We’ve been at the lake for a little over two weeks now. It seems like longer although not in a bad way. It’s just that we were instantly comfortable here with our surroundings, volunteer set up and the people we are working with.
The weather has been comfortable. Not too cold and not too hot. We get some rain and some hail but the majority comes in the form of a quick shower that falls from a singular dark, thundering cloud in an otherwise blue and fluffy white sky.
In the volunteer realm… We’ll have a few new duties on this go round. For one, we are Fee Collection Officers for the first time. And, to fill the ‘Most Unique’ category, we will be in charge of the Scat Machine. Essentially, we will be putting five gallon buckets that have been used as port-a-pots into a potty washing machine. When they are clean, we will take them out.
Our first few months here should be fairly calm which is giving us plenty of time to sit out on the dock, get caught up on van stuff and other hobbies. Speaking of which, Darlene recently succeeded in knitting her very first pair of socks.
They are doing a great job of keeping Nicole’s feet super cozy during the cool evenings.
As we approach the celebration of three years on the road, Nicole has been busy creating a combination map of all of the places we’ve spent the night (yellow pins) and locations we’ve volunteered at (purple).
We had our first big group of kayaking campers the other day. They were from the Coeur d’Alene Canoe and Kayak Club.
It was fascinating to watch them prepare the boats and stuff them with all of their camping gear, food, fire wood and other necessities for their big night on the island.
Each boat was different in some way and we learned quite a bit about them should we ever be inclined to go down that road (or should we say river).
Speaking of boats…
This is the Mary Moody. We’ve yet to determine if Mary was really moody or if she just had a slightly unfortunate last name.
What we do know is that the Island Ranger uses this boat to head out to Kalispell, Bartoo and Fourmile Islands to check on campers. We rode over to Kalispell with her the other day to check out some sites and will have to say that the set up is pretty sweet. You boat or kayak over to the islands and then pitch your tent right on the shore of a sandy beach with some pretty amazing views of the Selkirk Mountain Range.
As can be expected in such a location, we are getting plenty of lake-view photos as well as loads of woodsy and flowering-type stuff. With months ahead of us at this location we’ll put posting those on our list of things to get done and put a few new shots up each week or so. Meanwhile, we’ll cut this short and head back to our spot to watch the sunset turn the water pink and orange.
A typical day at the office… Nicole (absorbed by the giant chair), getting the job done.
