Saturday August 8, 2009-The Mall and A Drive

Rain was forecast for today so I had decided it was a good day to go to the Mall in Barrie. As of this posting it hasn't rained but has been cloudy with a few weak sunny breaks and a high of 22C (72F).

I went for my morning walk/run, had breakfast and read blogs and such for a while this morning before we got ready to go in to Barrie. Gordon had decided to go with me.

First stop was Walmart as Gordon needed some paper sleeves for his DVDs and he was out of cranberry juice. No sleeves at Walmart. As we passed by First Choice Haircutters Gordon noticed there was only one person waiting and he badly needed a haircut so in he went and was taken right away. Another job done! Off to Staples where we found the last box of paper sleeves. Then on to the Georgian Mall for lunch, Taco Bell for Gordon, Subway for me. We then parted company and went our separate ways in the mall. I had to go to the truck to get my sandals as my shoes were giving me blisters. After walking around for a while my back started to bother me so back to the truck where I thought Gordon would be waiting. He was still in the Mall - amazing! Shortly after he arrived and we started to head home.

It was still early afternoon so Gordon suggested we go to find the Simcoe County Pine Forest that we had seen on our way to Penetanguishine the other day. We managed to find it, got some photos with some barn photos along the way and then took a different route back to Heidi's through more forest. Just beautiful!

More Barns

Simcoe County Forest




Lots of horses

A look at the radar as I'm ready to post shows the rain coming in!

Friday August 7, 2009 - More Barns of Simcoe County & A Trail

My day started as usual with my walk/run. It was a beautiful sunny morning and the day was the same with a high of 23C (74F).

After breakfast this morning I coloured my hair - dark ash blonde this time so it's fairly dark right now but it will lighten over the next few washings.

I sat outside this morning after that and finished another book.

We had our lunch and then headed out to find the Scout Valley Trail that we had seen earlier in the week. The route we took didn't pan out as they're paving the road so we had to turn around and go another way but we got there.

On our way out we saw this aloof fellow at the Big Curves Farm

On the way we took some more barn photos.


A lot of cat tails along the road

Along the trail

I thought this was a nice touch - a hand painted trash dumpster

Lots of Queen Anne's Lace

Black eyed susan


At times the trail was rocky like some of the ones we were on in Arizona

At times it was sandy

And sometimes sort of deep

Gordon took this damselfly on my hat

Dragonfly

Damselfly that I took

Babbling brook
The bridge across the brook - you can see the old little bridge on the left - Gordon photographing a damselfly.

We had a good time! After that we drove around some of the back roads for a while then filled up with diesel at 83.9/litre and headed home.

Thursday August 6, 2009

We had another warm sunny day today with a high of 22C (72F). That seems to be the magic temperature number of late.

After my walk and breakfast, I had a shower and got ready to go in to Orillia for groceries. I left around 10:30 a.m. or so and took my time arriving back about 2:30 p.m. with lots of groceries. I'm just getting used to taking my bags into all the grocery stores instead of just a couple of them. Up until May of this year most grocery stores except the discount stores still provided plastic bags. I have now disposed of my plastic bags and have cloth bags.

Anyway, the day was uneventful and not terribly exciting.

My eye allergies have really been bothering me the last couple of days. And I thought it was August that I didn't have any allergies. Guess I was wrong! This is really tiresome!

Today's photo was taken on our journey yesterday. It's a little country church - Hobart Memorial Church and it was dedicated in 1835.

Wednesday August 5, 2009-Discovery Harbour

We had a bright, sunny, gorgeous day today 22C (72F) with a breeze. It was a perfect day to return to the Georgian Bay area. We took the scenic route through a lot of back roads and so I have some barn photos for you today.






And lots of bales of hay


It only took about 1/2 longer to reach Midland than it normally does. First stop was Walmart for a bathroom break then we continued on to Penetanguishine where we stopped at Discovery Harbour.

In 1812 the war with the Americans forced the British to set up a naval base on Lake Huron. After two garrisons in the area fell to the Americans in 1818 Penetanguishene became a garrison town as well. Some buildings here, on Discovery Harbour have recently been restored, and visitors can see recreations of the officers' quarters, crew rooms, stores, and ships' repair shops.

