June 12th: Whew! Flew to Toronto, Stayed with Petersons while waiting for Guppy to be launched. On to Orillia.

 

Cindy, Steve & Randy

After a great visit in Burlington, my sister Terri dropped me off at the Burlington airport to fly to Toronto. Cindy offered to pick me up. I was dreading going through a long wait at Customs. As it turned out they have updated the entry procedure going into Canada which made it very easy.

The plan was to hang out with the Petersons until I could get Guppy launched. I told the marina I wanted the boat in June 5th, or as soon after as possible. Marinas are extremely busy that time of year, and the weather is a factor, so there are no guarantees. I freely admit I was pretty anxious about getting back into boating on Guppy after three years. I'd wake up during the night wondering, "Will Guppy's engines, the alternator, and starter be okay after sitting three years?" "If there were issues, how long would it take for the marina to fix things?" "Could I make it to Orillia to meet the Rahns on June 17th?" "How would I do driving the boat into the locks given that Linda always did that.?"

Fortunately, as usual, there were projects with the Petersons. A great distraction. Work was coming to the end on their kids' lakefront rental property. It was great to have some projects while I was waiting to hear the marina was putting Guppy in.

Cindy made salmon on the grill the first night I was there. It was delicious but I know not to eat too much because leftover salmon was turned into salmon patties. She makes the best salmon patties ever!

The next morning Cindy made a great breakfast with the eggs she just collected from the chickens in the back yard. They taste better than store bought eggs.

I told Randy I wanted to help. I was assigned the job of replacing some ceiling fans. They were relatively straight forward but as usual the replacements didn't quite match up with the old ones. After a little maneuvering, I had them installed.

The installations were successful. Next I replaced some door knobs. That was pretty easy.

Dock renovation

Meanwhile, Randy was working on the dock. Once in a while I would provide some help but it was pretty much a one man job. Randy is an excellent handyman, but I actually had a couple suggestions that were helpful. Randy is a lot like Linda, the primary goal is to get it done, NOW! As is true for all of us, sometimes a different perspective can be helpful.

Here is a view from the end of the dock looking toward the house. Its a beautiful setting.

It wasn't all work in Utterson, Ontario where the Peterson families live. four years ago, Linda and I were invited to join the Petersons for an annual gathering at Larry and Ann's House in Huntsville

Larry and Ann love to entertain and Larry goes all out with decorations. This time it was just the Petersons and me invited to dinner. Their back yard is very fun and festive. The weather was perfect and dinner was excellent. 

The tree house Randy built several years ago still looks great. Clearly some elves or gnomes must be living there.

Randy and Cindy also took me to the new home site for all of the family. Nick and Niki are building a beautiful home on a mountain. Randy and Cindy will also have their own place on the site. And...it will have 2 bedrooms. Maybe I'll move it!

Gloria

Nick, Niki, Liam and Mea had gone up to the island cottage for the weekend so I stayed at their house and slept in Liam's bed. (Peterson's house has one bedroom and a comfortable couch, but might as well stay next door.) Gloria the cat, is very friendly and social. I am allergic to some cats but knew I wasn't allergic to Gloria from previous visits. She slept with me. She was very quiet and had to be leaning on me all night. It was fine and I slept well. But as soon as I opened my eyes she was pestering me. I learned that as long as I kept my eyes closed, even if I was moving around, she would let me sleep. Fun cat.

The Andrews family returned from the lake Sunday and Cindy made dinner for everyone. It was fun to see Nick, Nicki, Liam and Mea again. I have been designated the 3rd Grandpa! 

So Sunday night I moved in with Randy and Cindy. More great food! Super fresh eggs for breakfast, salmon patties for lunch, pork tenderloin for dinner. Monday was a field day for the kids and we planned to watch the competition. I attended last year and it was fun. But Monday morning we were informed that the field day was postponed due to bad air quality caused by the forest fires. We could smell the smoke even though there were no fires anywhere near us. 

