Day 120 to Starport Marina near Orillia, ON

      After the excitement of the Big Chute Lock and all of the other scenic spots, we slept very well last night. The lock opens up at 9:00 am, and here we are waiting our turn (photo at right). The blue bridge in front of the lock is a fixed highway bridge that I mentioned yesterday. If you look (very) closely I am about halfway down the steps and Lucky is already at the bottom. We took one last walk before the lock opens so I got another 3 floors on my FitBit. The water in the lock was up over night so we waited patiently for the lock to lower, empty and for 6 small craft to exit.

      The photo at the left shows our view inside the empty lock as we waited for the gates to close behind us. We were up and out of the lock shortly after 9:30 am. The temperature is supposed to be in the 80s with 6 to 10 mph winds and clear skies so we were looking forward to another great day on the water.
      Our destination is 17.6 miles to Starport Marina in Orilla, ON. We have a reservation there for today through Tuesday morning as this is the August Holiday weekend in Canada, and with great weather it will be very crowded on the water.  We decided to hunker down at a 5 star Marina with a heated swimming pool until after the biggest boating weekend of the season passes.  😄

      The Trent-Severn Waterway enters Lake Simcoe and exits it a couple of miles later. So we exited the channel for the TSW and headed south to explore the lake. Lake Simcoe is a very large lake, and we plan to spend more time here and see something of the lake and at least three of the towns on it. Toward the southern end of the Lake, we will be only an hour or so driving time from Toronto. Some hearty commuters actually live year round along the southern end of the lake although that must be a tough commute in winter... The photo at the right shows a busy channel on the east side of Orillia, ON. We actually bypassed the town to specifically go to the Starport Marina since we had been so impressed by the Starport Marina that we stayed in at Lock Number 45.

      Just a short distance past where the picture above was taken, we passed a new Starport Marina under construction (photo at left).  This Starport looks like it will be pretty upscale judging by the addition of the condominium tower. Our destination for today is only a few miles south and east of here, and while it is still technically in Orillia, it was too far for us to actually get into downtown.

      The view in the photo at the left greeted us as we entered the channel into the marina. The marina office, store and gas dock is straight ahead. The house on the right had three sea planes docked at it, and wait a minute... Who could that be sitting under the tree on the very right hand side of the photo?

       On closer observation (photo at left) indeed it was Jake and Elwood sitting there to greet us as we came up the channel... The Blues Brothers in person! Typical of Jake and Elwood they must have aggravated the local sea gull population as seen by the white blotches on their suits...  

      The photo at the right shows a close up of the sea planes in case you are not a fan of the Blues Brothers, although since I'm a big fan that would be hard for me to understand.  

      We had to stop at the office to check in before we went to our assigned slip. There is no restaurant on sight or near by for that matter so we will be eating on the boat a lot. However, they were holding a benefit luncheon at the office so we had a take out lunch before heading to the pool... It's going to be a nice weekend!

Day 119 through the Big Chute Lock and beyond

       Today we continue our TSW adventure.  We will be doing the Big Chute Lock which is the one that involves being lifted out of the water and carried over land within the lock using railroad car on tracks and pulled by cables.  Two days ago we drove to this lock from Midland and took a lot of photos since we will not be allowed off our boat during the locking maneuver. However, The photo at the right serves as a reminder that we are also going to continue seeing a lot of beautiful country. The Trent-Severn Waterway utilizes existing bodies of water whenever possible so it is not a "straight line", but it wanders a lot and has many artificial cuts like the one in the photo. Should be an interesting day. 

      We don't have a definitive destination today but instead have identified several possible stops.  The first is staying on the lock wall below lock #43 which is the next lock after the Big Chute. The second is an anchorage in Deep Bay between Locks #43 and #42.  The third is at the Stanton Bros General Store and Dock in the South West corner of Sparrow Lake.  And the last possibility is on the lock wall below lock #42. There is a 14 mile difference between the first possibility and the last one.  We also have two possible stops for lunch identified. So it all boils down to timing which is always suspect when dealing with locks.  Yesterday we only had to wait for two turns of the lock before our turn but that took almost two hours including our locking time.  But first, the photo above at the left shows one of our first views as we approached the Big Chute (officially Lock Number 44). These are the rapids that were bypassed by the Big Chute.

