some parts to repair my Gorilla Cart. Somewhere during one of my many trips across the bog, the pins that hold the wheels onto the axles had disappeared.
My best guess is that the sides of the trail through the peat caught the pins and pulled them out.
I didn’t realize anything was wrong until I reached the other side.
That’s when the wheels fell off.
Literally.
So I picked up what I thought were the correct replacement parts.
I also stopped at Walmart to solve another problem involving my camera. I have a nice SLR camera that I brought up last year but couldn’t use because I had forgotten the batteries.
This year, I remembered the batteries.
Progress!
Unfortunately, this year I forgot the memory card.
So now I have both.
Maybe next year I’ll actually remember the entire camera system at the same time.
The trip back to camp turned into something of a wildlife tour. On Route 1, I had to stop and wait for a couple of wild turkeys to cross the road.
Then, once I got onto Democrat Ridge Road near camp, a couple of deer ran across in front of me.
I haven’t seen nearly as much wildlife as I’d expected so far this trip, so it was nice to finally have a few sightings.
We also had our weekly call with Aunt Millie today, which was a delight as always.
Once I got back to camp, I was ready to repair the Gorilla Cart.
I pulled out my shiny new parts.
Wrong size.
Of course they were.
So…
Back to Calais.
This time I took one of the original parts with me.
Amazing how much easier it is to buy the correct replacement part when you actually bring the old one along for comparison.
Live and learn.
With the wagon finally repaired, I decided to tackle one more project: retrieving the aluminum rowboat from Neighbor Joe’s camp.
Rather than drive around, I walked from Camp Hidey Ho through the woods to his property.
When I got there, I discovered that a large tree had fallen across his driveway. I know Joe is expecting company sometime around the middle of the month, so I’ll give him a call and let him know before somebody arrives and discovers they can’t get in.
I retrieved the rowboat and brought it back across the lake to its new home behind the natural rock breakwater I cleared out yesterday.
And I have to say, it looks pretty good there.
For now, I’ve tied it up temporarily. I still need to come up with a permanent mooring arrangement that will keep the boat secure and, more importantly, prevent it from banging against the rocks.
But the boat is finally at Camp Hidey Ho.
So it was a busy day with considerably more driving than I’d planned—especially considering I made the trip to Calais twice.
Still, the garbage is gone, the Gorilla Cart has all four wheels again, the camera can actually take pictures, I saw turkeys and deer, talked to a loon, and brought the rowboat home.
Not a bad dump day.
Talk to you tomorrow.