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

What could be better than sitting poolside on  such a fabulous day. I really don’t mean to rub it in to those of you stuck sitting in an office all day but oh well – sucks to be inside today. At least the last report I heard was that the weekend is supposed to be nice too.  Just ignore Thursday and all looks good. Things have been up and down for this weekend. At one point I had only a couple sites left and then I had a wave of cancellations. Yesterday I have a wave of bookings and now our numbers are looking up again. Sept long weekend is pretty much full. I did have a cancellation in the cabin and still have that open if anyone is interested. I don’t expect that it will last much longer.

This past weekend started out a little iffy with over an inch of rain on Thursday, but at least it redeemed itself and turned out quite nice after all. We had our usual ice cream social and bingo night to much success with good turnouts for both. The rec building was also quite full for the Bomber game on Friday night and Sunday the Grill was hopping around lunch time as we had quite a few people grab a bit to eat on the way out. The weekend ended with a Ducky paintball battle. It was seasonal against seasonal. There was 8 of them out there including Dennis and Blair (Mr Scrapyard). Those of us on the sidelines had a blast watching them. Somehow there didn’t seem to be many rules followed – it was more about fun than a real game.

My mission this week was to figure out how to run a chicken wing eating contest. Some of these contests are huge events and some of the numbers of wings that these people eat is amazing. I think that we decided that we will run ‘heats’ of two minutes each and whoever eats the most will win. Depending on the number of entries we may have to have a final round eat off between the biggest eaters. Now to figure out how many wings we need. The cupcake contest is much simpler. Just a matter of making the cupcakes and letting the kids go at it. I think the rules will actually be that they can’t use their hands, but that may or may not happen. I’m sure that some kids will use their hands anyway.

This weekend is the Monsanto summer bonspiel at the Sunova Arena  in Warren. I know that there are a few teams staying here. It seems odd to think about curling in the summer but last year it was a popular event and sounds like it will be this year too.

I almost had a huge disaster yesterday – my cordless phones died on me. If you have been around here you probably know how much time I spend answering the phone and can understand that it just wouldn’t work for me to be attached to a cord all day. Luckily the Metro Messenger Service was in Winnipeg today and my new phones are on route. For now I am forwarded to my cell phone to get me through.

The sun has finally come out to show it’s face and it is turning into a nice spring day. Even though it was a rainy weekend this past weekend we were lucky that it didn’t affect us terribly. There were some events going on around here that didn’t fare so well. The tractor that we sponsored for the Teulon Tractor Pull didn’t pull a thing as it ended up being cancelled. From all reports Saturday was a pretty dead time around Quarry Days with even the mud bogs being postponed to Sunday. The Wish Ride did go on through in the rain and I heard that they had 100 riders and raised in the neighborhood of $50,000.  The money that we raised from DuckyFest is included in that number. Around here the rec bulding was a popular place to spend the morning. We had our usual turnout of over 30 people for the ice cream social and the tables were full for Bingo Night again. We did have to get a man in a rain suit to open the pool as the kids were getting anxious to go swimming in the rain. Movie night was even still a go Saturday evening.

We just found out that lots of the ducks will take the bread right out of your hands now. They came up to the rec building for a snack and when we went out they were all right there trying to be first in line. I didn’t realize that they had gotten so people friendly. It’s a good thing they don’t have teeth.

After a dead day yesterday with not too many people around things are starting to pick up today with 4 campers arriving.  People are finally starting to move around and get back to normal.

That was Tuesday, now fast forward to Thursday. The weekend is starting a little early today with 5 or so sites set to check in today. It has been another up and down day with sun for a couple minutes then back to cloud. At least we have been rain free so far.  It is sad that I don’t remember the last time we had a whole day without rain. At least this weekend people don’t seem to be letting it stop them from coming out. I have had no cancellations and am still booking more sites.  As of this moment theweathernetwork.com is saying all sunny for Saturday so I am going to go with that and not look again. It could be a late night in the rec building with the Bomber game having a late 9:30pm start. We always seem to have some regulars come out to watch all  the games. This weekend will be the usual 2 for 1 waffles, ice cream social, and bingo night. It is also the Grand Opening for Scrapyard Paintball on this Saturday.

