Rubber Ducky Resort & Campground – A family campground located in Warren, near Winnipeg, Manitoba

Yes, believe it or not I have campers staying here today. Some of our seasonals had made plans when the forecast was much better and still decided to come out anyway.  Really it is not much different than Thanksgiving weekend was last fall and I don’t think last May long was much better on the Friday evening. They won’t be having any bonfires but they said it is still nice to get out of  the city and relax with friends. I just hope that we don’t wake up to snow on the ground in the morning.

Was anyone made the fool this morning? I was watching Breakfast TV this morning and their fool was a story about a seeing eye cat, also heard of someone doing the traditional turn all the clocks ahead and make someone think they are late. Me, I got no fools this year. Last year I think my joke was that the campground was open and the pool ready for swimming. Of course there was still a foot of snow on the ground so that actually somewhat worked. This year, not so much.

I made an executive decision the other day to ‘officially’ open the campground today. Really all that was involved was posting on our website that we have some sites open. We are having a much busier spring break than in past years. I am going to give a lot of credit to the weather as it has put people in a much better mood than if there was still that foot of snow. We have had a couple staying in on of our rooms all month, but they are ready to head out today. They have purchased a fifth wheel and it sounds like they will mostly be going wherever the wind takes them. I had another family in a room for a couple nights earlier this week.Yesterday,  I got a last minute booking for a room tonight, and I already had a booking for two rooms for Friday and Saturday night. Wow.  Hopefully this is a sign of the season to come and not an April Fool’s Joke.

I had some seasonals asking about getting early power so that they could stay out this weekend, but now with the forecast change I am not sure if they will venture out. Unfortunately Friday sounds like a write off with lots of rain on the way. Hopefully they are wrong yet again.

I have been finalizing the advertising for our 2010 campground map. We picked up a couple new advertisers this year – the West Interlake Trading Company ( http://www.westinterlaketradingcompany.com) will have an ad. Another new advertiser is The Creative Cake. Crissy is will custom make a cake to whatever you want. You can see pictures on her facebook group http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/group.php?gid=121230273882 or for nonfacebookers I have posted a few of the pictures here. Last year there were quite a few camping birthday parties held here so I am thinking that once the word gets out she might get a few orders from here. She is based right out of Warren, so would be handy to go and pick the cake up and not have to worry about storing a big cake while camping.

   It is amazing to see what she can create.

I never thought that I would hear myself saying this in March, but if someone drove in the campground today towing a camper I wouldn’t hesitate to say sure I have a campsite for you.  Of course that is not likely to happen but if things keep up like this we will be ‘officially’ open quite early this year. I actually had some seasonals inquire about staying overnight next weekend. Normally the power to the sites is not turned on until April 15, but it looks like we will be making special arrangements for this unusual year.

As of right now the weather network is saying we will see a high of 18c tomorrow. I really, really hope so, but like everyone else is thinking we will believe it when we see it.  Sounds like perfect spring break weather to me.

I am just planning out my advertising for this season with part 1 beginning next week. This is a joint effort with us and Scrapyard Paintball. I can’t give away too much information because we are planning to do a contest in conjunction with the advertising. Let’s just say it will involve 2 people winning free camping and free paintballing. I am going to try running the contest through our facebook pages, so if you are not already a fan you may want to become one this week. The details will be announced on April 5 and then all you have to do is keep your eyes out for our ad.

I must admit to just having one of those well blonde moments (my apologies to any blondes that are offended). At this time of year it is quite common to have people come out just to drive around and have a look. So I am in my kitchen and am watching this van drive around and making sure this is what they are doing and all is well. Then I see it stop in a strange place near the back of the campground and sit there for quite a while. Not really somewhere that you would be looking around at anything so I’m trying to figure out what they might be doing and then they drive out again. So I’m thinking that is a little weird but oh well. About half an hour later I get email from geocaching.com that someone has posted a log entry on my geocache and ‘click’ on went the lightbulb.  I put the cache right close to where they were parked and really should have figured out what they were doing but nope nada did not clue in.lol

Manitoba Campground Association area of RV Show

More of the Manitoba Campground Association booth

Next we go to the Parks and Beaches area of the Manitoba Adventures display. We were volunteering for the Interlake Tourism Association and they had a big part  of setting up this area. This was a busy section of the show as you can tell there was lots of stuff to look at and they had some highland dancers stop by and put on a show while we were there. I heard a rumour that the Eriksdale Creamery Museum was going to be there churning some butter on Saturday. A big Kudos to Gail From ITA, Jacques from Oak Hammock and everyone else that helped to set things up because it was a great display.

The Marsh and Boardwalk area (note the Rubber Duckies)

This guy was just hanging out

Jacques from Oak Hammock Marsh was measuring people to let them know which birds had the same wingspan as they did.

Some of the local wildlife

The show wasn’t just all fun and games. We did some work too. After much examination of the hot tub that Krevco donated to the MACAP site we decided it was time to upgrade our rental hot tubs.

I think this weekend is the unofficial start to summer dreaming in Manitoba. It is the RV show at the convention centre. We will be there tonight so if you are coming down stop in and say hi. We will be starting the evening on the main floor in the Manintoba Campground Association booth. We are at the bottom of the escalators as soon as you walk in the main entrance. Also on the main floor is a whole bunch of tent trailers. I am not sure what all is on the second floor since many exhibitors hadn’t set up yet. There are usually displays from Krevco, Happy Camper, and a bunch of other camping related retailers. The third floor is where everyone always goes Wow. This is full and I mean full of all sorts of RVS. Everything from normal size family trailers up to the big diesel pushers. It is interesting to just walk through and see what kind of new toys are available. Right in the middle of the third floor is a display that represents the 5 tourism regions of Manitoba. One of which is Interlake Tourism Association and this is where we will be finishing off the evening. They spent many hours working on the display and they have even set up a whole mini marsh area complete with boardwalk.

I am sure we have all been watching the snow disappearing over the last few days and hoping. I am trying to remain positive and think that spring is really here. But, a little piece of me seems to remember that last year went much the same as this and then wham, we got hit with another storm. If we dare listen to the weather forecast that won’t happen this year. In fact according theweathernetwork.com it is going to stay about freezing for the next 2 weeks. One can only hope. We deserve an early spring and a hot summer.

This post came my way via facebook and I thought I would share in case anyone out there can help Gail and our community out.

From Gail Spencer Lamm I have been asked by my employer, the West Interlake Trading Company, to organize a “Turkey Shoot Fundriaser” in the RM of Woodlands area – seriously I don’t even own a gun. Somebody out there is going to help me with this, somebody who knows all about it. Are you that person? If so please contact me right away because… right now I’m crapping my pants a little. Thanks!

If you are that person or know of that person you can contact Gail directly through http://www.westinterlaketradingcompany.com/ or I can also put you in touch.

There has to be someone out there who knows something about this and hopefully she can find them.