Nate Meyer's Weblog

This is a story about a guitar.  A guitar that has been passed around, and could have had many owners.  I don’t know all that this guitar has been through.  This guitar has come, and gone, and come again.  This guitar is Auburn, and here is her story.

The story starts with Paula.  Ryan Penfound and I drove to the Guitar Centre in Michigan, to purchase my first decent guitar.  The date is unknown, but to make an educated guess, it would be sometime in or around 2004.  I bought  a brand new Gibson Les Paul.  This guitar was Cherri red, and gold hardware.  It was my baby, and I named her Paula!

Pauly did me WELL!  Even though she was the heaviest guitar i’ve owned.  I used this guitar for a number of years without any incidents.  I eventually decided to buy strap locks for it, so the guitar never came dislodged from it’s strap, and crash to the ground.  Little did I know, and would soon find out, I put the hardware on upside down.

So our band “Deeper” took a trip to little Auburn, Indiana.  A small little town where we were playing at a coffee shop. We setup our gear on the street in front of the building, and started our sound check.  Everything was going great, until the upside-down strap lock finally let go, and the head of the guitar crashed to the concrete, following quickly by the body of the guitar, then as the she struggled to balance on her side, she fell over and landed on the cherry red finish.  I was mortified, and Paula was in pain.  I picked her up, unplugged her, and placed her in her resting place, and went for a long walk.

There so happened to be a home grown guitar shop on that same street, and the owner came and found me and asked if he could try and fix the guitar in his basement.  So we went to his house, and he straightened the tuner pegs, but said he couldn’t fix the gashes / dents / scrapes in the finish.  So I turned around, and walked out with wounded Paula.  Then I look to my left, and notice an open case, with a beautiful red Gibson SG inside.  I made the trade + $400 on the spot.  Paula stayed at the repair shop to be fixed, and probably re-sold, and the now ‘Auburn’ came with me!  Meet Auburn!

And so that end of the story!  Auburn stays safe, and warm with me!  NOT!

After a few years of playing in the band, things eventually came to an end.  The only guitar playing I was doing, was at home in the basement, and eventually played less and less.  I decided to sell my equipment, and use some of the money to buy an acoustic guitar.  So I sold Auburn to a friend of mine, who continued it’s legacy!  I havn’t seen Auburn for over 3 years.  The End!  NOT!

On Wednesday, December 22nd, 2010, 3 years after I last saw Auburn, she was delivered again into my lap!

That’s right.., Tessa, my now fiance, convinced my friend to sell it back to us.  How could he say no to a surprise like that!  And now Auburn is back, and is receiving the very best of treatment!  I’m very excited to get back into playing electric guitar, and couldn’t be happier with the guitar (and fiance) I have!  Auburn – 2001 Gibson SG Standard

http://www.nathanandtessa.ca

A spot for Tess and I to document our wedding (and beyond) journey!

On Sunday, November 28th, Tessa Sheil and I got engaged! So excited to start the Wedding planning process!

More news / photos soon!

Well…, opening goose season came and went. We met at Jims barn at 6am, and headed to the field. We setup on a cut corn field, and we waited in the long corn field. Geese came in packs of 5-10, and lasted 45 minutes or so. Good times! Out of 4 of us, we got ~12 geese!

From OpeningGooseHunt

From OpeningGooseHunt

From OpeningGooseHunt

From OpeningGooseHunt

From OpeningGooseHunt

From OpeningGooseHunt

From OpeningGooseHunt

From OpeningGooseHunt

Park Entry

The park entrance is a few km’s west of highway 21. It’s kinda neat because the main entrance isn’t anywhere near a major highway. There is a long winding road, which eventually leads to the main camp office, just like every other provincial park. The office if large, and seems to register people fairly fast. There isn’t a large parking lot before it, so if there’s alot of people registering, parking might be a problem. As you drive in, the forest seems nice and thick, which is great for camping in.

From 20 – Macgregor Point Provincial Park

The front entrance

From 20 – Macgregor Point Provincial Park

This is the main office

Park Layout

After the main gates, the park is split up into 3 sections. Huron Campground, Nipissing Campground and Algonquin Campground. Each section is also split into 3 areas. Each area, within the sections have a ring road, with looping roads around which hold the campsites. Inside that ring road is the main bathrooms for each sub area. Each area within the sections has a bathroom, and some even have vault toilets throughout the sites. The beach is closest to the Nipissing Campground, and another more water access close to Algonquin, and Huron. The park store is not within walking distance to any of the campgrounds, bike fairly close via bike. The park store also rents bikes.

Overall Park Quality / Privacy

First off.., the privacy at the Algonquin campground is really good! There are some nice sites there, and I’ll list them below. Algonquin is in a THICK bush, with LARGE trees. Nipissing campground is similar, and I didn’t even go in Huron. The grounds seem to be kept up nice, and the sites are all fairly level, and clean. The main bathrooms are great! Lots of family showers, and bathrooms are fairly clean. The whole area is one big bush, so the majority of the sites are fairly private.

