HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ERNIE!!! WE WERE THINKING ABOUT YOU. HUGS!
Day 273 – Rob took a walk around the campground this morning while I stumbled around the RV – it was morning after all and it takes me a long time to wake up. The girls had their morning rampage around the RV, then collapsed for a day of napping. Twice a day they act like flying squirrels and race around, playing king of the RV jungle. It’s amusing. Maybe it’s their form of hunting since this usually goes on right before or after a meal. Wee haw. It’s really funny if we’re outside and we hear all this thumping and banging from inside.
People were packing up to leave the campground. There appears to be a fairly good turnover here. Campers come for a couple of days, then leave to be replaced by someone else. We think it’s because there are no showers here and basically no water. There is a hand pump where water spurts out in little amounts with every large effort. It would take all day and a heart attack to fill a large camping vehicle’s tank.
We drove to Campbell River, east of here about a 40-minute drive. This was the nearest city to Strathcona and it is a large city, one of the bigger ones on Vancouver Island. The drive there is mostly winding up and down hills to the east coast. Then you’re in civilization again.
Fishing is very big here and fresh fish will be easy to find. We see more cars/trucks towing fishing boats than we see campers/Rvs/bikes. There are large lakes and many rivers between Campbell River and Strathcona. It’s really beautiful.
Campbell River has a bustling harbor and waterfront. All the various tours leave from there. We had to run an errand in town, so this was the perfect chance to look around. Stopping at the post office (where there were pretty flowers to take a picture of), we made arrangement for general delivery of our mail to them. Before ordering out mail to be shipped from our mail forwarding box in Florida, we have to check first with the post office on the receiving end. Because it has to go through customs, it could take 2 weeks to receive it.
Then we went to the visitor’s center, got information about the area, bought a couple of trinkets, then sat in the car to order our mail from Florida. There is absolutely no signal in Strathcona. The parking lot of the visitor’s center in Campbell River had a signal, so we also took care of some business – online and via phone. From information received at the visitor’s center, we saw there was a “goods delivery” boat from Gold River (west of Strathcona) that traveled once a week to the outskirts of the river/west coast to outposts to bring supplies (like drinking water, toilet paper, produce, propane, diesel fuel). Like the mail boat in Port Alberni, this boat allowed passengers to come along for the day. Because we had a signal, we were able to call to get status. The boat delivered on Tuesday’s; we reserved a place for tomorrow.
On the way back to the campground, we checked out another campground east of ours located on Upper Campbell Lake. This campground was small with sites right on the lake, really nice and not crowded. They did not take reservations but were first come, first served. We may try to get in there for several nights.
We had lunch in the RV. The afternoon was quiet since some people had left, but others will arrive in their place. We sat in the tent, napped and read our books, and observed the people around us. The young family nearby continued to entertain us. It was a nice day with some sun later and a high of 72 degrees.