Went for a day at the Lake

Hello  everyone. Yesterday Morning my  friend Russ and his fiancé, Anita called me and asked if I had something planed for the day. I said no, nothing planned. He then asked if I would like to go camping with them for the day. I said sure, you bet.  Russ said he could pick me up at 11 a.m. as they are coming back into town then for some supplies and would love to have me along. Wow, that was really nice of them to think of me and be able to get away for the day. He arrived at 11:30 a.m. and off we went to Wabamun lake about 45 to 50 miles from Edmonton. Wabamun is a large lake wit about 3 or 4 Power plants around it. There is a lot of Coal in the area to use for firing the Generators. It was going to be a hot day and I am normally  hiding  at home in my air conditioned home. We have had a hot summer this year  and today was supposed to be around 28 C not used to this type of heat. 

We got to Wabamun Lake about an hour later and started to make some lunch.

         

Russ got a nice fire going to keep the Mosquitos away, and I love the smell of the campfire. After Lunch,  we sat around for a short while, and then got ready for the lake, to see all the boats and good looking ladies in their bikinis. We got on the road and in a few minutes got to the town of Wabamun.

     

Took a few photos around the welcome sign, they a great use of an old speed boat full of flowers, how awesome to see this.  We then got to the marina where the was a lot of activity of people getting their boats in and out of the water. We were luck to find a parking spot right by the small beach they had set up.

   

           

We found a nice spot near the washrooms and under a pine tree to shade us from the sun. We got enough shade that it was quite comfortable. I took a few photos from our spot to give you an idea of how it looked. There were quite a few parents with their children and a number of one and 2 year olds. One of the little tykes was an escape artist always trying to get away to the playground and water park that was opposite from the beach. We all had a great laugh at the antics of this cute little girl trying to get her way.

         The little tyke is in the pink bathing suit running away from mom, which is on the far left of the photo.

  We left the beach around 5 p.m. and so did may of the other people. We picked up a little more ice for the coolers in town, and then went back the Wabamun Provincial Park Campground to make supper. Russ and Anita had a great supper planned , Steak with potato’s and Corn on the Cob. It was very good. I thought I would get a few photos of the couple making supper.

         

  This time I cut some firewood into little strips so that we can get a nice fire going again. The mosquitos were getting a little braver at this time and we had to get out the bug spray so we would not get eaten alive. We got the fire going real good and the mosies stayed away for a while.

               

After supper it started to get cloudy and dark, then we heard some thunder it did look like it would rain yet so we slowly started to put things away into the car and the tent to keep everything dry. 15 minutes later the thunder got louder and we started to see lightning so we hurries to get thing put away. I made sure my camera was in the car and it started to rain. Most everything was put away so I jumped into the car, just think slow motion. Anita jumped into the car right after me, but Russ was still outside. We waited for him and wondered were he was, then finally he got in the car all wet. He told us that he fell, tripped on the tent poles and landed on his hands an knees. Just after he got in the car it started to hail. The hail got bigger and bigger until it reached about golf ball size. It just kept on hailing so Russ decided to drive me home , and it just kept on hailing, I thought the wind shield would break. We stopped a couple of times because we could not see the road. Pieces of leaves and branches were knocked off of the trees. We were almost out of the Campground when the hail stopped but it was still raining like crazy. We got to the highway and started for Edmonton. The traffic was heavy and slow. It rained all the way to Edmonton The storm went south and we went north on the Edmonton ring road called the Anthony Henday  Freeway, and the rain stopped. We got to my house and they dropped me off. They had to go back to the campground before the campground closed for the night. Wow that was one heck of an adventure. A great day for me. The next morning (this morning), I listened to the news and found that that same storm caused a lot of damage around the province. It was a fast moving storm with lots of wind. I sure hope that Russ’s car  doesn’t have any dints on it from the hail. Other than the storm it was a great day for me. Luckily there  were no tornados in that storm.  Have a great Sunday  everyone.