Click on a photo to enlarge it.
When we got to the kitchen on Monday morning, it should have been pancakes for breakfast but the owners wife had
already got bacon and hash browns keeping warm in the oven, even though it was far too early. She wasn´t there, so
we went to the toilet thinking it was just another one of her games she was playing. When we came back, Kirsten asked
her how the guests wanted their eggs as we had left early and didn´t know what they had requested. She just looked at
us as if we had asked a really stupid question and said "You´re not cooking! You´re off!"
Well, this was news to us, so Helen asked why she hadn´t said anything last night, because we wouldn´t have bothered
getting up. The arrangement had been that our days off begin on Tuesday (tomorrow) and not today. Then she had a go
at us and said that we were retards because we should´ve known. It was obvious!
Kirsten asked her if we were to come back on the 13th August as we´d arranged and she told us that we had better call
her beforehand! Then Kirsten asked her for a definite commitment from her side that we would be coming back on the
13th and she said "After all this performance this morning you can forget about the 13th"! And she told us to leave!
Well she definitely has a communication problem and doesn´t have the faintest idea how to be civil towards people who
have worked extremely hard, been told by nearly all of the guests that they are the best crew they´ve ever had and
have done a really good job! Kirsten told her that we really feel sorry for her and that she has to lead such a life!
Which is true! We really do feel sorry for her. Feel sorry for the fact that she needs to treat people so badly - and
its not just us, the girls and some of the guides aswell.
We stayed to say hello to the two guests but didn´t mention anything to them. We wanted to tell them later. Then we
started to get all our stuff ready. We had to clean the bikes that the guides had used and were still in the boat
house. We took them down to the fish house and used the hose. We spoke to the guests as they came down to get onto
the boat and they were quite shocked to hear that we´d been fired! We tried to ensure them that this had nothing to
do with them as the last thing we wanted was for them to feel guilty.
Then we cleaned Winnie inside and tidied up. Next job was to check the oil, brake fluid, battery, radiator etc. He
started first time! Good old Winnie! We drove down to the dock and used the hose to clean Winnie who had got really
dirty over the last 3 months and to clean the tarp that we had over the alcove window to prevent condensation. We had
quite a collection of cobwebs!
At 12-15pm we were just finishing when the guests came back for lunch and we said goodbye to them. They told us we
should come in for lunch! We went for a shower after all of our hard work cleaning everything up and at 12-45pm we
drove through the gates bidding the lodge "good riddance" but sorry that we wouldn´t be there for the guests next
year. Fortunately, we will be staying in contact with a lot of the really nice people we have met over the 12 weeks.
If it hadn´t been for them, we wouldn´t have been able to put up with all the bad treatment we were getting. At least
they told us that we were doing a good job and that's what kept us going.
We were back on the road again! And it was a wonderful feeling to be free to do what we wanted. But there was one
last thing that happened today that would not let us forget all about the lodge right away.
We had only enjoyed freedom for about one hour when an environmental ranger pulled us over. We didn´t realise he
wanted us to stop because when he first put his flashing lights on he was driving in the opposite direction to us
and passed us with his lights on! Anyway, it turned out to be the ranger that was causing the owner and his wife
problems because of the bear shooting and the fishing licenses! So, why had he stopped us? He wanted to know if we´d
been fishing and if we had any fish with us!!! It was so ironic that we just had to laugh! He could have searched
Winnie if he´d wanted to but fortunately he took our word for it and we were allowed to carry on. What a day! First
we get fired, then we get stopped!
Well, the next question was what we were going to do with our new freedom ... Eat pizza! Yes, that was the first thing
we did. Then we found the perfect spot to stay for free for the next three nights - at a disused mine that had been
redeveloped into a recreation area. It was obviously a well kept secret because we had the place to ourselves.
We spent the next two days taking a well earned rest, reading, going for a stroll around the area as the weather was
absolutely perfect and just relaxing. We got our solar shower out and the water heated up too much in the sun so we
actually had to add cold water! We even had the time to take our mattress out so we could turn it - not the easiest
of tasks!
On Thursday we started heading east towards New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. It´s a really long drive, so on the way,
we wrote on the computer as we drove along. We managed to get to see Harry Potter 3 in the cinema even though most
cinemas had already stopped showing it. We also had to get our back lights repaired - it had rained so much at the
lodge that the connections had all got very rusty, so we just had to get rid of the rust. We also went for a walk
along Ouimet Canyon and enjoyed the scenery as we drove along the north bank of Lake Superior. Idyllic!
