![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thosejohnstonkids.ca\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/P7170649a2.jpg\")
<\/a>Our drive continue north-west on Highway 43,\u00a0through Valley View to\u00a0Grand Prairie. There we turned north to the small town of Sexsmith<\/a>, which appealed to me both by nomenclature and the small\u00a0Sexsmith Blacksmith Shop Museum. It was a ‘Shop Museum’ because they had taken the shop of the popular longtime ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thosejohnstonkids.ca\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/P7170654a-300x225.jpg\")
town blacksmith and preserved it as it was when he retired. It was really only of interest to people that like making things or are into old tools. So, you know, people like me. A helpful young lady suggested that we check out the town museum as well, but that was just a lot of old stuff. Literally. It looked like a garage sale.<\/p>\nEveryone was so patient in letting me look at old, dirty rusty bits of iron, that I bought ice creams on the way out of town.<\/p>\n We arrived at Moonshine Lake Provincial Park<\/a> around 3 PM, which was relatively early for us. We’re usually doing something, or in transit to do something, during the day, and moving from campsite to campsite in the evening. It was good to arrive with plenty of daylight in front of us for a change, so we could have a look around and I could take my\u00a0time preparing dinner.<\/p>\n We found the campground to be pretty. It was busy, and obviously a popular spot, but there were lots of trees between the individual sites, so it felt more secluded. You really couldn’t see the people around, except perhaps for your immediate neighbours.<\/p>\n We immediately set out everything wet to dry. That meant almost literally every soft item in our caravan. Raincoats, clothing, towels, sleeping bags, mattresses, pillows, and more, were hung from lines, and spread out on every flat surface. It looked like our trailer had exploded. It also looked more than a little like a trailer park yard. We were only missing more than 1 rusted out car.<\/p>\n The eponymous Moonshine Lake was small and inviting looking, and the beach was great. Unfortunately, the Park advised against swimming due to a blue-green algae bloom. The blue-type produces a toxin that can be harmful to children and adults with weakened constitutions. They said you could try swimming without immersing your head, avoiding the algae, and washing immediately upon exit, but none of those mitigation strategies seemed practical with Those Johnston Kids.They are incorrigible swimmers and could not be trusted to show restraint.<\/p>\n Instead of swimming, we introduced them to the sport and art of badminton. We discovered\u00a0that our second-hand trailer had come\u00a0with a 4-person badminton set, so we set it up to take the place of swimming. Badminton is more of a game of finesse than a racquet sport like tennis. You can’t just whale away on the birdie and hope to get lucky. It took\u00a0no small amount of patience to\u00a0wait while Those Johnston Kids made something north of 20 attempts to serve while hitting nothing but air. Seriously, they missed every time. Finally I set them to serve to each other for practice, with a promise to play once they could reliably serve over the net.<\/p>\n They practiced diligently and then I had to make good on my promise. At that latitude, the days were bizarrely long. We were still playing badminton in daylight well after 10 PM. I quite like the long days. I don’t sleep much anyway, so it suits\u00a0me fine. I \u00a0could get so much more done with 2 or 3 extra hours of light every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It continued to rain throughout\u00a0the night. We used to have some dry pieces of gear, but by the morning of July\u00a017th everything was unpleasantly damp. We only hoped to get clear of the wet weather long enough to dry out. Our drive continue north-west on Highway 43,\u00a0through Valley View to\u00a0Grand Prairie. There we turned north … Continue reading Bad Minton, Bad!<\/span> ![\"\"](\"http:\/\/thosejohnstonkids.ca\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/P7170655a-300x225.jpg\")
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