Catching Up Part 3

THE FAMILY REUNION PART ONE

Well, if you have known my family for any length of time, you know that tradition often is that when we plan outings, disaster often follows in one form or another. It makes for good stories to tell, anyways and there is never a dull moment. This was no exception. The reunion was scheduled to start at 1pm on Friday the 24th at Fintry. We had a group spot reserved. We had showers, flush toilets, a beautiful beach and a covered eating area reserved. At 10am on the 23rd, Fintry campground was evacuated because of the Terrace Mountain Fire. In fact, it is still evacuated to this day.

So, all our plans for Thursday flew out the window. We spent our time on the computer and the phone trying to find another place to have our reunion. And ours is no small reunion. We were expecting 49 people... not including nursing babies... That would have put the number to 52. I called everywhere. Everywhere was full. I started with the campgrounds that met our agreed upon criteria - showers, etc. Full. Everywhere. And I asked for suggestions and I followed them up. Full.

I knew there were forestry campgrounds that were off the radar and that there was one on Mable Lake past the provincial campground. You can't call these places and you can't reserve them either. The campground attendant at the provincial campground on Mable Lake said that we might have some luck there as the campground had been enlarged by quite a bit that spring.

So with some sketchy directions we sent the man of action along with a tent and a tarp out to check it out. In the meantime there was a family conference call. I don't think I'll write much about that. Or the yelling. And I won't write much about how I felt when I was told I was giving up without trying because I was no longer looking for a place with showers but just for a place. Nope. I won't write about that. All I will say is that Sarah is very good at that kind of thing and I admire how she handled it.

Anyways. Despite the conference call or maybe because he wasn't there for it, Brent managed to snag us camping spots in what was probably the only campground within 100 km's with some spots. It was 20 km's past where Mable Lake turns to gravel. And the road has suffered some slides in the spring run off. There were only pit toilets, no running water and no showers. But it was beautiful. We managed to fit the whole fam-dam-ly into 4 spots. 2 huge spots held most people and then we had a spot to ourselves with Evan and Erin and Tyler shared a spot with Amy and Andreas. Anyways, I didn't hear any complaints and that is the main thing. And I thought it was a beautiful campsite. This is a picture that Andrew took. I think most people who come there come for boating or fishing and to ATV or ride their motor bikes. Not so much for the beach which was a lovely sandy beach. We had it almost to ourselves.

Here are some more of Andrew's photos. He really captured the beauty of the place.