The Great Fishing Adventure - Part 2 Rain, Rain Go Away

My brother and I woke up Saturday morning with knocking on our room door. Dad informed us that because of the low cloud cover and wind the float planes were not able to take-off that morning. There was a chance a window would open up in the afternoon and we needed to be ready to leave on a moments notice but for now would be at the mercy of the weather.

Major bummer! I did take a picture from our window of my car now saturated with rain and the ugly weather outside but the poor quality of my cell phone didn't do the picture justice. It just looks like the hood of a car sitting outside. What a miserable turn of events. After crossing the border the day before it had rained pretty much the whole way to Pine Falls, but we never dreamed it would be so bad the planes couldn't take off.

However, it is much better to be safe on the ground than unsafe in the air so if the pilot says we don't fly, then we really better not fly. We stared out the window in sorrow for several minutes before making our way to the restaurant for breakfast.

Breakfast was delicious. The motel features what they call breakfast bowls which have your eggs, meat, potatoes and all manner of other things heaped into a large bowl. I like dishes like this so I enjoyed it immensely. If you're the type of person who needs to have everything separate on your plate, you may want to try something else. I got the Southwest bowl with sausage, peppers, and onions, and of course a few healthy shakes of Tabasco sauce.

We went back to our room to pout. There were several things making us miserable. Not only was our fishing trip being delayed, but our lodging and the food we would be eating for the week had already been prepaid, so every meal we ate and heaven forbid additional motel stays would add even more to the cost of an already very expensive trip. Misery loves company and after awhile dad knocked on our door again inviting us into one of the other rooms where the other unhappy travelers were commiserating together.

One bright spot in this deplorable state of affairs was that I had brought my laptop. I cannot tell you how much grief I was subjected to on the drive up. Why on earth did I bring my laptop on a fishing trip to the Canadian wilderness? My plan was that as since I was taking quite a few days off from work I could at least make an attempt to keep up with email the nights we spent at a motel. I was told the chances would be very slim the motel would offer anything resembling Internet access.

Ha, I beg to differ! They not only had wireless Internet Access, they also had High Speed access in certain rooms. So I was able to get some work done as well as "loan" my computer to others who all of a sudden just had to update their Facebook pages. I took great delight in exacting my revenge by saying several times, "Good thing I brought that computer, huh?"

However, the best thing to happen as a result of bringing my laptop was that we got to wish my grandpa a happy birthday via web-cameras. My dad has web-cam at their house in Tucson (where grandpa and grandma also live) and I've got one built into my laptop. So even though we weren't yet at the lake we had an amazing time visiting with grandpa and grandma and singing happy birthday.

Technology truly is a miraculous thing when you think how inexpensive web cameras are now and how we can not only talk but look at people in Tucson while we are in a motel room in Northern Canada. The fact that this was not only possible, but that the video quality was so good, was really cool.

We spent quite awhile visiting on the webcam but grandpa had to get to a party in his honor so we said goodbye and went back to feeling sorry for ourselves that we were still stuck at the motel and watching the horrible weather out the window.

As the day grew longer, we lost hope in reaching the lake that day and began to consider options for the evening meal. The motel lounge had a steak and spud special that was about the same price as my hamburger and fries the night before so we couldn't pass that up. The steak was a little small (barely 6 oz.) but it was excellently prepared and I can't resist a big pile of sour cream with some pieces of baked potato in it.

There was also something else that made another night in the motel more interesting. KARAOKE NIGHT BABY! This is something else I can't resist. I love to sing, especially with an ear shattering sound system supplying the music. I'm sorry dad, but I just had to post this little picture. I apologize the image is so blurry. My hand was either shaking from laughter, or my dad was "busting a move". I sang way more songs than I care to admit, but the best one was probably "Fishing in the dark," by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. Eric said that was an appropriate song given the reason we were in Canada to begin with. I guess if we couldn't actually be fishing at least we could sing about it.

After way too much fun in the lounge we headed back to the rooms and prayed for a better forecast the next day.