Not being a history buff I usually elect not to go to these places but this one wasn't too bad although after 1 1/2 hours or so I was ready to go. We got lots of photos though!

Commanding Officer's House complete with Commanding Officer

His Kitchen



Officer's Quarters





We took a slightly different route on the way back arriving home around 3 p.m. in time for a nap.

Tuesday August 4, 2009

We had more unsettled weather today, cloud, sun, thunderstorms, rain but only a little bit of each. It was also warm and quite humid at 28C (83F).

Today we decided to get out a bit as we'd been mostly in the RV for the last three days. There are a couple of other RV parks in the area in case we want to come back so we first stopped at Oro Family Campground which is just a ways from here towards Barrie. Unfortunately there are too many trees there.

From there we went into Orillia and went to Hammock Harbour RV park. There we found quite a few sites that would work for us however they only have electric and water and no monthly rate so we'd have to go on their weekly rate of $171.42 plus about $15 for each pump out. Their laundry had only one washer and one dryer (although close to Orillia so I'm sure there's a laundromat around) and the showers were old and not very enticing but it's a possibility. It's right on the water and some of the seasonal sites even have an inland waterway for their boats, quite neat!

Hammock Harbour on Lake Couchiching

A very pretty dragonfly

Pretty pink wildflower

Inland waterway


It's also close to Casino Rama. So we drove over there to have a look at the outside. Very impressive building! It is a First Nation owned casino. We didn't go inside so no temptations!

On we went to find another couple of campgrounds that we quite a ways outside Orillia. One we found out was strictly seasonal - no transients and the other one didn't look like much so we headed back to Orillia so I could pick up some fruit, then home for lunch via the scenic route.

A nice clean looking barn

After lunch we had some thunder so I decided to take a nap during which we had thunder and rain. A real mixed bag!

Monday August 3, 2009 - Canada's Civic Holiday

The first Monday of August is a Civic Holiday in Canada so I hope all the poor working stiffs had a good day off! LOL!!

Today was a pretty slow day, mostly cloudy and cool. The weekenders are pretty much gone from the campground, thank goodness.

We had a group of teenage boys going back and forth behind our RV last night on a golf cart yelling and making all kinds of noise. They must be visitors of the seasonal people to have a golf cart. This morning when I went for my walk there were geraniums uprooted from the flower barrels all over the lawn behind us and a bunch of garbage strewn around. I'm just glad they left our satellite dishes alone but I hope the management gets after them. Hoodlums in training!

After breakfast I decided to sit outside and read even though it was cloudy. I did have a few sunny breaks. I sat out till the sky started to get really dark after lunch, then read more inside. We did have a little rain this afternoon but it was only sprinkles.


We had our Black Bean and Rice Salad for dinner and although it was good, we both thought it needed more liquid.

Sunday August 2, 2009

The rain missed us last night and we only got a few sprinkles today. Otherwise it's been sunny and breezy.

The only thing I got accomplished today was making a Black Bean and Rice Salad. You're supposed to refrigerate it overnight so we'll have it tomorrow. My Mom used to make a good rice salad but I no longer have the recipe and I think it contained gluten in the form of noodles from dry chicken noodle soup. But it was good. Hope this one is as good. I didn't have any Dijon mustard on hand so found a recipe to make a small amount and it turned out well. I also didn't have any cumin so it was recommended to use chili powder. If it's good, I'll stock some cumin but I don't think I'll bother stocking Dijon.

Other than that - reading, napping, sitting outside and just generally relaxing.

The park is really busy. I'll be glad when the long weekend is over and we're back to normal. As I said yesterday we're right at the gate and they don't issue gate cards to people here for a couple of days so when people come in they beep their horn and today it's been a lot of beeping. And the kids.... when we were coming home the other night this little kid on a bike came around the corner at top speed and just about ran into us. Don't parents teach their kids anything any more?

Today's photo is one of the murals at Midland. From a distance it looks like a real lighthouse. When we were there a guy was touching up the paint on it.