A Very Busy Day

Sunday, 16 August, 2009 - Yesterday proved to be a very busy day.
    It started by meeting Betty at the Community Lawn Sale held at the Pleasant Point Union Church, the quaint little church that's near Garth's cottage. We had donated to the sale my little weather station that had proven not to be well suited for the RV lifestyle, but would be fine for a permanent installation. It was already sold and gone by the time we got there at 10:30am.
    After Sandra bought a box of paperbacks for $2, Betty joined us in the truck and we drove the 16 miles (26km) to Bobcaygeon for brunch at the Full Cup Cafe (what's behind the green door in the photo on the right). It's a popular place and one with breakfast that agrees with my temperamental digestive system.
    Bobcaygeon (bob-kay'-jun), like Lindsay and Fenelon Falls, is a town along Sturgeon Lake and all three have a set of canal locks on the Trent-Severn Waterway. Fenelon Falls is at the north corner of the lake, Lindsay at the south corner, and Bobcaygeon at the northeast corner.
    After getting our fill at the Full Cup, we left Bobcaygeon and drove the 15 miles (25km) to the village of Buckhorn where a fine arts festival was being held at the community center, occupying the main building and the outlying circle of 11 pavilions. There are worse ways to spend a few hours than walking around in the midst of fine art. This included nearly every type of art you can think of - painting and photography being the two I find most interesting.
    Then around midafternoon, after dropping Betty off at the cottage, we returned to the RV park where we found the site vacated that we were supposed to have had on our arrival here. Better late than never and although we were already tired from the day's activities we put it aside, packed up, hitched up, and relocated down the lane to the new site, where we'll be for the next three weeks or so. After all the traveling we've done this summer, we're both looking forward to sitting in one place for a while before returning to Ottawa in early September.
    For Sandra's account of the day and her photos, click here.
    For the photos I've posted so far from our tour of Central Ontario, click here.

A Cottage Visit

Thursday, 13 August, 2009 - Midafternoon yesterday we hopped in the truck and drove over to Garth & Betty's cottage on Sturgeon Lake to spend the rest of the day there.
    And a beautiful day it was, too. The first day we've had all summer that I'd consider to be a real summer day. Warm and sunny the whole day, warm enough that a breeze felt good, not chilly.
    Anyway, on arrival at the cottage we sat out on the dock and watched Garth's daughter Melinda and her family water skiing on the lake using Garth's boat, as well as watched all the other activity on the lake and the nearby docks. It was a busy place.
    Then it was our turn for the boat, so Garth took us down the lake and up the Scugog River as far as the Alpine RV Resort. It was a perfect day to be out in the boat.
    Then it was dinner in the gazebo on the dock where we were fed some of the best steak we've had in a long time. Canadian beef is typically so awful (tough and tasteless) that we've switched in recent years to chicken and pork for our meat.
    We stayed out on the dock for the sunset over Sturgeon Lake (photo above, taken by Betty) and then called it a day.
    For Sandra's account of the visit and her photos, click here.
    For the photos I've posted so far from our tour of Central Ontario, click here.

Back At Lindsay

Monday, 10 August, 2009 - This morning, we almost had a sunrise at Lake Simcoe, clouds that turned color, but also blocked the sun, so the photo on the left was as good as it got.
    Then after a nice leisurely breakfast, we packed up, hitched up, and moved 60 miles (96 km) from Hawkestone east to the Double "M" RV Resort & Campground in Lindsay where we've stayed a number of times before (click here for today's map).
    Being such a short drive, we were in no big hurry and it's a good thing we weren't because we encountered a backup in Orillia at a traffic light that was malfunctioning and then got stuck behind two farm vehicles we couldn't get around for miles and the bozos wouldn't move over onto the shoulder to let cars get by as most farm vehicles do when they are impeding traffic on a main highway. But we still made it in fairly good time, leaving around 10:30am and arriving here at noon.
    Then we met another obstacle. Although Sandra had arranged well in advance for a site with full hookups, a site we've been on before and know we can see the satellites from it, when we arrived we were told the site already had someone on it and would for four more days, so we're on another site near it but this one has no sewer connection. So, we'll have to move in four days which is annoying, but mistakes happen.
    On the bright side, we have an excellent view of the Scugog River out our back window and true to the saying about red skies in the morning, rain has moved in as I write this but happily not until we were all settled in.
    For the photos I've posted so far from our tour of Central Ontario, click here.

We Get Malled

Saturday, 8 August, 2009 - This morning Sandra had me drive her into Barrie so she could get her mall fix at the Georgian Mall and since I was with her, I got malled, too.
    On the way to the mall though, I got a long overdue haircut at First Choice and at Staples replenished my supply of DVD sleeves, which are being used up at a record pace since getting a 15MP camera.
    As we did the other time we visited this mall, we had lunch at the foodcourt and then looked around the mall some before heading for home, taking the back roads again as we had on the way to Discovery Harbour a few days ago. At one point along the way I remembered a pine forest we had seen on that drive, so we went off in search of it and actually found it - the Centennial Tract of the Simcoe County Forests. The photo above is one I took there.
    Then still staying with back roads, because from there we had no choice, we took a new way back to the RV (there's no shortage of back roads to chose from around here) and passed through another very pretty forest scene and past plenty of pastoral farm scenes, of which there's also no shortage.
    For Sandra's account of our malling and her photos, click here.
    For the photos I've posted so far from our tour of Central Ontario, click here.