Each year the Interlake Tourism Association hosts an awards Banquet for it’s members where various awards are handed to well deserving businesses. The following is a list of awards that they are currently accepting nominations for. Anyone is able to nominate a business simply by completing the form found here http://www.interlaketourism.com/index.php?pag=form&id=3&p=tourism-awards-nominations.html and returning it to the ITA. So if you know of an Interlake Business that you think is deserving of one of the awards be sure to get the nominations in by this Friday. If you are not sure if a business falls into the Interlake check out the www.interlaketourism.com website or email them at interlaketourism@mts.net

Interlake Tourism Association Regional Tourism Awards- 2009

Service Excellence Award

This award recognizes exemplary service and enhancement of visitor experiences as demonstrated through a high degree of visitor satisfaction.

Marketing Excellence Award

This award recognizes a marketing campaign that contributes to promoting the Interlake as a quality

destination and demonstrates effectiveness in increasing tourism in and to the Interlake.

Sustainable Tourism Award

This award recognizes excellence in the delivery of a product or service that effectively demonstrates sustainable tourism practices. Sustainable Tourism is defined by the Tourism Association of Canada and Parks Canada as tourism that “actively fosters appreciation and stewardship of the natural, cultural and historic resources and special places by local residents, the tourism industry, governments and visitors. It is tourism which can be sustained over the long term because it results in a net benefit for the social, economic, natural and cultural environments of the area in which it takes place.”

Partnership Award

This award recognizes partnerships and alliances that demonstrate the power and value of cooperative approaches to tourism promotion, development or delivery in the Interlake.

Product Development Award

This award recognizes a business or organization that has developed or expanded a new or existing

tourism product.

Volunteer of the Year Award

This award recognizes outstanding contributions without financial compensation to the Interlake

tourism industry.

Interlake Award of Distinction 

This award recognizes exceptional leadership that helps the Interlake realize distinction as a high quality

tourism destination.

Non-Member Interlake Tourism Award

This award recognizes exceptional attributes in community leadership, service, marketing, product development or partnerships for a non-ITA member business or organization in the Interlake.

Directions for Nomination process:

Nominations: (all information must be complete)

1) Enter name of Business or Individual you wish to Nominate

2) Enter which Award you wish to nominate the business / individual for

3) Enter Contact information for your nominee- name, phone number & email address (if

available) (all nominees will be contacted prior to voting process)

4) Enter your contact information- you must provide your name, phone number & email address

(if available)so you can be contacted if more information is required

5) Please include the reason you have selected this individual or business for this award- be specific as these facts are what will make the difference for the judges voting on these awards.

Did you know that Manitoba has banned talking and texting while driving.

Cellphone ban while driving in Manitoba
CJOB News Team reporting
8/10/2009

Manitoba has passed a law banning talking and texting on cellphones while driving.
The bill was passed rather quietly June 12th,   the last day of the session at the Manitoba Legislature. The province is launching an awareness campaign before the new law is enforced.

Samantha Charran of CAA Manitoba says the organization is happy leaders have recognized the risk of using a cell phone while driving.
According to statistics,  distracted driving is blamed for about 20 per cent of accidents in Canada every year.
The new law excludes hands-free devices, such as car speaker phone adaptors.

Four other provinces have planned similar electronic bans, including Ontario and Quebec.

If not I don’t think that you are the only one. As the story says it passed  very quietly with many people not even realizing it. I haven’t been able to find any info about when it will come into effect, but I know it will affect a lot of people.

33C today. Yippee and I don’t want to hear any complaining about it being too hot. The pool is the place to be today for sure.

We now have new potatoes for sale in our store. Homegrown and yummy for the tummy. We already have had our samples and there is nothing better than baby new potatoes.

