The Chef called me last weekend and we got together after nearly a month for a nice home-made meal. I had not called him for a while because the last time I was at his place he got drunk and acted very weirdly! So then when I was leaving his place he said that we should go outside the city for a barbecue and little walk. I accepted. When I called him on Fri. he said he was sick and he had to come home early from work to rest. I said we would do the short trip one another weekend. He then called me in the afternoon and he said he was fine(!) and wanted me to plan for the trip.
I had a bag of Shrimp in the freezer and got another one based on his requested and marinated them both. In the morning we headed south on southeast side of the city and followed Highway # 22X to Carseland, a small rural community with grain fields and cattle farms around. It was a cloudy day and the closer we got to the town, the thicker the fog got. At spots where the speed limit was 100 Km/h, I had to slow down to 60 Km/h in order to avoid from going in to the ditch or having a head-on collision! Our destination was Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park beside Bow River.
It's a fact that every park in Canada I have been to has been near either a river, a lake, an ocean or a range of mountains. How else would you have a park, if there's no water!? Maybe Grassland National Park of Canada that we wanted to go this past Sep. and the asshole, The Hope canceled the trip, is the one without a major water source but there must be ponds or steams.
Anyways we missed the entrance to the park and went toward Mossleigh, of course in Vulcan County! I realized that we had not paid enough attention to the park's sign and turned around. Being a cloudy, foggy and rainy day, the park didn't have many visitors. Of course in its Campground section there were a few motor homes. We went to the Day Use Area and parked and then went for a short walk. The Chef wanted to eat. So we went back and started preparing the pit for our traditional barbecue. He had a half of bag of charcoal left from the previous trip and dumped all in the pit! I thought it was too much but at the end of the day I saw that nothing was left but a handful of ash! He had marinated chicken drum-sticks and other pieces the night before and tried to get fire going on the pit but it was not easy. It was damp and rain was coming down.
He eventually managed to get the fire started and put three big skewers of Chicken. The Day Use Area of the park was decorated with a few signs including one prohibiting consumption of alcoholic beverages but The Chef cannot pass one day without booze! He even drinks with his breakfast! He had brought a bottle of Gin, half full and a few beers. There were only one of two vehicles around. So when we were waiting for the Kebab to be prepared he finally found a moment and poured himself a cup of Gin and mixed it with the Coke we had bought on our way.
The first try of the chicken showed that the marinate mixture is very good but they were not still cooked completely. We waiting another half and hour or so and while the rain continued The Chef boozed himself with the Gin until we had the chicken ready. I enjoyed the pieces while standing in the rain because I didn't want to sit on the wet bench. The Chef was drunk and seemed not too happy about the food! He then used the thin Skewers and made four Shrimp Kebabs but putting them on what was left from Charcoal!
What was a surprise to me is how effective alcohol was on him. He has been drinking heavily for years and even got Ulcer because of that and still gets drunk buy drinking a little. He was then acting weirdly again and asked me to pour him the remaining of the bottle and join him! No one was around. I poured him a big cup and finished the bottle and then opened a can of Beer just to shut him up! The fact is I had too much chicken and needed something to get them all down. One Beer was good and enough. he recently has started this 8% but cheap Beer called Black Label. One Beer has no affect on me obviously after eating that much Chicken and bread but he was out! He asked me to give him a piece of bread and when I gave him he said he would like some butter on it! I told him we didn't have butter there! He asked me why! And he then added that he would like some jam as well. I told him we should get going and eventually made him follow my orders! He was completely disoriented and I knew I had to be very careful not to trigger him! We divided what had been left of the Chickens and Shrimps and gathered our stuff and got the hell out of there. On the way back I realized that he was slurring and had difficulty speaking! This was a difficult moment but that The Chef! When he drinks he at times becomes out of control!
Fortunately nothing happened on the way back to the city and we managed to get ourselves to a McDonald's for a coffee. I had hoped that drinking coffee cuts his drunkenness. Not very effective, I found it was! I finally dropped him at where he had parked and directed him to the road to his home. I hope that he had no problem on the way and reached home safely! He told me he had slept between the hours of 03:00 and 05:30 on that day because he was busy with marinate mixture and Chickens! I believed that because he fell sleep a few times when I was driving back to the city. I hope he didn't fall sleep at the wheel when driving home.
As per Wyndham-Careseland P. P., it is a nice place but like all of the parks it should be visited in summer although it has it's beauties in Autumn too but not when it's foggy and rainy! We didn't walked around to discover everything except for a while at the beginning of our visit when we saw those beautiful White Pelicans which you see their photos here. The park offers some front-country hiking too and of course had campground which I barely am a fan of!
(Photo: A group of White Pelicans were peddling in Bow River. Lucky us that our trip had more than just Kebab and rain! Unfortunately the photos are not very good due to the weather condition in that day)
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