From 20 – Macgregor Point Provincial Park

One of the roadways inside Algonquin.

From 20 – Macgregor Point Provincial Park

Another roadway. You can see how thick the bush is.

From 20 – Macgregor Point Provincial Park

A shot of one of the bathrooms

From 20 – Macgregor Point Provincial Park

One of the campsites. This one isn’t that private. A random site.

Park Attractions / Activities

There are alot of bike trails and walking trails here. We split them up into 2-3 days and did them all. Take a look at the park flyer, to see the quality of the trails, and locations of them, etc, etc.

From 20 – Macgregor Point Provincial Park

One of the trails.

From 20 – Macgregor Point Provincial Park

A Lookout area on the trail

From 20 – Macgregor Point Provincial Park

Beginning to the Deer Run Bike Trail.

The beach here is awful. The beach section is surrounded by long grass, almost swamp like. But there is tons of water access. Alot of the trails will come out to water, where there are picnic tables, etc. Most of the access has rock bottom, but the main beach is sand.

From 20 – Macgregor Point Provincial Park

One of the ‘dog’ beaches / run areas.

Pro’s

One thing that comes to mind is the campgrounds has lots of water access. Most of the sites are fairly private, and the grounds are built in fairly thick bush. Good quality sites, nice and large, and grounds are clean.

Con’s

The beach sucks. So don’t come here for good beaches. It’s a large park, so I wonder how registration would be on a busy weekend.

Best Sites

Birch Campsite / Algonquin -

- Site 44 is right beside the host, not good!
- Site 51, 52 are close to the road – not good
- Some of the pull through sites are OK, althought they are fairly open to the road (71,73)
- Site beside # 80 is OK
- Site # 82, is fairly private
- Site 84, 85 are shared sites
- Yurst on the inside of the loops, with cover over bbq and picnic table

Cedar Lane / Algonquin

- Site 102 – Very Private, best site
- Site 113 – OK
- Site 118 – nice site, private, close to beach area
- Site 125 – nice site, decent privacy
- Site 131 – Pull through, large site, private

Ash Woods / Algonquin

- Site 2, 3 – not bad, fairly big
- Site 9 – open to the road, but big and deep in bush
- Site 13,14 – Shared, not good
- Site 20 – not very private, but HUGE
- Site 21 – small path down to the water
- Site 22 – private, HUGE, goes way back into bush, near a path
- Site 25 – Good site, it’s deep and large
- Site 31 – no neighbours, big, private
- Site 39 – really sucks

Nipissing

Site – 225, 226 – Private, but small
Site 231 – really nice, nice and big, nice and private, nice driveway, sand,
Site 233 – same as 231
Site 236 – very private
Site 141 – fairly decent, private
Site 148 – really nice, long driveway, lots of privacy
Sites 167, 168, 169, 170 – Worsts sites in park

Conclusion

I like this park. Lots of privacy here, and good hiking. It sucks that it doesn’t have a decent beach. I will go here again for sure!

Another camping trip!

We decided on Turkey Point because all the other parks were filled, and there was 1 spot left at TPPP. I think the reason why it was left was because the description says “Poison Ivey around site”, and they weren’t kidding! There was poison ivy everywhere!

It was a good overall weekend! Weather was decent. A few friends came up for a night and we sat around the fire and chilled. The weather was good enough for the beach the second day as well. Everything went off without a hitch! Here are some pics

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

Park Entry

The park is located north of Turkey Point about 3-4 minutes. After turning off Turkey Point road, you go down a longish drive-way (1/4 mile) and get to a toll booth. Directly after the toll booth is the main office, which is where you register for all of the campsites. There aren’t alot of parking spaces, so people do have to get creative if it’s busy. The front off has 2 windows to register people, and like all other provincial parks, the time it takes to register is AWFUL. I waited 20-30 minutes in line, with only 4-5 other people ahead of me. After registering, you are free to drive where ever you want in the park, there are no more booths to check your registration.

Park Layout

After the front office, the park is divided into 3 campgrounds. Whipoorwill Campground, Walkingstick Woods, Fin & Feather Campground. Whipoorwill, and Walkingstick each have their own bathroom / showers, and Fin & Feather only has a outhouse type bathroom. The front office has firewood for sale, and a small store to buy snacks and small toys.

Overall Park Quality / Privacy

The front drive seemed nice, with cut grass, as did the front office. They did some landscaping to make it look nice. The drive-ways are all paved up until you get into the individual campgrounds. There are a lot of nice big trees that do provide privacy in some areas. Fin & Feather campground is the smallest section, which only has 22 sites in it. The sites are a lot more private, and since it’s the radio free zone, everything is a lot more quiet. Around the campgrounds is a lot of big tree’s, that make the campground as a whole a lot more private. As for individual site privacy, there are a view sites that are decent, and I’ll mention those below. As an overall, I would give privacy a 7/10. Fin & Feather’s bathroom is a outhouse style bathroom, but it’s made of concrete, and is quite nice. However, it does stink.

