May 24 Long Weekend

Rain, Rain, Rain

Well the weekend that was supposed to be sunny with clouds and showers turned out to be the weekend with rain, rain, and - well - more rain. This being the first official weekend of the summer we are off to a 0 and 1 start as far as sunny weekends and an 0 for 3 start for sunny days on weekends, and if you look at The Weather Networks long range forecast (which is not that good at the best of times) it says rain for next Saturday and Sunday. Let's hope not.

You're on your own at Voyageur Campground!

Saturday started out as a beautiful sunny day, then it clouded over and rain just as we were about to leave for Voyageur campgrounds. All was not lost, wile it was not exactly sunny, at least we saw a bit of sun and it only rained on us a little bit. It was great to get back out and camping, there is just something so relaxing about sitting by a campfire and drinking a few beers. It's just too bad the whole evening wasn't relaxing. We, unfortunately, had a group of morons beside us. We went to sleep around 10:30 and these morons that thought it was good to start yelling, playing guitar (which he couldn't) and singing (which he was even worse at) the entire night. We at least got a couple hours of sleep before their yelling woke us up around 1:30am and I put up with it until about 2:30 and finally yelled out at them "Shut the fuck up!". This worked to about 5 min and the morons were right back at it. At around 3:00 the morons got quiet and I figured had finally passed out, but no, at 3:30 they started talking loudly and by 4:00 they had built a giant fire and were yelling. One of the morons had the gayest queerest laugh I've ever head and this fuckup thought everything was funny. At 4:30 I got up to use the washroom and on my way back I couldn't believe it - these fucking assholes were singing at the top of their lungs. I was ready to go over and yell at these assholes and maybe start beating on one of them but Tracy convinced me not to, we decided to go get a park warden. We drove all the way up to the main gate and found it closed and no one around. Then we saw the Park Wardens office and drove over to that and found the place closed right up and no one around. At this point we found a couple of phone numbers on our check-in map and tried calling them - and to our surprise there was no answer at the park warden’s number, not even an answering machine. As far as we could tell we were on our own with these fuck ups. That's when Tracy and I had enough and packed up and left leaving a nasty note with the main gate about the assholes next too us. The part that pissed us off was that these assholes were being so loud on purpose - they didn't even try once to be considerate of anyone else around them and the park just left us on our own - there was no one to complain to. Once we got back and caught up on our sleep I got up and called the park and there was still no answer. So I tried the park warden - no answer - so I called the Provincial Park reservation number (it was the only other one I had) and told them what the problem was - she gave me a number for Ontario Parks and told me to call them. When I called the number there was just a recoded message stating they were only open Monday to Friday at regular business hours. At this point I was furious, so I tried calling the Main Gate at Voyageur and this time I actually got someone! I explained to her what had happened and she replied "Yea we've gotten lots of complaints about them this morning" then I asked how I'm supposed to get the park warden and she gave me his number. I told her that he's not answering and said "These morons had a huge fire that was burning and it was very windy, what would have happened if the fire spread out of control? Who would I call if the warden isn't answering his phone?" Her reply was unbelievable, her answer was "Just call and leave a message with him"! I could help but laughed and say "Call and leave a message about a fire burning out of control! Ok first off IT"S A FIRE and secondly, he doesn't have an answering machine!" She had nothing useful to say after that except to call the Park Warden when I demanded a full refund. I then spent the rest of the day trying to call the park warden and all I ever got was a recorded message stating "The customer you are trying to reach is unavailable". So just know that if you stay at Voyageur campgrounds you’re on your own and just call and leave a message with the park warden if there is forest fire. Oh yea - he doesn't have voice mail. You’re on you own. Now I'll have to wait until Tuesday morning to call the Provincial Park head office, are they going to get an earful.