July 28-30

On Thursday morning we continued with cleaning the outside of the boat, in places we normally can’t reach when we’re in the water.  At about 10, Brian and Helen from Bancroft stopped by as they were en route to visit their son for the weekend.  We went into Buckhorn for breakfastand returned to the boat at about 11:30.    The props were ready by noon as promised,around 1:15 we were splashed back into the water.  We decided rather than going up to Bobcaygeon in the afternoon,  and likely not getting a spot on the wall that we should wait until morning.  We tied up on the wall by the gas dock at Buckhorn Yacht Harbour.  That evening we sat with David and Claudia on the beach and took in the scenery.  I saw this beaver swim by at dusk.Early  Friday morning, this plane landed on Buckhorn lake, and taxied to the gas dock near us.  It was there to pick up a set of props that were being sent somewhere.At about  8, we decided to leave and make our way to Bobcaygeon, a  17 mile trip, through Buckhorn and Pigeon Lakes.    Here’s a few of the lakefront homes.I liked this assortment of chairs, especially the large one for a friendly giant?We were through the Bobcaygeon lock  and tied up to the upper wall by 11:15.

We connected up with Dave and Claudia, who had driven over to check out the town.  Our first agenda item was to find the Kawartha Dairy plant, We got directions, and walked over for more Ice cream.  There is a definite pattern when Loopers  visit small town Ontario, find either the Ice cream store or the bakery for butter tarts. This was a small!  We then checked out the Bigley’s shoe  and clothing stores,  the shoe store is  huge and housed in this old bank building.In the afternoon, I went in search of the laundry mat, and also found the bakery  so I bought butter tarts, I would have bought fresh bread, but they don’t bake bread which I thought was odd.

We later ran into Randy and Judy, the hillbilly campers we had met at Lock 26, they were  across the canal from us, and were headed South.  We made plans to go to Shakespeare in the park at 7:30 for Taming of the Shrew. In the end they weren’t able to make it, but Andy and I walked to the Kawartha Settlers Village to watch the performance.  Since it was more than a 2 mile walk, we had opted not to bring our lawn chairs, so we sat on a rock.  Not that comfortable, and the story had been altered to be in Toronto in 1989, so didn’t make a lot of sense.  We weren’t that impressed and only stayed about 45 minutes before we left for the trek back to the boat.

On Saturday morning, we went to the Farmer’s market, located at the fairgrounds—only a couple of blocks from the boat.  We bought some bakery items as well as farm fresh veggies.  Tonight is midnight madness in Bobcaygeon with shopping until Midnight in the stores,  but it was also Lock madness during the day here, boats were moving steadily in both directions from the time the locks opened until they closed at 7pm.  Lots of jockeying for spots on the wall- we’re glad we came yesterday.  Our friends Dave and Claudia did get back into the water today, one week after the incident with the house boat, however when they passed through Bobcaygeon, there was no room on the wall so they continued onward.

Around 11 Mike and Franziska Edney, stopped by. Mike was a research scientist at the CGC until  his retirement.  We had been in contact recently as we planned on meeting, at the big chute. The Edney’s were in town for a family reunion, and invited us to Mike’s  uncles’s Birthday celebration at  Kawartha Settlers Village, where his uncle had been one of the founders.  We walked backed up to the village, and met a few of Mike’s relatives.  We were then invited to stop by the cottage on Cameron lake, which is between Fenlon Falls and Rosedale  on Sunday.  While at the settlement we toured the  buildings  I liked this water feature  and wondered if we could incorporate something like it in our pond back home.

On our way back to the boat we took a detour to KD, and had more IC.  I think I may have reached my limit today, however I’m sure Andy will still be looking for the Ice cream  at our next stop.  We thought we should check out the midnight madness shopping , the streets  were full of people and there were sales to be had.  There was live music on the other side of the canal as well and fireworks at 10,    I got a tattoo today  on my arm so I can remember our time along the TSW.  What do you think?