Canadian Mosquitoes

Doreen’s trailer was a loaner. She’d gotten it from her brother, who used it on hunting trips. It had been cleaned from top to bottom and new curtains were added to the windows to liven up the rustic worn interior. The screened windows surrounded the small trailer, and were, every single one, cranked open to air the place out.

Now let me tell you about Doreen. She isn’t very tall but what she lacks in stature she makes up for in spunk and feisty spirit. The dear friend that she is to me, she had decided to “take care of Jean” on our excursion up to Canada together. This little petite blonde was a bustle of activity. Pulling her hair back from her face and tucking it into a ponytail at the back of her neck, she didn’t miss a beat with her cleaning. On a mission, she would not be stopped even by stray hair in her eyes as she readied the small trailer for its road trip, making sure everything was perfect for me, worrying for my comfort.

Where was I in all of this? On my way, headed towards her farm, in my little truck with my little dogs and my little suitcase in huge spirits, singing at the top of my lungs with the radio on. It’s my favorite thing to do as I travel you know -- sing along with the radio.

I got to her farm at about nine that morning and we took our time packing up our gear. José was there to help. José is Doreen’s husband and Doreen from time to time admits to me how lucky she is to be married to him. At these times I am so incredibly jealous! José was in charge of hooking the trailer to my truck and wiring the taillights. We were ready to go by ten o’clock, all but the taillights that is.

Doreen and I took turns watching the taillights as José would jiggle something and yell, “Anything now?” And for almost an hour our replies continued to be, “No, not yet”. Finally one taillight blinked on and off. We cheered! Minutes later each time the truck’s left signal came on the trailer’s right taillight blinked. Oh my lord we were so close and yet this was going to drive us crazy!

José was so pleasant through this whole thing. He crawled around the trailer to find the wiring and got down to fixing the problem. By now he had started a cheerful whistle. I was impressed. However could he keep his cool? I know if that were myself in there, I’d be cussing like a sailor by now. It was nearing eleven o’clock as I told Doreen how amazed I was that José was showing no signs of frustration. She just laughed. She told me, “He is so angry right now he could blow a gasket. When he starts whistling I know to keep out of his way”.

Well there you go, nothing like taking a trip to cause everyone to lose their minds, even the husband who wasn’t going.

José did get the problem fixed and we were soon on our way stopping within the hour for lunch. It might just take us a while to get to Thunderbay but hey we were on the road, whoo-hoo!

We got to our destination late that evening and got situated for the night. It was a pleasant one except for the mosquitoes. We locked the place up tight. All but the windows, trusting the screens to protect us from blood hungry visitors. A few of the pesky winged things were trapped inside with us but it was a cool summer’s evening, and I threw my blanket over my head and slept straight through the night.

The next day we woke up to the humming of mosquitoes in the quiet morning air. Our first order of the day was to kill off every one we could find and figure out where they had come in from. Above where Doreen had slept under the curtain the window was full of them. We couldn’t believe our eyes. “Aaah”, we exclaimed as we laughed and smacked at them with our fly swatter. I inspected all the screens for holes and taped any that looked suspect. Our dogs had slept in kennels in the back of my truck. As we lifted the topper lid to my truck a cloud of blood sucking vampires came gushing out.

Both Doreen and I ducked and ran screaming with surprise. Oh lord our poor dogs! We let them out hugging and laughing, kissing them on their noses and promising them that tonight they could sleep in our beds.

Soon we were to forget our mosquito fiasco. Today we would be attending a herding seminar and there was nothing to dampen our spirits. Not even the sweltering heat of the day could stop us from enjoying the company of our most wonderful Canadian friends, making good-humored jokes, and cheering on the hard working dogs.

Later that afternoon I was coaxed into giving one of my puppy training demos. We worked with a few puppies and then Junior awed the crowd with jumping the fence to reach me and showing some advanced moves. When Junior was done he leapt back over the fence so he could happily greet all the spectators. People just love this and everyone clapped for Junior.

Folks delight in my dogs who have learned to work the crowd for attention. The dogs will start at one end of a fence line with folks sitting in their chairs, putting their doggie heads in people’s laps for pats as if to say, “Hi, how are you” before moving on to the next person in line.

That night proved to be an extremely warm one as we sat by our trailer grilling steak and potatoes. Doreen sat smoking her cigarettes and drinking her diet cherry Dr Pepper as the sun lowered gradually behind the tree line. We talked about the day, tired but laughing cheerfully. I pulled my chair closer towards hers as I realized the mosquitoes were starting to come out, hoping that her smoke would keep them at bay a while longer.

Doreen is an ever pleasant and happy travel companion. She has a huge heart and a very giving, generous spirit. Knowing how important it is for me to eat right, throughout the trip she was bound and determined to make sure that I was properly fed and that evening was no exception. I happily stuffed myself and ate the last of the potatoes at her request.

It had been a fine day but we were beat and planned on turning in early. Did I say the night was a warm one? Well to be more specific I should say it was stifling hot. Dusty, sticky, hair stuck to your forehead, hot.

And there we were, all of us, two hot women and three panting kelpie dogs, in this small trailer trying to share one small fan. As we turned out the lights and sat in the dark the mosquitoes descended upon us. Now we had taken every precaution we could think of shutting ourselves in our trailer and making sure we were bug free from the start. In desperation we closed all the windows but still they came. In the dark we lay there smacking ourselves and laughing about it. It struck us both funny. Each time we heard the other slapping hard -- sometimes even saying ouch – a new peal of laughter would start. It was midnight by the time we gave into our laughter and opened the windows for air. I could hardly breathe from the heat as I resolutely kept the sheets over my head and hoped the dogs were drawing the insects away from me, and getting bitten instead.

That morning found us a bit worse for wear but undaunted to spend another delightful day out in the fields with our dogs and the assurance we would head out for home that afternoon no matter what. Never were to women so happy to be back in the States as we were that night, greeted by our own comparably less hungry mosquitoes, air-conditioning and soft beds.