Stoney Lake...The Trilogy. ( Part One)

PART ONE:

Under sunny skies, with the late autumn nip in the air...the girls of JHS arrive. The drive seemed to take no time a'tall, what with the comfort of Miss J's car, the good company and the anticipation of a great week to come. Snow White navigated, M was tucked in the back with me, away from any maps, safely unable to "help" with direction...and Dwayne brought up the rear...transporting the few 'extras' we brought. I am not going to mention that ONE of us had way too much baggage ....or that it took us almost as long to unload our personal things as it did for Dwayne to unload the truck...not gonna mention it...nope.

We got our rooms assigned and began immediately to set up our sewing room....well some of us did anyway. M and I had the good sense to eat lunch at the store...Snow White and Miss J...not so much...and apparently we had taken a pass on the one GOOD Coffee Time in the world right outside Peterborough. So....they were forced to go into the woods and forage for food....not a task for the faint of heart...in Cottage Country...in the off season. It was some time later that they arrived back to the Inn, both reeking of greasy spoon and quite sure they had managed to locate the very worst resturant in the world. (Why is it that these are the resturants that are always open?) I am thinkin' this is not an error that shall see repeating come next retreat....judging from the looks of horror on their faces.

We worked away at our sewing room...turning it from bare bones blah to quilters delight pretty much before supper. Supper time...as well as any meal time at the resort is assigned. You're strongly encouraged to take note of the posted times....if you would like to eat. We were to learn as the week went on, how important this was.
Anyway, we took a break before our assigned time, to go to our rooms, unload our stuff and get our bearings. We had hoped to be sorta....all together...adjoining rooms kinda thing. Not the case. Miss J and Snow White ...second floor...Frick and Frack...main floor...near the office (it's almost like they knew we'd be trouble or something...I mean...can you really tell by looking that we might be trouble...I don't think so! Sssshhheeessss!) M and I were momentarily miffed we couldn't join the big girls upstairs. That passed quickly tho...when we discovered OUR room was right next to the sewing room...making it entirely possible to just rrrooolll oneself from the bed to the sewing room ...should that be necessary after a night of too many "refreshments"....and OUR room had a fire place AND a jacuzzi tub....very unlike some OTHER rooms. Topped off by the fact WE were not the ones climbing stairs. Nope ...we were very happy to let Snow White and Little Miss Too Much Luggage climb to the Bell Towers...we were lovin' the lower deck.

We sat for the first of many great meals...just the four of us since our girls would not be arriving til the next day, and there were no other guests at the Inn. It was this night we made the decision that since ...here we were...in the Nort'woods... we would make this week not just a sewing adventure...we would also make it a hunting trip... and why not. In my neck of the woods...all the men go huntin' in the fall...why could women not go huntin' too? So it was decided...the hunt was on...we would track down the much sought after...Great North American MooseMan. It is an allusive creature we were told, seen quite infrequently...but should you be able to bag one (cuz that's what hunters do...bag things), it could indeed change your life. Change is good....really good for some! With seventeen sets of fresh eyes arriving the next day...surely we could find one. Surely!

So it was a very productive meal, we ain't just pretty faces us girls....always thinking...especially Little Miss Too Much Luggage...who graciously offered to have the meal tab billed to room 201. Particularly kind of her...since none of us was staying in that room. Oh well...I'm sure 201 didn't mind.

We returned to the sewing room...barely in time to avoid the invasion of the Bell Men who seemed to arrive outta nowhere ...and vanish just as quickly...to other parts of the resort we can only assume. We stayed on task tho, both in our sewing room duties and our hunting....we did check to see if indeed there was a Mooseman in the midst...and we almost thought we found one. Turns out he wasn't really a Mooseman....just a stalker in Mooseman's clothing. Rats!

Now one of the strangest things about this resort...and I ain't callin' it a bad thing....just a strange thing.....is that after dinner is served...say...oh around 8:00 pm....the entire resort staff goes home. Everybody! There is no desk person...no bellman (as opposed to Bell Men), no night duty manager...nooooobooody. It's just you and the building. Now...this could be a good thing...say if you were inclined to like wandering thru the halls in you jammies...with say...open liquor...I mean "refreshments" or something like that....not that we did...nooooo.....I'm just sayin'.

We had alittle "staff meeting" to end our day... that was all. No laughing, no merriment, no open liquor...all business...all the time...honestly. We had to, after all, be totally prepared for the invasion of the quilters come noon the next day.....and that...is something you can never be too prepared for...cuz like I said...they ain't no buncha blue hairs!