A family's journey around North America
I woke up early since my back sometimes aches when I sleep in the van. I slipped on my jacket and my shoes and grabbed my camera and went outside. Sure enough, there were deer nearby.
I walked around for awhile, watching the deer watching me watching them…
We finally got the hammock up. It took a long time to find spare time plus two strong trees the right distance apart. Morgane found it very amusing.
In the late afternoon, we drove the van to the main building so we could get wireless internet. I started feeling sorry for Carmanah when it started getting cold. I imagined her all by herself. But when I went to get her, she was quite happily watching deer.
Did I mention there’s a lot of deer?
We woke up in the quiet campground on New Year’s Eve and after hula-hooping with our tenting neighbours, we went on a tour of the famous caverns – a first for us! Carmanah stayed behind and soaked up some rays. She seems to really love this climate – dry, cool, sunny.
They warned us not to touch anything in the caverns or the tour would end. At the entrance, it was our last chance to change our minds before descending more than 100 feet underground.
It was humid in the cave, but not really scary or claustrophobic because there is so much space down there. There is a paved pathway that we followed through the caves. The different rooms have their own names.
Morgane was impressed and forced me (twist my rubber elbow) to take a ton of photographs.
The only part I didn’t like was when we were at the very bottom, we sat down on benches and our guide shut off all the lights so we could experience total darkness. Well, I didn’t find that amusing for long.
After the tour, we bought sacks of dirt and Morgane got to sluice and find her own gems and minerals. Lots of fun!
After the caverns, we decided to stay another night and spend New Year’s Eve with the abundant deer. We sat outside the shop and the resident peacocks came around looking for something to eat.
Once it got dark, it was very cold (below freezing) and we cuddled up in the van and watched Tinkerbell on the laptop and ate macaroni and cheese.
Before bed, I walked to the washroom and when I heard a funny sound, I jumped, in turn startling two deer who were very close by. Then we went to sleep without being woken up by fireworks or any other festive noises.