      The photo at the right shows the railroad car waiting at the top for its first lock through of the day, which although it's not a big deal was Lucky Us. This is our second lock out of the 45 in the TSW, and once again, it is about a 40 foot lift. It looks higher than 40 feet in the photo, but do not forget that we will go over the hill and back down into the water on the other side. We only had to wait a few minutes as the car started down toward us almost immediately.

      The photo at the left shows the car in the water waiting for us to enter. There is a catwalk along both sides near the top where the lockmaster and crew work. We were the only boat waiting, and we were told to enter in the middle rather than along one of the sides. Normally we would have tied to one side with a single sling under the stern to keep the propellers off of the deck. With just one boat they used two slings to hold us upright with the propeller shafts, propellers and rudders hanging over the rear end of the car.

      The photo at the right shows the straps that held us upright. The boat itself was sitting with the long keel resting on the deck of the car. About 10 of our 43 foot length was sticking over the end, but a typical boat has most of its mass near the centers to increase stability so there was no worry about falling off the back of the railroad car. Now, we were ready to begin the trip...

      The photo at the left shows my view from the upper helm station as we were riding up the hill. The excitement was really beginning to kick in just about now. The ride is remarkably quiet since we are pulled by cables that are powered by motors inside the building with the Canadian flag that is seen through front opening of the car. You can see the Admiral sitting there raptly taking everything in as we climbed the hill. We had our head sets turned on, but I don't remember that we said anything as we were both so busy trying to take everything in...

       The photo at the right shows the view out the starboard (right) side as we crossed the highway at the top of the railroad. The camera was about 30 feet above the road when the photo was taken. There was a family waving from way down below. The traffic gate goes up as soon as we have cleared the road. Then a car crossed behind us, and they honked and yelled "Hello Texas!". Talk about feeling like King of the Hill way up in the air...

      Just for scale here is a photo taken while standing on the road looking at the railroad car about to pass the location above. The white power boat is about 31 feet long compared to Lucky Us at 43 feet. Anyway, we were really way up in the air...

      About this same time I took the picture at the right looking back down from where we had come. Yes it was impressive, but if you add it all up, the camera is about 70 feet up from water level so indeed, it was impressive. Obviously the view of the surrounding area was good from here, but I honestly did not notice until later when I looked at the pictures as I had been too busy with the action at hand.




     

      I also took the photo at the right looking forward as we were about to go down into the water to finish the locking process. At this point I am eternally grateful that the railroad car remains horizontal during the whole trip up, across and down. I think that if the railroad car had tipped forward toward the water that I really would have panicked! The last thing that I would want is to be riding Lucky Us if she were sliding down the hill.



      

      Shortly, we were down into the water and starting to float (photo at left). They quickly gave us permission to start the engines. You can see workers using boat hooks to keep Lucky Us centered in the lock until we were ready. Then it was time to slowly move out and get one final picture (below).

      The photo at the right was taken looking back at the lock just after we had exited. It was only then that we both began to relax while also realizing what an incredible experience it had been. I for one am sure that I was on an incredible adrenalin rush...










      I think we were still on a high from the Big Chute lock for some time. However, we still had most of a full day left so we slowly headed onward toward different adventures. The photo at the left shows one of the many nice "cottages" that we passed. If you look at the dock in the center you will see a very high jumping board. At least, I assume that no one would dive off that board, but you never know. Anyway, most of the cabins in this area had some sort of elevated platform, but this one was definitely the highest that I saw. 

      Lunch anyone? These folks (photo at right) certainly seemed to be enjoying lunch on their swim raft. Shortly after this, we also stopped for lunch at Waubic's Inn and Restaurant. It was a delightful little stop with three long piers for transients with a choice of dining on the deck or inside. The weather was perfect outside so we opted for a table under an umbrella. The place is in their third generation of operation under the same family, and their fish 'n chips was to die for.  We actually had to wait 15 minutes to order lunch because they serve breakfast until noon. The wait was well worth it as the filet was over a foot long and was also certainly over a half pound. After all of the excitement this morning, we were really hungry, and this hearty lunch definitely hit the spot (we did take leftovers back to the boat). This stop was also one of our overnight opportunities, but given the early hour we decided to push on a little further.

