One of the great things about living the nomad lifestyle is the people you meet along the way. Many are memorable for the kind things they do, many are memorable for the not-so-kind things they do and many you might experience and think "you're the reason we have warning labels. . . "
We left our quiet sanctuary of the Dream Dog Park on a rainy, stormy morning and headed east. We finally made it out of the Calgary area and our next stop was Medicine Hat at the Gas City Campground. This was a nice step up from the campground we experienced in Calgary and although it was still one trailer beside the other we had our own space and plenty of room for the dogs to enjoy some outside time on the grass. The park was clean and well kept and one nice touch to the campground was that there were carvings of animals made from the stumps of trees they had cut down. There were deer, racoons, snakes and even an eagle. We took the opportunity to visit an old friend who lived in Medicine Hat and to enjoy the scenery for a couple of days.
We were having some issues with the air compressor system in the truck and decided to have it looked at in Medicine Hat before continuing across Canada. Although the truck was only supposed to be in the shop for the day there was and issue and a part needed to be ordered from Calgary but they had missed the order cutoff to get it the next day so the repairs would be delayed by a day or two (go figure) which meant we had to extend our reservation in Medicine Hat and cancel the next reservation in Saskatchewan. However, the site we had booked was not available and we would have to move to a different site. Not a big deal as the sites were all pull through and it was only two sites over from where we were. But it still meant we had to move. It was at this time that we met our next memorable character . . . a prime example of why the gene pool needs a lifeguard, proof that evolution actually CAN go in reverse, and, she probably drinks her milk with a fork! In one brief moment she managed to burst our euphoric bubble and remind us that there still are crazy people in the world. 
A visit from the camp troll
As we were packing things up and loading the dogs in the truck she was standing in the doorway of her camper, shouting things at us that we really couldn't hear. At one point Reba couldn't stand waiting her turn any longer and bolted out of the trailer. I shouted her name and she immediately stopped, ran over and jumped in the truck. We heard the camp troll shout something to the effect of "with a recall like that you can make a lot of money". We mistakenly took It to be a compliment on Reba's amazing obedience and went about our business. It was then that the imp made her move. She left the doorway of her trailer and moved out to the road with her old dog in tow. She advised me "I have reported you to the police already". I said "Pardon me" and she replied "I've called the police". I said "why?" and she said "Give me a break, you know why" to which I answered "no, actually I don't". She continued to slither her way closer until she was at the back of our trailer, on our site, where she ran into Julie. She demanded to Julie "what exactly are you running here?" Julie was a little taken aback and said "What?", "You know what I'm talking about" and "I just need to get your license plate number for the police". Meanwhile her old dog continually slipped from its collar and went off on its own while she frantically tried to catch her and put her collar back on . . . which added a wee bit of comic relief to the whole encounter. As we were getting a little irritated by this point and were about to experience a hole in our filters, she slinked away ducking under the front of the trailer and quickly glancing at our license plate (trolls must have photographic memories). As she made her way back to her hovel we again asked "what is your problem?!" and the answer finally revealed her angst. "You have one whelping and a bunch of puppies!". . . . Yup! Busted! We are a travelling puppy mill, although we are still trying to figure out which one is whelping (we suspect Aussie as she is a bit of a chonk) . . . We carried on despite the interruption, moved to our new site and spent the next three days wondering where the police were and when they would pay us a visit. Our next door neighbors who were aware of our previous professions, said she was awfully lucky we didn't take her down . . . thank goodness for good therapy!
The extra few days gave us a chance to catch up with our old friend for a second visit and gave Reba a chance to run in the adjoining off leash dog park before we moved on to our next destination. We picked up the truck from Freightliner and broke camp only a couple hours past checkout but the campground people were very understanding and accommodating. We made our way east and on to Saskatchewan, still a little hurt that the police never came to visit.
