This weekend was one of the busiest around Meota Regional Park. When I took a tour around the campsites there weren't any sites available unless you could talk someone into letting you pitch a pup tent in their site. When I went down to swim each day there were sun bathers, families and some who seemed to be there to look at those who had pared their attire down to the point that going any farther would cause quite a disturbance. There were numerous folks swimming and making good use of the swimming area and it looked like the concession was doing a whopping good business.
If you planned to launch a boat or take one out of the water you better have planned to line up. These are the times that I tend to avoid by boating during the week when others are working, but Saturday Brenda and I got the idea we should put our boat in the water. She packed up a picnic lunch and we headed out to cruise across the lake and into Murray Lake via the creek that joins them. We had a couple of hours to spare and it actually never entered our minds what day it was. As we pulled up to the corner of Beach Avenue and Second Ave East the lights went on as we saw vehicles with boat trailers in tow lining the streets around the lake. It was at this point we decided to rethink our plans since we could see that a great part of our time would be spent waiting in line. We turned tail and ran. Actually we came home, parked the boat and trailer, climbed into the car and headed out for a different type of ride. To our great delight during our drive, good old Mother Nature came up with dessert for our outing in the form of loads of luscious juicy saskatoon berries. All in all, no matter what mode of transport you took to enjoy the area around the lake, this weekend was perfect.
Of course, for the park and those businesses in Meota who profit from the extra traffic, it was also a great weekend. The park was also collecting an entry fee from those who came in for day use which will help them keep up the excellent facility we have here. The only unfortunate thing is there are some people who are using these facilities and causing damage or using them and not wanting to help support them. An example of this is people using the boat launch and not paying the fees that are set out. They will also go to great extent to avoid these. Another case is where a member of the board had taken the collection box home to do some repairs. When he returned and was installing it he asked the person if he had paid for launching the boat and was told that he had paid earlier that morning. He was speechless when told this same person from the board had opened it just that morning after he took it home and that there was no money in it. That was when the boater admitted he had not paid. What gets us is this is a person who is driving a $50,000 vehicle, pulling a $30,000 boat and is too cheap to pay the daily or even the season's pass of only $10 to do his share in keeping up the boat docking facility. Obviously the honour system needs some revamping.
Just before last weekend the village office which is now in the former Meota School, took one more step towards fully taking control of the facility. They have now installed a couple of flag poles out front and both our country's flag and our provincial flag are now proudly flying on either side of a cairn that commemorates the establishment of schooling in Meota in 1914.
I was away holidaying for a while when the library started its summer reading program for kids. They have a little contest going so, kids, drop in and take part. It will run for all of July and August. Other contests for both young and old will also be happening this summer.
July 7 in kaiser play at the Do Drop In, first place went to Peter Fylyma, second was taken by Stan Sharpe, third place was tied up by Bev McCrimmon and Ann Fylyma cornered fourth spot. July 11, in contract bridge action, first place went to Robert Iverson with Lucille Gregoire taking second place.