      The last travel photo (on the left) of the day is this unusual cottage that appears to have been built on pilings and sits mainly over the waters. I am not a big fan of cottages that are painted white or some other bright color, but I also am a big fan of the bright red flowers on geraniums so I will make an exception here. Anyway, this is a scene that I definitely liked a whole lot.

      Well, in the end we went to our furthest choice of possible destinations for today, which was the lock wall below Lock Number 42. The weather and scenery were so good that we had just kept on travelling and soaking it all up. The photo at the right shows Lucky Us nestled way down in amongst the trees along both sides of the channel. There was a road bridge up at the top of the lock level, but there were almost no vehicles at least that we heard. It was also cooler with all of the shade, and we never ran the generator to use the air conditioning as there was just enough breeze to gently blow through the boat with the windows open.

      There were 31 high steps to the top of the lock, and I counted them often as that was where the open grassy space was to walk Lucky. There were only two other boats staying over night down below the lock with us, but the top side had 10 boats waiting to lock through in the morning. This was our first experience staying over night on a lock wall on the TSW, and overall, it was a very pleasant experience. 

Day 118 starting the Trent-Severn Waterway

       We left the dock a little after 8:00 am and set off to officially begin the Trent Severn Waterway (TSW) portion of this year's adventure.  Today, we:  (1) turned in the rent car, (2) added fuel because the price was good at $2.79/gallon US, and (3) travelled 12.2 miles from Midland, Ontario to Port Severn, Ontario. We did not leave the fuel dock until around 9:00 am as the diesel fuel pump was slow, and they have to have a marina employee pump the fuel with all non-employees off of the boat. We were topping off the two forward fuel tanks so I had to board the boat several times to check the fuel level so that we did not overflow and have a spill (costly with fines). So, every time I boarded Lucky Us, they had to stop pumping... Good thing we had such a short trip. Once we finally departed we passed a 100 foot local cruise boat setting off for a 6 hour cruise over to the 30,000 Islands for some beautiful scenery (photo at right).

      We reached our first lock on the Trent-Severn about 2 hours later. We started at our normal cruise speed of 8.3 mph, but as we got into the earliest approaches to the Trent-Severn, we slowed down to 6.2 mph (or 10.0 kph), which is the normal speed limit for much of the waterway. The waterway is about 245 miles long, and we plan to spend 3 plus weeks in it so there is no need for us to hurry. Our first lock (photo at left) is Lock Number 45 and we will count down to Lock Number 1 at the other end. When it was our turn to lock through, we also had to wait for the road bridge to swing out of the way, which it is doing in the photo. The clearance under the bridge was less than we require at 18.5 feet, but when it is only smaller boats locking through, the bridge does not have to open. Once the bridge was open and locked, we got permission to enter and tie up to the "ropes" on the side. The ropes are actually plastic coated cable, which are very clear unlike the slimy lock walls. We are going up about 40 feet so we were too low to watch the lock keepers manually close the gates, but we had seen them in action during our road trip here two days ago. This lock is the smallest of the TSW locks, and we learned another important rule here that is new to us. We are required to shut off all engines, including the generator if it had been running. I suppose that since these locks are so small (about 80 feet for Lock Number 45) compared to  600 to 1,000 feet long for many of the other locks that we transited coming from the Gulf Coast there may be a danger from carbon monoxide.

       After we went through the lock we continued a whopping .4 miles to the Starport Marina (photo at right).  We did not call ahead because we were not sure when we would get off in Midland nor how far we would want to travel for the day. So we took our chances, and we were lucky to get one of two spots left at the marina.  The office, store and fuel dock are on the left and in the background on the right is one of the nicest lounges with spotless bathrooms that we have ever had. This marina is very friendly and service oriented. It seems like every time I turned around that there was a staff member asking if they can be of service. Trust me -this is very unusual! We are officially in the village of Port Severn, but as far as I could determine, all that is here other than the marina and the adjacent restaurant is a couple of houses and a closed restaurant. However, we did go to the restaurant between the marina and the lock. It was the same one that we had eaten lunch at 2 days ago. The big change is that we did not have access to the dinner menu when we were here before. The Admiral had grilled pickerel and I had grilled perch. Wow, our dinners were definitely a huge step up from the fish 'n chips on the lunch menu.

