Volounteer Weekend

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Nursepair

supremo
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Hey all. I am really excited. Kevin and I are going to a YMCA camp, John Island, this weekend, where we usually go to Family Camp most years with several of our friends. Not for a vacation though, it is a volounteer weekend, they are replacing the old cabins, the shower block, kitchen and putting in new composting toilets gradually year by year, long overdue I may add. The camp was opened in 1954 (the year I was born).

Kevin will do some woodwork as he is good at that. I will probably just wield a paintbrush or help clean up the mess etc. It is free board and lodging, just the cost of the gas, it's a six and a half hour drive up north, near a small town called Spanish. Then a drive for 15 minutes past an indian reservation, houses though.

It will be quite a challenge for me as when we get off the boat it is a mile and a half walk over very un-even ground until we get to the camp which is then all walking in sand. We will stay in a cabin with bunk beds, so I will have to take my body pillow with me and all my meds, ice pack and heat pad. It will be cold too still, so warm clothes and bedding. I sorted most of the stuff out today. Just need to get the cool box sorted out for the booze (no daquaris or pina coladas for me this time though 'cos of my pills.)

It will be hard work, but the food is always good and we will hopefully sit around the campfire in the evenings and those who can will jam. Kev will take his guitar. It is so beatiful there. Looks like Cuba at the beach part. There is a wonderful vista at night too as it is pitch dark when they switch the generator off. Oh, I must remember to buy some glow sticks, can't take the total darkness as I am closterphobic.

It is also the place where I fell on rocks and broke and disclocated my wrist a couple of years ago. That was also a challenge as when Kevin had managed to get me up from the rock pool, after he had found some driftwood and splinted my wrist with it and his sock and supported it with my shirt, we then had more rocks to climb, another 20 minute walk to the dining hall. I then took 800 mgms of Advil and was helped into the trailer of a very old tractor on a garden chair. Then the ride up the uneven road to the dock, A fifteen minute trip in the boat. Then a bumpy ride up an unmade rocky road to get our car which was pasked 20 minutes away. Then another 30 minute drive to the hospital.

Oh, sorry, I have been rambling. Kevin's away on a business trip tonight so no one to talk to. Better go to bed now anyway it's gone 2am again!! Night all.
 
Have a great time. Giving is better than recieving and if you can have fun in the process, all the better. Your description of the ride with your wrist makes me think of car rides with my knees before surgery. Every bump and turn commanded a grunt or moan and whimper. My husband is still amazed at how quiet the car rides are since TKR. Anyway, have fun Sue.
 
This sounds like what I'll be doing mid-June. Its to a family church camp in
middle Minnesota. The week before the camp opens there are two weeks, work week
and youth week. Work week does all the heavy construction and youth week
does light work to get the camp in shape for the summer season. I go for
Youth Week where 14 adults and about 60 kids grades 7-12 are at the camp for
part work part play.

It too is a drive to a dock where a boat picks you up for a 20 min trip to an island
you're stuck on the island for a week.

I had to defer my duty until I knew my knee would take it but I'm going. It sounds
a bit more civilized than years. I get off at a pier and walk up the concrete stairs to
the camp.
 
Sue, since I've never been that far north I enjoyed your "rambling". I actually had a mental picture. The only family type camp I've ever seen was on "Dirty Dancing". The only other camps I've seen were hunting camps...
 
Doug:

I was about to say something really stupid like only Canadians and Upper Midwesterners
can have a great time in the middle of a bunch of mosquitos and ticks --- but
I think bugs are something Floridians understand.
 
Our mosquito's have to obtain pilots licenses..
 
Ya'll need to come out to the great Northwest as we don't have much in the way of bugs at all. A few mosquitos if you are around a lot of stagnant water, but we do have our share of wasps and bees.

Sue, the weekend sounds wonderful. Be careful not to overdo and walk carefully and slowly. I'll be praying that it is refreshing and that you have some time that you can forget you had knee surgery recently - if only for a few minutes or so. God bless!
 
Sue, sounds like a great trip. Only I'd probably be a little wussy about the cold weather. You Canadians are a tough lot for sure! I'm grumbling because our weather seems to hang in the 50's and 60's! But there is nothing better than being away from all the lights at night. I love that because you can stare up at the stars and really think about how small we are compared to the universe. It's getting more and more difficult to find places like that anymore. Have fun, but NO tripping, okay!!!!
 
Is it bad luck to tell you all "break a leg"? Cause actually if you do you know a good OS or two.
 
Yes, we do have slugs... I forgot about them. Aren't too many out here in the sticks.

And we sit in the hot tub at night, turn off the outside lights and the sky is FILLED with stars, Jamie. We're far enough away from things to enjoy that sight.

Oh, that reminds me, we do have frogs.. cute little baby things. Freaks me out. I don't like things that jump unexpectedly.
 
Skeet, I bet those bunnys will jump unexpectedly at the weeknd. Thanks for your kind thoughts by the way.

Thanks to you all.
 
Thanks for the trip down memory lane, Sue. I grew up in Southern California and as a kid, my family would go camping all over the west coast and into Canada. Your post reminded me of a few trips. Would love to relive a few of those adventures. Of course, no cabins for my family, just pitching tents.
 
April, we have a small trailer in Muskoka, it is a beautiful part of Ontario. We go there most weeknds in Spring, Summer and early Fall. I have to get up there in the next couple of weeks to clean and open up. We get mice in over the winter, so I do the cleanup as hubby has allergies.

What parts of Canada did you travel to?
 
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