Discovering Discovery Harbour

Thursday, 6 August, 2009 - Yesterday, taking back roads since they are more scenic and have very little traffic, we again drove up to Georgian Bay near Midland, this time going to Discovery Harbour in the town of Penetanguishene (penna-tang'-whi-sheen), but called locally as simply Penetang.
    Any regular reader of this page likely knows that I enjoy visiting historic and restored historical sites and the latter describes Discovery Harbour. It is a reconstructed British naval and military base circa the period just after the War of 1812 and it proved to be quite interesting and although Sandra doesn't share my interest in such places, she still went with me this time.
    As these sites go, there was plenty to see, including around 20 reconstructed or restored and furnished structures spread out over quite a few acres of ground along the shore of Penetang Harbour, a wharf with two functional replica sailing ships (HMS Bee and HMS Tecumseth), plus guides dressed in period attire at key places along the way.
    The guides looked to be college students, who for the most part did a good job, but I've got to wonder about the policy for selecting some of them. As I noticed when visiting historic Fort Henry at Kingston, Ontario a couple of years ago, Discovery Harbour also had females in roles that were exclusively male back in the era being represented and while I'm all for equal opportunity employment, seeing women in roles that were historically filled exclusively by men destroys the effect, to the point of being farcical and ludicrous. Especially while walking along a path, I encountered the 'Commanding Officer' (who was a young lady!) out for a stroll with his (her) 'wife', both in period dress, but both obviously female and I had to bite my tonque to keep from making a sarcastic remark about how liberal Britain must have been in the 1800s to allow lesbian marriages. However, I behaved myself and let it go by simply tipping my cap and saying, "Ladies." I don't think I smirked.
    Anyway, otherwise I had a great time and both Sandra and I took a lot of photos.
    When we had arrived a little before noon, there had been loads of parking available, but by the time we left sometime after 1pm, the parking lot was full and people were parking along the street, so I was glad we hadn't gotten there any later than we did. Discovery Harbour opens at 10am.
    For Sandra's account of the last few days and her photos, click here.
    For the photos I've posted so far from our tour of Central Ontario, click here.

Even More Looking Around The Area

Saturday, 1 August, 2009 - We've actually had fairly decent weather the last few days, so we've been out a lot taking advantage of it.

Wednesday, we finally made it around the corner to the nearby Big Curve Acres Farm which is open to the public from noon to 4pm each day. They have an assortment of domestic animals and fowl, like goats (lots of them), rabbits, llamas, chickens, peacocks, most of which you could walk around with. Out in the fields were cattle and horses, but only a couple horses were beside the public area and they were too busy chowing down on hay to pay any attention to us.
    The goats were fun though. This was the first time I've been up close to so many goat kids. They are quite cute, but made it difficult to get close-up shots of them because you would no sooner point the camera at them than they would trot over to give it a look. I did manage to get some shots of them though, like the one above of a goat kid that was beside its mother. Also click here for a peacock portrait.
    I'm not sure the farm was worth the $5 admission fee for each of us, but we had fun and I suppose it isn't cheap feeding all the creatures they have there.

Thursday, we drove the 43 miles (70 km) over to Wasaga Beach, which is kind of the Canadian version of Myrtle Beach, or what Myrtle Beach was like several decades ago before it became so overdeveloped and commercialized, except Wasaga Beach is on the southern end of Georgian Bay not the Atlantic Ocean. Click here for the map.
    Wasaga Beach has a pretty nice sand beach and we walked along a fair bit of it. Quite a few people were there, enjoying the sun which was out for a change (click here for my photo of the crowd on the beach) and while the temperature was quite pleasant, it wasn't so warm I'd have been tempted to try swimming in the bay. Despite that, a few brave souls were indeed doing just that, while the vast majority of obviously more sane people were just happy to bask in the sun.
    At the beach we enjoyed the picnic lunch Sandra had packed and then we headed for the town of Midland that's 29 miles (47 km) away. Click here for a map of that drive.
    Midland proved to be the highlight of the day's travels. The powers that be in Midland must be artists because not only were power lines and utility poles conspicuous by their absence from Midland's downtown, murals abounded everywhere, some large, some smaller. The town, like Orillia, is a real jewel, plus there are several historical areas nearby - Discovery Harbour, in neighboring Penetanguishene, and Sainte-Marie among the Hurons and the Martyr's Shrine just outside of Midland - that all look to hold many photo ops for me, so we'll be going back sometime in the near future.

Friday, yesterday, we drove to Orillia to buy a new grill since the one I've been using has rusted out internally, thanks to the salt air of Mustang Island, Texas. We found several portable grills, bought one at Canadian Tire that's much like the one it's replacing and then later had to go all the way back to exchange it when during assembly I discovered it was missing a vital part.
    In between those trips to town, we finally got to see the Farmers Market in Hawkestone and although we got there shortly after it started, parking was already nearly nonexistent as far as the eye could see, but we luckily arrived just as someone was pulling out right by the market. Not surprisingly, since Hawkestone is a small village, their farmers market was also small, but it looked to be quite popular and is probably the social event of the week there. Click here for my photo of it.
    When we had later returned to Orillia for the second time, found a grill with all the parts, and since the weather was so beautiful, we decided to take another look at the waterfront and stay for a dinner out. This is a holiday weekend in Ontario, the Civic Holiday, so the waterfront was not only hopping with activity, added to that was a small carnival running in one of the parks (photo above of a ferris wheel taken there). After seeing enough of the waterfront, we did indeed have dinner out, a very pleasant one on the patio of a Kelsey's Restaurant.
    And that brings me up to date. Now to assemble the new grill.
    For Sandra's account of the last few days and her photos, click here.
    For the photos I've posted so far from our tour of Central Ontario, click here.


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Updated Saturday, August 22, 2009

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