Whispers Of A White Squirrel

We go to Driftwood every year for our annual, girls only, "Chicks In The Stix", camping trip.  So, I don't write about our trip every year because it would get boring to read about the same place over and over again. This year, however, things were a little different so I thought this trip was worthy to write about. 

The first thing that was different this year was that we were not able to get our regular non-electrical sites (41 and 42) down by the river's edge. We did our usual booking in March but we were a couple days late this year so we missed out on our favourite sites. Not only that but there were no good sites left along the river's shore at all. So, instead we had to opt for the electrical sites in the RV section of the park. I am assuming this inability to get our regular sites was, in part, because of the other thing that was different this year, which was the Covid-19 pandemic. Seems that with nothing else for people to do, camping was high on their list of places to go. This was also the reason why there was no one allowed to go into the Driftwood Park office this year. Instead, we had to wait outside in a line with the required 6 foot social distance between us to await our turn to go up to the office window to announce our arrival. 

It was in this line up that we learned of what was to become our quest of the weekend.... the search for the white squirrel.  While waiting in line, we met a lady who told us that they had seen a white squirrel near their site. The gentleman she was with showed Penny the pictures they had taken of it while I was watching a butterfly in the sand. I didn't want to get too close and form a "group" so I let Penny look at the pictures. 

Instead, I asked the lady in front of me where she had seen the white squirrel. She said that she saw it near her campsite which was site number 79 in the Brumm section of the park. I got a little excited because our site was number 62 which was also in the Brumm section of the park. Our site was actually fairly close to hers. Maybe, just maybe we would have a chance to see it too. Penny and I were going to keep our eyes open and look for it. 

Anika and Shelli had already arrived and were putting up Anika's new tent trailer on site 64. the only one left to arrive was Julie. Usually we have twice as many girls on the trip but the virus kept some of the girls away this year. We probably didn't need 2 sites anymore but we opted to keep them both anyways. We told Anika and Shelli about the whispers of the white squirrel. They didn't seem as interested in finding it as Penny and I were. 

I guess there are pros to having an electrical site, even though it wasn't really what we had wanted. Anika and Shelli were able to bring and plug in a coffee maker for their trailer in the morning. Yes, we figured that since this year we had electricity, we were going to do some glamping instead of camping. 
In addition to having electricity, Penny and I noticed something else that was different.... there were hardly any horseflies or mosquitoes! We had just come from Algonquin's Brent campground and the bugs were very noticeable there. But not here. We were able to sit in peace without them buzzing around us the whole time we were at Driftwood. It was not like that at the same time last year, that's for sure. 

Once we set up camp and relaxed a bit, we all decided to walk down to the beach that was just down the road from us. Penny and I looked for the white squirrel along the way, but we didn't see it. 
What we did see, was a beautiful, grassy beach with lots of picnic tables and not a lot of people. It was like we had a huge beach all to ourselves!  Take that people who got our usual campsites on the river's edge! We got the better end of the bargain I think. 

When we came back up from the beach, Julie arrived and we cooked hot dogs over the fire for supper. I wanted to try something new for dessert that I found on the internet this year. They are called "Camping Brown Bears". You take a roll of biscuit dough and break it into small pieces and roll it onto a stick and cook it over the fire (a lot like you would with bannock dough.... Maybe you could even use bannock dough, but I just used the Pilsbury dough). 

Then you take the cooked dough off the stick and spread butter on it so that it melts. Then you roll it in a plate full of cinnamon and sugar. Voila! A brown bear. It tasted all right. It wasn't as sweet as I had expected it to be. But it was good enough to eat. 

We sat around the fire for awhile until most of the girls were ready for bed. Penny and I were not tired yet so we took a walk back down to the beach to look at the stars. Penny had a new app on her phone that can tell you what the constellations are and she wanted to try it out. 

We were surprised to discover the Neowise comet shining brightly in the sky. We didn't know what it was until the app on her phone told us. (The picture below is not mine. It is  one that I photoshopped from "isherman" on pixabay [Thanks isherman!].  Although I tried, my camera would not capture the moment and only left me with a black screen). The Neowise moved very slowly so we were able to watch it for a long time. You could see it's reflection in the water along with the reflection of the stars. Combine that with the blinking of some fireflies and the calling of the loons and it made for a magical evening.

Later that night as I lay in my sleeping bag and thinking about how happy I was to be out camping, I heard the call of a whip-poor-will. Of course I could not get a picture because it was too dark, I thought maybe I was hearing things, but the next morning when Shelli asked if we had heard the whip-poor-will, I knew that I was correct in what I had heard. I find that Driftwood Park has all kinds of birds that you don't often see (or hear in this case) in the other parks I had been to.  The call of the whip-poor-will was the cherry on top of an already great evening. ​ It was a warm and beautiful night. It was perfect.