      The photo on the left shows the transom of Lucky Us in the center, and the boat on the left that is covered with ads for its sponsors. This boat travels around this area and provides music for local marine oriented events. The boating season here is only about 3 months so competition for visitors is keen, and there are many local events, such as large raft ups of hundreds of boats and beach parties where this boat goes to provide music (and showcase its sponsors logos). Fortunately, it did not have its large speakers deployed with the sound cranked up while it was docked near us...

      What better to end our first day on the Trent-Severn than to visit the ice cream shop next to the restaurant and eat our favorite ice cream while enjoying this marvelous sunset? Then it was back home to Lucky Us and call it a day. I was really tired even though we had only travelled a little over 12 miles. It was one of those days where we were busy almost all day long. It was mainly little things, but there was a seemingly endless stream of them.

Day 115 to 117 in Midland

       We have added a full day to our stay in Midland so instead of three nights, we will be here for four. The Admiral is picking up a rent car at 9:00 am this morning, and we will keep it until 9:00 am on Day 118 when we are now leaving. Our first trip in the car was to downtown Midland where we hoped to explore the downtown and find a suitable restaurant for lunch (photo at right). The photo shows a typical block of downtown, which as it turned out met our requirements for today. For lunch our first choice was a fish 'n chips restaurant, which turned out to be closed today (Monday). However, just a couple of doors away was a wonderful New York style deli. These folks had actually been to a New York style deli, and the food was wonderful. I had a Greek salad with turkey. The kalamata olives alone were worth the cost! However, in keeping with the theme (in Ontario?) even this place did not have unsweetened iced tea. We browsed several eclectic stores, including the one in the right side of the picture above.

       There were several nice murals painted on the sides of building at the cross streets, including the one in the photo. This mural has scenes from the 1920s that honor the Girl Guides of Canada, which is the equivalent of the Girl Scouts in the US. Other cross streets had murals depicting other themes, such as railroads. The murals helped to beautify an already vibrant downtown.

      On the corner across the street was the Midland Public Library with this classic old stone building that had more modern additions on the two sides away from the viewer. We came back to this location the next day to sample the fish 'n chips and were duly rewarded for our efforts, although the chips (French fries) were a little greasy. As before, we also browsed a couple more stores just for fun. One thing about travelling on a boat is that we are seldom tempted to buy anything large, breakable or not waterproof. So, we look a lot but seldom buy.



      In the afternoon of the first and third full days we went to the movie theater on the edge of town. On the first trip we went to see 'Ghost Busters", which I thoroughly enjoyed. I had kind of been dreading seeing this new version after seeing some of the many different trailers over many months. I thought that the original movies would be difficult to match partly because of their great casts. Boy was I ever wrong! In addition the pop corn was excellent, which always helps to improve my mood...

      On the second day we drove to Lock 45 in Port Severn, which is the last (or the first in our case) lock on the Trent-Severn Waterway. We took this trip to see two special locks and to buy our permit in advance. Lock 45 has the smallest lock chamber, and it is one of few remaining locks were the gates and the valves are still hand operated.  The photo at the right shows the top of the lock chamber on the left and the wall with several boats tied up to it. While we were there we had the opportunity to view several lock cycles and see how the boats queued up and the order in which they were moored side by side in the locks. None of this was completely new to us, but at the same time it was all just a little different.

      We drove across the bridge at the lock and had lunch at a waterfront restaurant on the other side (photo at right). This also gave us additional time to watch the boats tie up to the lock wall and to see others station keeping as they waited their turn. We had lunch at what happened to be a very busy time so we got to see some of the crazy maneuvers that some boats made while waiting. We had fish and chips, but we noticed that their dinner menu, which started at 4:00 pm, had healthier options for how their selection of lake fish were cooked. We did not know it at the time, but it turned out that in 48 hours we were going to be here for dinner and sample the dinner menu for real.

      After lunch we went to the next lock, which is the famous Big Chute railway lock (photo at left). We have seen lots of pictures of this lock, nut nothing does it justice like seeing for real. It's not that it is scary, but rather the scale is much bigger than I had ever imagined. Also, I had never fully understood how the car could remain nearly horizontal while going up, then horizontal going across the road and then going down hill. It turns out that it was very simply engineering to have 2 sets of rails on either side with the front wheels on one set of tracks and the rear on the other. To go down hill the back wheels go down before the front and visa versa to go up hill. Incidentally, we put Lucky in her 3 wheeled stroller to walk around the rail road. we got some strange looks as I think that some people thought that we had a really ugly baby (ha ha).

