August 15, 1999
I woke up early and watched all the 'beauties' still in their last few minutes of sleep, funny how I never noticed before how much they snore, ...snort, ...sniff and stretched when asleep.
Niki was sleeping on the drop-down dining table/bed and managed fine. She tended to move alot, but she never complained. The problem I worried about was the TV hanging above her. At one point, I'm sure I saw her chewing on its power cord in her sleep.
Matt had a bed that I had made up from a sheet of 3/4 inch plywood two feet wide and seven feet long. I put it across the two front seats, between the driver and co-pilot. It worked dandy. I worried at first about what knobs or buttons he might push in his sleep, but everything seemed to be working okay.
And despite how wet things were inside and out for the past two days, it looked like everyone slept good. The rain had to stop during the night so after breakfast, I crawled up on the roof and caulked every seam and bolt I could find. I was now sure, that would fix things but I wasn't so sure what Don (the owner) would say, when he saw my poor workmanship with a caulking gun. (I never could get one to draw a nice bead).
We had a quick coffee with the campground owners, they had just taken over the place a few months earlier. And after some casual discussion, it turned out that he worked for the Department of National Defence (DND) in Ottawa but was quitting. He had decided to quit his job the day that a new computer was dropped on his desk, and he felt that if he was going to have to learn something new, it might as well be really new to him. So he was now the proud owner of a campground. Well I told him that I was currently in the middle of a contract also at DND. Funny, same part of the organization and all, and like a flash we both then realized that it was the project that I was managing which had put the new computer on his desk. So, in a way, he quit because of me. I wasn't sure what next to say, but he just as quick let a big smile cover his face, he shook my hand, and said thanks. I guess you could say I still got to list him as a happy client as a result of the rollout and install.
On the road again, the infamous '100 Bottles of Beer on the Wall' began. Though we only drove 10 minutes to next stop, I was so relieved to pull into King's Landing to get that crazy song to end and be forgotten.
--- The mill at Kings Landing ----
King's Landing was a lot like Upper Canada Village, but much more spread out, more in a natural type of a setting, like it would have been back then. It took a while to cover the grounds and to see everything.
Of course when we were done, I thought we could save time getting back to the RV. So, under my leadership we took a shortcut back to the front gate... through the forest... round a bend... following an almost path... back through another forest... and then we returned... ah ha.. (to the 1800's through the back door of the restaurant). I still insist that I was never lost, it's just that back in the 1800's, landmarks weren't as obvious. It's a fact, history describes that even Davey Crocket, King of the Wild Frontier, got lost on many occasions. Okay, it was never while looking for the front gate...but...
Back on the road, the kids finished off '100 Bottles of Beer'. The nice thing about a Class A, is that those silly songs are not being sung inches behind you like in a car. You just have to move the kids back far enough.
The rest of the day was back in the rain but we made miles and got set up in Fundy National Park just before dark. This way we would catch the low tides scheduled in the morning.
I looked again for a leak and this time found one hiding way up in the bathroom tap fixture under the sink. Boy did I find one. As a short term fix, so we could keep the pressure up, I plugged the line with an extension piece from a socket set. But when we tested it, the piece simply blew out, smacked into the middle of my forehead and then ricoceed twice more around the bathroom. Turned out that the wound wasn't too bad, mostly just sweat from the panic mixed with a few drops of blood. Michelle played nurse and told me that it looked worse than it was and that I would be just fine. (Does anyone else ever get the feeling that they are being decieved about important things like their health)? Once patched up, I then properly fixed the leak and cleaned up, I could hear the giggling down at the other end of the RV. This family sometimes is just... where's my beer?