Some sage advice. Don’t travel highway 28 east for the next while. Start out today and leave early on what is to be about a four hour trip. Yeah well, we do not travel more than a few kilometres without having to slow to 50 and stop and wait. We are on the road for an hour and a half and maybe traverse 50K. It is like that all the way to the Fort McMurray turn off. Home free right. Nope there is still a couple more sections of the road that need work.
There has been talk of improving the road north but I wasn’t following it closely and I did not realize they are doing it all at once. Must need votes pretty bad to go at it like they are.
We do get to the Saskatchewan border eventually. From there on it is clear sailing on very good roads actually. It is kind of odd but the traffic is lighter on this side. There are fewer people but the border is just an imaginary line and there are no guards to impede crossing but the plates change and the numbers drop.
Our goal is Meadow Lake Provincial Park. Who knows why. We decided to go camping this week and that is where I picked. Haven’t been to Sask. much and I hear the Meadow Lake park is a nice place. Make the turn and it is on to the gravel. I’m OK with gravel roads but it is night and day from the brand new asphalt we just left. We head to the south side of the lake first. Debbie was on Google maps and noticed a sandy beach on this shore so we thought we might scope it out.
Weird, the gate house to the park is all boarded up. There is a fee to enter the park but no one to pay. A shrug of the shoulders and on we go. There is a residence close so we stop to ask the fellow about the campground, where we pay, if we have to pay, and assorted other things. The friendly fellow tells us the Provincial Park campground is on the north shore and the park is closed so he is not sure if we have to pay or not, or if the campground is even open. We decided to drive over there and take a look.
Entering the campground is much like the southside experience. There is a building but it is all boarded up. This building however has a few notes on it. First and foremost the campground is on self registration mode. Find a spot and self pay at the kiosk. Debbie want so go down to the lake side and see if there are any spots. Spots? It is more like are there any campers! We can have our pick and there is no line of traffic behind us waiting to jump on the good spot we bypass. There are a few trailers here but no people, no vehicles. Just us. Even the campground hosts have vacated but left their trailer.
Our campsite at the Murray Doell Campground
Quiet and I mean quite! A chipmunk chirp here and a goose honk there but that is it. Oh ya, the military planes from the Cold Lake base flying back and forth. But only intermittently.
Get set up and head to the self check booth and lo and behold there is one more vehicle and campers, so there are two. 120 camp sites and 2 are occupied. Kind of spooky really.
As darkness fall the loons wail their haunting cry and all the creatures including us know it is soon time to turn in.