      After we were loaded back up into the rent car, we drove on to get back onto the Trans Canada Highway to go back to Midland. In a short distance we went past the reason for this 40 foot high lock (photo at right). These beautiful rapids had to be bypassed via a lock... Incidentally, there was originally at least one other rail road lock, but it was replaced by a conventional lock about 50 years ago. That is probably too bad, but since the whole waterway is now a national landmark, it is likely that they will have to retain the rail road lock and several other classic locks forever (?).

      We went for a ride after dinner on our last night, and we chose to go north to the next bay and the city of Pentanguishine, Ontario. It was a pretty bay, but I am not sure that we ever saw the downtown. We did see this beautiful Catholic Church (photo at left). It sits high up on the side of a hill and was brightly lit by the setting Sun. Nice way to end the day...


      We enjoyed our stay in Midland, and it is the biggest city that we have been to or will be in for a long time so we did do some stocking up on supplies while we could. Tomorrow we are off to Lock #45 and we will begin the count down to Lock #1 in Trenton, Ontario just off of Lake Ontario.

Day 114 to Midland via Henry's Restaurant

      As usual, the Admiral and Lucky were walking early and captured this colorful sun rise over the marina (photo at right). We left the dock at 8:40 am so we could make the 9:00 am swing bridge opening 1.5 miles away.  Our destination today is one of three locations.  We hope first to stop at Frying Pan Island for lunch at Henry's Restaurant.  This is a very popular tourist spot for both boaters and float planes like Georgian Bay Airlines from Parry Sound.  So we are looking forward to seeing if we can get a spot at their dock.  We should arrive around 11 am.  If successful, we will eat and then travel on to either an anchorage nearby or on to Midland, ON, which is about 35 miles further across fairly open water. We plan to leave the small boat channel at some point to take a more direct route to Midland.  Weather/wave conditions will dictate which choice we make.   

      We were in the small boat channel until well past Frying Pan Island, and the scenery very soon became great once again (photo at left). When we arrived at Parry Sound, I thought that it was in a small bay, but it turns out that much of the land forming one side of the "bay" is actually an island. The small boat channel runs south between that island and the mainland, and that is where we are travelling. As you can see, there was a lot of traffic while we were confined to this single channel. The swing bridge that we passed through connects the island on the right with the mainland on the left.

      After a couple of miles we passed the end of the big island on the right and got into more typical small boat channel scenery with islands and small bays everywhere. The smaller boats were no longer confined to the small boat channel so the traffic was less, which gave me more time to enjoy the scenery. Once we passed through the swing bridge we could control our arrival time, and I slowed Lucky Us down a little to make our arrival time a little after 11:00 am.

      As we approached Frying Pan Island (photo at left), the wind picked up dramatically from the predicted 10 to 12 mph. The white buildings  in the photo are the restaurant complex, and the docks are going to be perpendicular to the wind coming toward us in the channel. I was already running multiple docking scenarios through my mind. Yes, I should have been concerned, but an older man and a young dock hand obviously had plenty of experience in these conditions. I approached the dock slightly upwind and let the wind push us toward the dock. Of course, the wind was pushing us faster than we wanted so I could first slow the bow down a bit and then the stern by using the twin engines. It was not a perfect solution. However, the fenders did their job, and we bounced to a stop without looking too bad (my biased opinion). After turning off the engines and securing the last of the lines, we headed ashore to walk Lucky and check out the grounds. The restaurant had great views, but unfortunately, the winds were keeping the sea planes away so we missed that "entertainment" during lunch. The food more than made up for that as we both had pickerel that was delicious. This stop was definitely worth it! After lunch, it was only 12:30 pm, and yes, we could have stayed for the night (and had another wonderful meal), but we opted to continue our trip. We still had the option of finding an anchorage or continuing to Midland. We decided that in about 5 or 10 miles we would stick our "nose" out into more open water and take a look in order to make our decision.

