Blake's Blog Nov 7

I said that I had slept for nine hours. Well, truth be told, I was in bed for a little over nine hours but was not asleep the whole time. We must have parked the fifth wheel under an acorn tree because I was awoken numerous times throughout the evening by the sound of acorns striking the top of the trailer, having fallen off of the tree. The head of our bed is situated in one of the slide-outs. So when an acorn hits the roof of the slide out, it is whacking onto sheet metal literally 3 feet above our heads. The amount of noise that a few small acorns can make is quite amazing. At one point, Sonya stirred in the wee hours of the morning, probably as a result of a few acorn bombs exploded above our heads and I sat up, preparing to get out of bed to take Kizmet out for her morning walk. Sonya took a quick look at her iPhone and let me know that it was only 5am so I flopped back down on my pillow and quickly fell back asleep for a couple more hours.

When I finally did wake up and took Kizmet out for her morning stroll, I was happy to find that, while the sky was cloudy, it was already a nice, warm fall day. After a short walk, I returned to Smaug to make tea and start on breakfast. I made eggs and turkey bacon and then started the process of waking up the kids. And what a process it is - sometimes a painful one. Isaac is usually out of bed pretty quickly and immediately has things to say; usually about super-heroes or video games or super-heroes in video games. It can take him a long while to get around to eating and longer still to get dressed and teeth brushed. And then there is Princess Natasha. She likes to lie up on her top bunk and stay bundled up, warm and cozy for as long as possible. A typical teenager.

By nine o’clock, I thought that it was fairly obvious that none of us felt much like heading into the city so Sonya started looking at things to do nearer to the campground. She found a National Park nearby and we decided to check that out after lunch. The rest of the morning consisted of cleaning up around the trailer, playing video games (that was just me and Isaac and, yes, the video game had super-heroes in it), and reading. Oh, and even with all of that going on, I also found time to make egg-nog lattes. Yes, we really are roughing it here in the Clarksboro, New Jersey campground. The campground itself is very nice. I took Kizzy out for a walk around the campground. It’s not the largest one that we have stayed at but it is a good size, with lots of trees and a small pond in the middle of it. There is a pool but it’s closed for the winter.

For lunch, I made homemade mac-and-cheese, with red and yellow peppers and tomatoes. Then we took the short, 15-minute drive to Red Bank park. This is a national park as it is the scene of an American Revolutionary War battle. The park is the site of a small fort built by the Americans to protect the Delaware river and engage the British in what is now New Jersey.

As the story goes, the fort was attacked by 1200 (or 2000, depending upon who is telling the tale) Hessian soldiers. Hessian’s being Germanic mercenaries who were hired by the British to supplement British troops during the American Revolution. The fort was successful defended by 400 American soldiers, with heavy casualties on the British side. Today, there is a plaque on the site that was erected in the early 1800’s, to commemorate the event that took place in 1777. There is an obvious outline of where the fort once stood as well as some cannons and cannonballs. From the site, one can see the Philadelphia skyline across the Delaware river. The park was quiet and lovely, with the crunch of dry leaves under our feet as we strolled around. The only negative was that no dogs were allowed so we had to leave Kizmet in the truck. Why don’t US National Parks like dogs? Especially good dogs like Kizmet?

To make up for it, I took Kizzy on a good walk

around the campsite when we got back. Then Isaac, Natasha, and I tossed the football around for awhile while Sonya prepared her world-famous chilli for supper. We invented a new co-operative version of “DONKEY” whereby each person still got a letter for each dropped ball or each bad pass but instead of aiming to be the last man standing, the goal was to achieve 100 successful passes before two people were knocked out of the game. Isaac and Natash each had D-O-N-K-E and I had D-O-N-K when we completed our 100th successful pass so team Reid won the game! High fives all around.

After that, Isaac and I started a campfire while Natasha retreated to her nest in the top bunk of the kids room. Sonya had finished preparing supper so Isaac and I got to eat outside by the fire. Isaac also prepared toast to go with our bowls of chilli by roasting bread on a roasting fork over the fire. I gave my Mom and Dad a call to see how things were going back home. Dad sounds a lot better and is on the mend. Calgary is a lot cooler than Clarkboro, New Jersey with the temperature in Calgary just above freezing and snow in the forecast.

After dinner, we had a family game of “Apples to Apples” then watched an episode of Corner Gas. All in all, a pretty rough day (he says sarcastically). Now, having written my Blog for the day, I have a difficult decision ahead. Do I watch a show on Netflix or read a chapter of “Star Wars - Fate of the Jedi”. Decisions, decisions.