Years ago, I was in Sudbury for 3 days of hosting workshops for the bank. The days were long, so it was pretty much hotel-to-bank branch-to-hotel each day. Except the last day – we finished early and I had purposely booked a later flight, because the one thing I knew I wanted to see (I’d already seen the Big Nickel) was Science North (sister to the Ontario Science Centre – don’t start me on Mr Ford’s decision). But it was not meant to be – it seems that in the early 2000s, Science North closed at 3pm on weekdays. Well dammit.
So this time ‘round, I had planned for this. We’d leave Little Current on Manitoulin midday, stop at Science North, then head on to Sturgeon Falls and the campground. Weeeeelll . . . as per usual, my plans and my execution are not always in sync. No time to stop in Sudbury. But that was okay, we said as we continued along the Trans Can, we will camp for the night, pack up in the morning (as one does when one is in a motorhome instead of a trailer), make the one-hour trip back to Sudbury, hit Science North and then my friend’s niece’s vintage shop, then drive back to the campground. Easy – after all, I’d booked us for two nights in Sturgeon Falls. Except . . .
Except for the smell (we now officially enter TMI territory – feel free to skip ahead). It is not ideal to empty the grey & black tanks too frequently – you need the whoosh of an almost full tank to thoroughly ‘rinse out’ each tank. We thought we had at least two more days before we needed to empty the tanks.
We were wrong.
We came back from lunch in Little Current (I repeat – the pizzas and salads at Dockside are excellent), opened the door to the RV, and thought, “Oh-oh.” It was time to act. You know – the nose knows. This was not a real problem; nothing was getting to danger or flood levels, but we knew our first act upon arriving at the campground was a full drain of the tanks.
So after a somewhat anxiety-fraught drive (construction, traffic jams, narrowed lanes, and a dafty MTO cop standing in the middle of the campground’s driveway chatting up the camp owner and blocking our progress), I had to do a full campsite set-up and hook-up to empty both tanks. Nothing difficult, it just meant that by 5pm on a warm day, not only was I completely knackered, but I was in no mood to un-hitch everything 16 hours later, drive back and forth to Sudbury, and return & re-setup.
But what about Science North? Well, I’ve decided Science North is a pipe dream. ‘Twas not meant to be. Much like the Tate Modern in London (my friends know what I mean).
We agreed over a glass of wine – tomorrow would be a day of rest. And I slept so well that night because of it.