      We were heading along the small boat channel, when we had our first osprey sighting in a long time (photo at right). We had not really noticed that we had not been seeing osprey until we finally saw this nest (if that makes any sense). The range of ospreys in this area extends well north up to include the southern portion of Hudson Bay so we "should or could" have seen some but had not. I mention all of this because osprey are one of my most favorite birds, and I enjoy watching them whether in flight or perched majestically.

      The small boat channel continued until much closer to Midland, but it was already becoming a long day so we were about to stick our nose out and take a look at the wind on a much more direct route. So, this is one of our last views in the relative quiet and beauty of this inside passage (photo at left). Once we reach Midland, we will be very close to actually entering the Trent-Severn Waterway and leaving Georgian Bay behind. Fortunately, we will still be seeing some of this beautiful scenery. As a geologist, you might think that I enjoy seeing rocks, which I do, but I really appreciate the combination of colors or textures provided by the water, rocks, vegetation, topography, etc. So there you have it...

      It turned out that the wind out on the more open water was less than the "wind tunnel" in the small boat channel. So, we continued outside and took the more direct route to Midland in 8 to 10 mph breeze. Part of our decision was also based on the weather forecast where the winds are supposed to be even stronger tomorrow.  As we rounded a point to head into Midland, we passed this lighthouse that served to mark our turn and at the same time to remind us to avoid rocks near the shore. We have a spot reserved at the Bay Port Yachting Centre in Midland for (at least) three nights, and we will have a rent car for 48 hours to get around the town and go check out some of the Trent-Severn Waterway before we travel there on Lucky Us.  

      There is a large grain elevator complex on the edge of downtown, and it looks like grain probably was exported from here at one time. However, there are no longer train tracks to the elevators, and it would take a huge number of trucks to fill the elevators (?).  Anyway, the mural on the side is the reason for the photo at the left. The mural depicts indigenous people, missionary, fort and probably a (Hudson Bay Company) trading post. Now that is one huge mural!

      We also got a nice view of downtown Midland as we approached Bay Port Marina (photo at left). The photo was taken when we were less than a half mile by water from the marina, but on land the road bends around part of the bay between the marina and downtown so the land travel is about one mile to downtown. There is what appears to be a marina at the foot of downtown, but unfortunately, that is a yacht club.

      Bay Port Yachting Center is a very good, full service marina, but it is isolated from downtown by about a mile. We happened to dock on the very inside slip of a pier (photo at right). Actually, we tied up to the retaining wall so we could step off the boat onto land, and at that point we were just about 30 feet from the (very clean) bathrooms...  Also, the town is big enough that the movie theater and big box stores are all outside of the downtown area so having a rent car is almost necessary for us.

Days 112 to 113 enjoying Parry Sound

      An exterior view of the Stockey Center where we went for the concert last night is shown in the photo at the right. The photo was taken from a fine gravel walking/jogging/bike path along the water. When we came past this building on the boat yesterday, my first thought was that it was indoor bulk storage for road salt that would be delivered here by lake freighter. I guess that the architect would not appreciate my observation, but inside the hall it is a different story as they claim to have perfect acoustics.

      Speaking of the inside, the photo at the left shows the setting inside the Stockey Center well before the performance. Understandably no pictures are allowed during the performance. I have no way to judge whether the acoustics are perfect, but it seemed like every note was audible even near the rear of the mezzanine where we were seated.  The walls were odd shaped blocks of native (?) stone in variations of a dark gray color scheme. Judging from the parking lot during our many trips past here, both the afternoon and evening performances were all very well attended. This is just another one of the many different and unexpected performances that we have been able to experience during our Looper adventures. Bravo!

      During the intermission we had an opportunity to walk around the lobby, and the photo at the right shows me standing in front of the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame, which is the other occupant of the Stockey Center. Orr is a native of Parry Sound and is arguably one of the greatest hockey players ever. The picture shows Orr’s #4 jersey for the Boston Bruins of the NHL. We were not motivated to actually go back for a tour, but it was still fun to see some of the memorabilia.  

      The final picture from last night was after the performance when we exited the hall on the water side and were treated to a marvelous sunset over Parry Sound to the west. All in all it was quite an evening with a great concert in a really spectacular setting both inside and out.