As for the other 2 campgrounds, I didn’t see a single private site. It’s almost like everyone is camping in a grass field, close together, sharing sites. Except take out the grass, and substitute forest floor. The other 2 campgrounds were also very noisy, with radios playing, and lots of people laughing / talking. The campsites are all kept up nicely, and trimmed of grass and shrubs inside the site.

The one problem with Turkey Point, is there is poison ivy EVERYWHERE. Our site (#214) had poison ivy completely surrounding the site, and even some plants in the center of the site. Ridiculous.

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

This is the picture of our site. # 214. Would not recommend it, as it’s on the main road, and is really visible from the road

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

This is the end of the main road, and the entrance to Fin & Feather campground. See how they kept a lot of shrub, and big trees.

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

One of the sites in Fin & Feather. It has a lot of road front.

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

The driveway through Fin & Feather

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

Outhouse

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

One of the more private sites.

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

This is the main bathroom / shower center at Walkingstick woods campgrounds.

From 30 – Turkey Point Provincial Park

This is the road through Walkingstick Woods. See how open it is, and how there is not much privacy between sites

Park Attractions / Activities

I don’t think there’s much going on at this park. There are 3 trails at the park. One trail is 2km long, and goes to a lookout point, the other is 4 km’s and goes to a fish conservation area, and not sure about the other one. I wouldn’t say this is the place to go to hike, as they are a little boring, but there are trails to get some exercise anyway.

There is obvisouly not beach AT the campground, you have to drive into Turkey Point for that. You use your park registration for free parking at the beach. The beach is really nice! Nice soft sand, and you can walk out in the water a fair ways before it gets deep.

Pro’s

- Quality of bathrooms and showers are nice.
- Fin & Feather is small, and quiet
- Road quality is good
- Fin & Feather seems to be deep in a forest. It’s nice to have some trees around you when camping

Con’s

- Poison ivy everywhere
- The 2 other campgrounds are large, open, and LOUD
- Seems like cars SPEED everywhere. I’ve seem some doing 40 km/h through the grounds
- Did I mention Poison ivy everywhere?
- I wish more sites were private
- You have to drive to the beach

Best Sites

The best sites in Fin & Feather are 235, 225, 226, 227. None of the sites are 100% private, but they are good for the most part.

Conclusion

I don’t think I’ll return. Too much poison ivy, I don’t like driving to the beach, and the sites aren’t private enough. I think it’s a good park, but there are better parks around.

The first thing I want to say about Longpoint Provincial Park….. is SAND, SAND, SAND. The park is pretty much built ontop of a beach, and all sites are in the sand. If you have a trailer, make sure your truck is 4×4, or backing it into a campsite might be an issue. The other thing is, the beaches there are FANTASTIC!

Any site is within walkable distance to the beach, but I would suggest only booking inside of Turtle Dunes Campgrounds, as the other ones are just OPEN sites on the grass. For the most part, the sites on the inner ring of Turtle Dunes are fairly open, but the sites on the NORTH part, and outside ring of Turtle Dunes are pretty private. The best site in the park is site # 434, as it sites pretty much on the beach. There is a SLIGHT bluff to walk over, but you can see the beach, and even set a tent up on the beach. Pictures below are of site # 434.

From LongPoint Provincial Park

From LongPoint Provincial Park

From LongPoint Provincial Park

So, after driving through the town of Longpoint, the Park is at the very end of the drive. It’s as far as you can drive out on the Longpoint Jet of land. After the front office, it’s a fair drive past the old park, and to Turtle Dune Campground. There is one main washroom, with showers at the center of the Turtle campground. Again, the sites here are mostly sand, and 50% open, 50% private. There’s lots of room on the beach to spreadout, and you can walk-out in the water a ways before it gets deep.

One thing to be careful of is TICKS!. The campsite area seems fine, but if you go for a walk in the trails at the north end of the park, through the tall grass, you’ll get LOTS of ticks. My little dog had 25-30 ticks on him. On the note of trails, the park doesn’t really have any hiking trails that I saw, or biking trails. It’s also hard to bike around here, cause the roads have some sand on them, and your tires dig in.

I didn’t go around and see what good sites there are at this campground, but my GF noticed one other site that was good. Site # 311, inside Turtle Dunes Campground. It’s not on the beach, but the beach is right over a small sand bluff. The site is fairly private as well.

I think that’s about it.. any questions can be emailed to email [at] natemeyer.ca

More pictures can be found here

From LongPoint Provincial Park

From LongPoint Provincial Park

From LongPoint Provincial Park

From LongPoint Provincial Park

From LongPoint Provincial Park

From LongPoint Provincial Park

Some more cool photos I took

From Inside photos of Joey

From Inside photos of Joey

From Inside photos of Joey

Just some pictures I took….

From Misc

From Misc