The forecast looks like summer will finally be upon us this week.  I just hope that they are actually right.

This past weekend definately started out bad with pouring rain on Friday. We had 4 last minute cancellations and 4 sites that just didn’t show up. I only have one thing to say to these people phhhffffffffffffffffffttt – you missed out on a great weekend. It turned out to be a nice weekend in the end and everyone had a great time celebrating halloween in August. We had some fun with the mummy wrap and find the eyeballs. The kids had to find the eyeballs (grapes) in the goop (oatmeal). I seemed to have gotten goopier myself than I have in past years, but all was fun anyways. Some of the little ones had no interest in sticking their hands in the icky gooey mess and others couldn’t wait to get in there. WE even had a couple adults give it a try. The kids were very anxious to start with the bobbing for apples in the pool. They were ready to go as soon as we finished the other games, but they had to wait until we got the goop all cleaned up. I don’t have many apples left in my 40lb box after they got done with them. As always they thought that was pretty fun to try and catch the apple in the pool. Some played by the rules and didn’t use their hands while others had to help a little. Most figured out to push it to the wall so they could grab it. We had about 47  kids out for trick or treating in the evening.  Then everyone had a chance to go back to their campsites and sort through their loot before it was time for the movie. I was actually able to find a funny halloweenish movie. We put on Haunted Mansion with Eddie Murphy. The reviews I heard were that it was a pretty good movie. With the late Bomber game on TV the rec building was a poplular place to be until close to midnight.

Mummy Wrap

Bobbing for apples

Site decorating

Even the duck was out for trick or treating

Scrapyard Paintball had a great opening weekend. They had a group of fifteen booked to start off the day on Saturday morning. The afternoon was filled in with a few other dropping in to give it a try. Sunday morning was another group of 10 or so and Sunday afternoon a few guys from here had to go out for a little fun. Plans are in the works for a Grand Opening on Aug 22nd. I will update with more info as plans get worked out.

It is actually Wednesday night as I start to type this, but I know there is no way it will make it to the published state before Thursday. Another great long weekend is gone and time to start thinking October. Yup it is Halloween already. I got my costumes pretty much done today with just a few final touches to make. I think that I have everything that I need for the games. All that is left is to pull out the decorations and start the fun. I am hoping that there are lots of people realllly interested in the bobbing for apples this year. It was the same price for me to order 40 pounds of bulk apples as it was to order 25 pounds of bagged ones. Sooooooo we shouldn’t run out of apples.

Scrapyard Paintball is just about set to open this weekend. Blair has a couple busy days ahead of him but all looks good for things to be rolling on Saturday. The hours have been set for Sat and Sun 10 am until dark and Mon-Fri will be by appointment only. The rates are posted on the Scrapyard page of our website for anyone who is interested.

We had 3 geese living at the Duck for a day and a half but, last night they had to go to a new home. They were passed down to us by someone who couldn’t keep them and unfortunately they didn’t fit in at the campground. They were making themselves a little  too at home in some of the campsites and just wouldn’t leave. And apparently they find pepper plants quite tasty which didn’t go over well with the pepper owners. So last night we passed them on to a new home at the neighbors.

It is a dark and gloomy start to the August long weekend. We have had quite a few days of showers off and on but luckily we did manage to see the sun for a little while yesterday. We have had quite a few campers in this week and they haven’t let the weather stop them from enjoying their time here. The pool has still been busy with everyone just making the best of it. The forecast for this weekend doesn’t sound much better. I have had some cancellations this week, but I don’t think any were weather related and with every site that did cancel there was always someone waiting to fill the spot. We are now filled to capacity for the weekend with the exception of one site on Sunday night and a couple rooms on Friday and Sunday. This will be one of the last moments of calm before the weekend begins.

Stragetically placing some old cars.

 A few pictures of what is going on next door. Any guesses as to what type of business it might be.

Tomorrow (Thursday) I will reveal the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

More cars and a pile of dirt

A few old cars in a field. Kinda looks like a scrapyard to me.