   

      For the morning on Day 112 we set off for a walking trip that was designed to follow the fitness trail across a bridge in the shadow of the CPR Railroad Bridge high above us. As I said yesterday, the navigable portion of the harbor ended before the bridge, and here we see a scenic, small waterfall. This trail got us to the city on the other side of the small valley, and we followed this same route several times on our walking and biking adventures. The first trip took us to a bike shop where we were able to see a hi tech 2 child, two-wheel child carrier that is pulled behind a bike. We wanted to see if it would be suitable to carry Lucky with or without groceries. We have seen these before, especially on Mackinac Island where bikes are a primary mode of transportation. It collapses for easy storage with the wheels removed, has good ventilation and also converts into a 3 wheeled stroller. I must admit to being a “doubting Thomas” that it could do all of these things well, but we were really impressed. We called them later to reserve one and arrange for installation on my electric bike the following morning. BTW we had already decided to spend a third night here since there was so much to do. In the afternoon we went to the two screen movie theater in downtown to see the newly released “Star Trek”, which we both enjoyed. Also, I am happy to report that the popcorn was really very good.

      Meanwhile, back at the marina we were treated to many sightings of this Mallard hen with 11 ducklings who we regularly saw all over the marina. The first boat from the shore on our pier had a swim platform that was only about 2 inches above the water, and that was one of their favorite resting places much to the consternation of the boat’s owner…

     For dinner on Day 112 we walked a short distance to a restaurant just before the big bridge. I had wonderful white fish again along with baked potato and grilled vegetables. Then it was across the street to sample the ice cream at the Island Queen office. Sure enough it was just as good as before, but it never hurts to keep checking. Then it was time to head back to Lucky Us and an early bed time after a day with about 6 miles of walking.

Day 113 began with a bike ride across the river for our 10:00 am appointment at the bike shop. I even got a test ride in the parking lot. It is so easy to pull that it was also easy to forget that I had a trailer behind me. At least that is my excuse for going over a few curbs rather unexpectedly. After lunch on board Lucky Us, we loaded Lucky up for her first shopping trip to a large nursery with an outdoor vegetable market.  Then we headed further out to a Radio Shack where I bought a USB WiFi antenna that improves my connection in the marina. We also stopped at a pet store and had Lucky’s nails clipped before a quick stop at Walmart, and then we headed home for a rest. Lucky did not like the front screen being down on the carrier otherwise she was a pretty good passenger. We had returned to the marina with a full load of vegetables packed in with Lucky, and everything worked perfect. However, I definitely appreciated the power assist on some short uphill sections.

      The second trip also yielded a “near” bear sighting for the Admiral, but she was unimpressed by the statue of a bear. However, we did not take any chances as we both rubbed its paw for good luck…

      The main highway bridge across the river led us past this interesting mural covering the side of a multi-story building. It was entitled “the Brag Load” and depicted this huge stack of logs on a sled pulled by a team of just two horses. It did serve to point out the importance of the logging and lumber industry in the early days of Parry Sound when a lot of lumber was shipped out of here both by rail and water. Like the logging industry in many of the areas around Lakes Huron and Michigan, the industry moved to other areas when all of the virgin timber had been cut. Parry Sound with its wonderful deep water port was left to languish when the logging moved to other areas.

      This was to be our last night in Parry Sound, and it ended like the previous evening with a visit to the ice cream shop for one last double scoop cup of Black Cherry ice cream… Later when I took Lucky on her last walk for the day I saw this interesting sight on the break wall near the office. Many Loopers buy bicycles to take on the Loop for local transportation. However, most of them forget that they haven’t ridden a bike in 5 years, and it is not as easy as they remembered… We have heard stories of these people throwing or giving the bikes away about half way around the Loop. I don’t know if that is what is going on here, but someone had placed this folding bike in its storage bag on the dock. I blanked out the phone number, but I would bet that the price was a good one…

Tomorrow we are leaving Parry Sound and heading about 15 miles to Frying Pan Island and look forward to a fish lunch at Henry’s Restaurant. Maybe we will get to see some sea planes bring other folks in for a lunch stop as well. It is possible to stay overnight there, but if the weather is good we will probably make the more open water crossing to Midland. Most of the trip to Midland is within the well protected small boat channel within the 30,000 Islands so getting there should be no problem.