Our first full day of camping in Sault Ste. Marie was a busy one.

Frank was up at 7 AM for the sole purpose of hitting the camp showers early.

Why not use our own showers you may ask?

Well, these KOA camp showers are really exceptional. It’s like a country club or pretty close to it I imagine, not that I’ve ever been in a country club before.

These showers are big, shiny, modern, clean and equipped with rainwater shower-heads and blow dryers.

Jennifer was the next one to indulge in a hot shower. I went last.

Then, it was time to give baby Ginny a bath which we did in the kitchen sink.

I wish I would’ve taken pictures.

Unfortunately both my hands were busy propping up three month old Ginny as her Mother soaped up and rinsed her off. Ginny mewled, splashed and kicked in protest.

Looking back, I realize now that my small and humble kitchen sink will never wash anything so precious again.

I decided for dinner that day I would make a pot of my beef barley soup in my handy-dandy Insta pot. This proved to be much easier to prepare in my tiny kitchen than I had expected. Twenty minutes to prepare, thirty minutes to cook and finally twenty minutes to vent.

As they say in the movies… “Easy Peasy.”

Earlier in the afternoon, Frank had insisted that I accompany him to the KOA campground store. I didn’t have to think too hard to figure out why. The day before he had gone to the same store and purchased two small lawn ornament poles, one for each of his brothers.

Along with the polls he bought two Harley Davidson flags to go along with them.

He got the idea for these tenting flagpoles while camping here last year. One of our neighbouring campers who approached us and asked if we thought the camp would allow his MIA flag.

We told him no. There would be no problem.

As it turns out, he also purchased a pole for us as well and now he wanted me to go and pick out a flag for it. Once at the store it didn’t take me too long to find my flag. In fact it was pretty much the first one I had seen.

It was whimsical.

It was colourful.

It was my kind of kitschy.

The flag depicted a gnome sporting the customary felt red pointy hat standing next to a red and white polkadotted mushroom. The caption read…

“Welcome Gnome.”

Later that evening we watched the movie Pure Country, one of our old family favourites starring George Strait.

We were all in bed by 10.

Tomorrow we would head for Thunder Bay.

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Woke up at 7 AM, left the park by 9 o’clock and pulled into Tim Hortons for breakfast.

Goodbye Parry Sound.

Today was Mother’s Day. Actually, it was a very special Mother’s Day because Jen was celebrating her very first one.

For the very first time I wished my daughter a very happy Mother’s Day.

Later, at about one in the afternoon, my interest was piqued when we drove by a very scenic resort called Lake Lauzon Resort and Marine. With Lake Superior on the left and forests on the right, this looked like a place where I could really spend some serious camping time.

We pulled over for lunch and to give Ginny her bottle.

By the beautiful scenery, it was obvious that we were working our way in to a more and more picturesque terrain.

Later, as we rambled down the highway now leading to Blind River, I couldn’t help notice Bobby-Dog perched in between me and Frank atop layers of cushions and pillows covering our cooler and barbecue. He seemed stoic in his determination not to give into bobbing his head the the bobble headed dogs familiar to any souvenir shop…

…although I rather wished he did.

Meanwhile, Jen’s attention seemed focused on the scenery from the grand vista courtesy of the large window to her left.

About 112 kilometres outside of Sault St. Marie and just on the outskirts of Blind River it looked like the trees were just coming out of their dormant stage and had yet to get that soft green dusting that heralds the imminent budding of leaves.

So far this trip, I had seen only cows and horses. I am happy to report that I could now add yaks to the repertoire.

84 kilometres outside Sault St. Marie we passed a sign saying that if we would turn left ahead, the road will take us to Tessalon.

The lakes we have seen so far are the colour of my father’s star sapphire ring, a nice accompaniment to the powder blue skies.

I had told Jen earlier in the day that we would indeed be witness to the beauty of Ontario.

We were not disappointed.

By 2:00 p.m. we were entering the township of Bruce Mines. We had already passed barren fields where evidence of mines could be seen in the distance.

At this point Echo Bay was 40 kilometres ahead and Sault St. Marie was 64.

As I contemplated that, I promised myself at one of the first things I would do when we arrived an settled at the camp I would seek out a long, hot shower.

By the sound of Ginny’s rising squeaks coming from behind me I sensed that my three-month-old granddaughter was pretty much feeling the same way I was.

As this is going on, Bobby dog moved his head back and forth casting a sorrowful glance towards Ginny and her mewling. He then looked at me and seemed to implore me to make it stop.

As Frank predicted we arrived in Sault Ste. Marie at 3:30 PM. It was close call because we first had to find a propane dealer and fill our depleted tanks. After scouring the streets for 20 minutes very nice lady at the Sault Ste. Marie trading post directed Frank to go down a few more lights where they have a propane dispensary.

Sure enough, there it was. Thirty dollars worth of propane later we were heading for the campground.

The sight of the KOA campground came as a welcomed relief after the mud and grime of the Parry Sound campground. Everything here is orderly and neatly groomed. We were allotted to the back of the campgrounds next to the rental cabins, out-of-the-way of continual traffic from the head office.

I was the proverbial happy camper.

After we were all hooked up Frank and I decided on sandwiches since the majority of the meat was in the freezer. I made turkey on rye with cheese alongside a pot of soup.

It turned out to be a pleasant and quiet evening.

That is until we turned on the television shortly after eight and tuned in to the Toronto Raptors game. The three of us watched while Little Ginny slept oblivious to the game and the high tensions being felt by all the fans including us.

During the last five seconds of the game the Raptors threw the ball towards the net where it teetered on the brink until fortune favoured the team of the true north and gently, the ball tipped into the basket. The crowds went wild and so did we.

It was at that very moment of jubilation when we woke our sleeping princess and she was not happy.

She did not go back to sleep until 1:00 a.m.

Ouch.

Our first night in the camper for this journey across Canada went by peacefully. Jennifer didn’t seem to mind the kitchen table made into a bed once it was covered in a sheet and paired off with a pillow and blanket. She said she slept well as did the baby beside her in a portable bassinet. The usual 4 o’clock a.m. feeding went off without incident. Later, Jen would tell me that her bed in the camper was more comfortable than the bed assigned to her in the hospital for labour and delivery.

For breakfast we had frosted flakes cereal. For lunch, standard pork and beans.

For dinner, we finally got to have on our steak and asparagus.

We tried to stay upbeat to offset our mud brown surroundings and sloshy roads. Meanwhile, the interior of the camper became immersed in a routine of meal preparation, baby bottle washing, sterilizing and preparing infant formula.

In the afternoon Jen and I enjoyed a card game of rummy. I’m embarrassed to say that she beat me quite soundly in spite of years of experience playing rummy with my father who had taught me to play when I was around six years old right along with Go Fish. In the end it was all great fun of course.

For the majority of day two in Parry Sound, we spent the day inside the camper due to cool temperatures.

Towards the end of the day Frank got out the propane fire ring which would be our obligatory evening campfire.

We wrapped baby Ginny up in the plush velour brown blanket and carried her to the picnic bench where we bounced her on our knees best we could. It wasn’t long however before she tired of that as did our knees.

It was lights out at 10.

Tomorrow we would head for Sault Sainte Marie.