19 June 2014 (Pictures soon)

Today would be a easy, but sort of dull day. We have only a few locks to do and a scoot across Lake Simcoe to “The Narrows”.

After our nice overnight stay we got up to a sunny morning. Remember the comment about the really clear water a few posts back? Well Susan in her quest to make coffee in the morning while being super quiet had decided to use her propane stove (rather than the generator). In the process of moving the stove to the dock she dropped it and the pot into the water.

Lucky for her that the water was so clear that she was able to scoop everything up from the bottom! She made a creative set of chopsticks with the boat poles and was able to rescue everything. When I got up, we fired up the generator and she made coffee and breakfast for us.

With the wait for the lock to open at 10, I set up a deck chair and read a “dead tree book” from the used book store we had gone to in Fenelan Falls. Susan headed up the access road on her bike to check out the countryside.

When she came back I noticed there was a square yellow reflection in the water. Except it was weird, as I moved, it didn’t move, it was like it was painted on the water. Looking some more I relized that it was a towel on the bottom. Susan to the rescue, this time with her rod and a bare hook. A little short flip cast, hook, and reel in an 11lb towel! Success!

By now it was time for the lock to open. The lock team drove up and verified we were ready to go. They opened the lock and we were on our way.

They had gone to lock 41 to let the other boats out, but they had refilled the lock before they came to get us. So it was no waiting at the next three locks. In under an hour we were on Lake Simcoe headed North (well actually NNW, but that is a boater thing)

We had been warned that Lake Simcoe could be rough, but the lack of wind made it an easy ride. Once again the auto-helm was useful, I just set the course and off we went. I kept an eye out for snags and debris in the water, but it was an uneventful trip.

We got to Mariposa Landing Marina and I knew I was in slip A27. So we turned in and went down the fairway. It soon turned left into a dead end. At the far end was the looper boat Knot So Fast. So we idled and waited for a dock hand to show up. The Marina Manager Nancy waved at us from a slip, we backed up and got into the dock. I was a little surprised, since the Quo Vadimus is 15’11” and it looked like the dock wasn’t much over 17′.

After we got in, we decided to head to town. We were told it was a short distance, so we headed off. About an hour later, we arrived at the edge of the downtown district. Not really what I would have called a short distance but not bad.

Orillia is a neat little town, it’s about 30 square blocks of downtown. The norther end of town is the lake, it’s taken up by the town dock and a really nice park. There are tons of stores: bakery, 2 guitar stores, bookstores, lots of places to eat.

The opening picture is from the docks, the sailboats are sculptures along the dock wall.

We chose “Brewery Bay Food Company”, lots of beer on tap and a good selection of pub food. I went with wings, and was surprised that classic wings were breaded. Having lived in Buffalo, wings are not breaded unless you are eating at a KFC. Oh well.

After dinner we did a big circle of town to see the other stores and what was going on. The thing that caught our eye was a show called “Hank and Patsy’s Heavenly Hoedown” at the local theater. Susan called, they had tickets. She also tried for the fancy restaurant in town, with was looking like Friday date night.

Friday morning was a chance to catch up some. Susan posted pictures and movies while I did some general items to the boat. She also did research on transit and we found that their was a bus that stopped near the marina.

We got to town and Susan went off to get a pedicure and I went to the local used bookstore to see what they had. I also check out the dollar store (a much larger selection of items) and then collected Susan.

We were not able to make the fancy dinner and show work out so we went to Studebaker’s on the waterfront. Classic burger and beer joint. Bonus points since they brought us popcorn to start! I checked and the wings were not breaded so I had them. A good place to hang out and people watch.

“Hank and Patsy’s Heavenly Hoedown” was held in what was the local movie theater. The premise of the show is that Patsy Cline and Hank Williams were in Heaven and had agreed to do a show at Radio station HEVN. It was just like those old time shows with an MC and a house band. The actress that played Patsy (Samantha Windover) sounded just like her. Her renditions of “Crazy” and “Walking after Midnight” sounded like I remember. It was a very good show with lots of good duets. The house band was very good, they played an amazing version of “Ghostriders”.

After the show we walked down to the town dock. Saturday was to be “Christmas in June” and some of the boats were on display.

We got the bus back and headed home. Saturday starts our three day trip to Tornto!