Time went by and I could not get a response from the marina. I knew they were very busy but after numerous left voicemail and email messages I had no response. Two months previously, the owner said he'd put Guppy in the beginning of the week of June 5th. The weekend passed, and Monday. Still no response. Finally, Tuesday I decided to drive the 2&1/2 hours to the marina to find out what was happening.

The detail guy had started buffing the hull so Guppy was uncovered. He needed the boat in the water to power wash the top and buff/wax it. Jeff. the owner, said they were swamped. I explained again that I had friends coming from California and needed to get the boat to Orillia by June 15th. He said he "Should" be able to launch Guppy the next day, Wednesday. It was great to see Guppy again and in good condition given it sat for 3 years. 

The Peterson's decided to sell their boat, Margaritaville, because they would now be spending the summers in Temagami at the Lake house. Fortunately, Margaritaville was in the same marina as my boat. Petersons needed to go and prep Margaritaville for sale and we coordinated my visit so we could do it at the same time. We planned to hope for the best and go Thursday.

Fortunately, the air quality improved and the field day took place Wednesday. The school does a great job organizing a lot of activities. I was able to get a couple good pictures.

Liam is on the left

Liam is a good athlete. He is very quick. From what I hear he is a great hockey player.

Mea and her friends resting before the next race.

Mea going for it!

Margaritaville

So away we went Thursday morning, hoping Guppy would be in the water. When we arrived, Guppy was sitting on a trailer close to the boat ramp. Not what I'd hoped for, but looked like we were close. Jeff said it "Should be in the water within an hour." Knowing that would never happen, I helped Randy and Cindy prepare their boat for sale. We hauled more stuff off of their boat than you would think possible. Then they started cleaning it.

It was now about 11:30am so I went to check on my boat. A mechanic was working on it. I was pleased to learn he was doing a very thorough job. Of course, he informed me that it wouldn't be in the water until after lunch. At that point I felt confident we'd be in the water that night. I called my friend Gary who lives north of Toronto, who was helping me take the boat to Orillia, and he said he'd come Thursday afternoon and stay on the boat so we could get an early start Friday.

Lunch on Margaritaville

I went back to see how Randy and Cindy were doing and offered to get lunch. I didn't need to twist any arms. We all enjoyed the break. 

When I went back, Guppy was in the water. It took about an hour to replace an impeller and once again check all the systems. We were good to go. The boat was moved into a slip where Gary and I would spend the night. Gary and Karen arrived, Randy and Cindy said "Hi" and "Goodbye." It was a hard fought battle but we won!

Guppy

We needed to travel through 7 locks and Lake Simcoe in order to get to Orillia. Rain was forecast for Sunday and Gary needed to leave Orillia Monday morning. We stopped in Fenelon Falls for lunch and bought some salmon for supper. We made it to the Kirkfield Lift Lock. There would be 5 more locks after that.  Kirkfield Lift Lock info

As we approached, we could tell there was a problem. There is always one tub at the top and one at the bottom, unless they are in transit. We could see our tub was stopped at 3/4 of the way up.

 

Welder working on the lift lock 

We still had 5 locks to complete before crossing Simcoe the next morning. The lock master came out and asked if we needed to go through. Yes please! He said only one tub was usable and it would take about 1/2 hour. Whew!

We made it through 2 more locks and stayed overnight at a beautiful spot. The locks closed at 6:30PM. We had stopped in Fenelon Falls for lunch and bought some salmon for supper. We wanted to cross Simcoe early Saturday morning (about 20 miles of open water) before the afternoon winds picked up. Also we wanted to have some time for Gary to enjoy Orillia.

It was a beautiful night and the salmon was delicious.

The Canadian geese shared the lock area with us. The newly hatched were very cute.
 

The juveniles are not as cute but still entertaining to see them all huddled together in the morning.

We even had a pileated woodpecker hanging around.

The wildflowers are plentiful and beautiful.

We headed out the next morning and everything went very well. We spotted these turtles just before we approached Lake Simcoe. Our crossing went very well! It was great to arrive in Orillia with good weather.