The Charlebois Family Adventure Mid-week Update....

So off we go on another Charlebois family adventure. Two years ago it was Tadoussac, last year we drove from Calgary to Vancouver. This year… Wasaga Beach. I wouldn't normally have picked this destination but we were meeting my best friend Steph & fam so it was a no brainer.  She would be staying with her family in a cottage and we would camp. So I booked us into the Jell-E-Bean Family Campground for 6 days & 5 nights of family fun!! … A far cry from the wilderness-y type camping we're used to, but an adventure none-the-less.

We arrived late on day one after a slow 6-7 hour drive. No need to rush, we're on vacation. We pulled into Jell-E-Bean just before supper. We pulled out of Jell-E-Bean first thing the next morning. AHHHHHHHH!  First of all the fact that about 50+ campsites were packed into about an acre of VERY sparsely treed property wasn't exactly ideal surroundings. We had to drive around 3 times just to find a site that would fit our 8 person tent.

Second…. the playground was easily built in the early 50's and the bathrooms were barely a step up from port-o-potty's. I didn't even look at the showers. And the icing on the cake…  it sounded & felt like the highway was going through our tent. No joke. No exaggerating. My one and only request when I made the reservation was that I wanted a site away from the road. At this point the woman on the phone should have replied that a site away from the road was impossible. No matter where we were… the highway shook the tent! This seemed to be a surprise to the lady behind the counter. “Noisy? Really? But you chose site 139.. you could have chosen 119" she says when I am demanding a refund and trying to check out. I COULD SPIT ON SITE 119 FROM 139. They all had a clear view of the highway & traffic & big rigs that drove by every other minute. "Mommy why did you park so close to the read?!" Sam says to me as were we trying to fall asleep. It would have been quieter (& cheaper) to camp on the sidewalk in downtown Brockville…. or maybe even along the 401.

We managed to get out of the remainder of our reservation… minus a $40 cancellation fee. So off we went in search of a new location. We hit 3 campgrounds… two of which were feet away from a Boston Pizza, Walmart Supercentre, & various other restaurants & strip malls. Lovely city camping. Then we headed out of town about 15 minutes and found Wasaga Pines Family Campground. YAY! It was awesome. Private sites… trees & bush… a HUGE field to play in… a heated pool, mini golf & fabulous bathrooms with hot showers. Although the sound of the highway was still in the distance, we didn't care. “In the distance” is not “running through your tent”. It was fabulous. We slept with the roof off the tent under the clear, starry sky & the moon shining down on us. Loud crickets. The sounds of the night... including coyotes. Although initially shocked and wondering who was being tortured in some crazy cornfield ritual… once I figured out it was howling coyotes it was awesome. Perhaps we’ll enjoy our vacation after all.