Penetanguishene, ON

Wow. That's a mouthful. It is pronounced pene-tang-wisheen. We're not sure yet if it's native or Dutch, but we'll let you know. We're just proud that we learned how to pronounce it. We arrived here on Saturday the 23rd. Before we left that morning, I headed down the forward stairs and turned to put something into a cabinet. My back caught and I spent the rest of the day in bed with an ice pack and muscle relaxers. Steve had to take to boat from Midland to Penetanguishene by himself. Sunday I was a little better but still mostly down. Monday, I was up and around carefully. Tuesday was better yet, but I am still being very careful. One advantage of the down time is that I had a chance to get a lot of work done on Olivia's coat. I'm knitting it for her in pink, with a pretty trim.

Ryder's rabies vaccination was due to expire in a few days, so Steve took her (in the bicycle basket) to see a vet here. She needed a current one to re-enter the US. She has congestive heart failure that she takes meds for, and he asked the vet for a refill on one of her prescriptions. He added another medicine for her in addition to what she already takes. He says we should see a big difference. She is actually doing pretty well, all things considered. Aggravating as usual.

Tuesday we did the never-ending laundry and grocery shopping. The marina let us use one of their cars to get into town. (Steve did all the heavy lifting). We came here to Beacon Bay (the marina)  for a "mini-rendezvous" of loopers. It started Tuesday evening with a wine and cheese at a local museum.

The museum is small, but very well done and interesting. It documents the area's growth from the days of the native people, through the lumber production years to roughly the end of WWII. The museum itself is in the main office/company store building of one of the most prominent lumber businesses. The office of the owner was re-created down to the "cutting " time punch clock. Workers were paid half in Canadian money and half in "Beck's Bucks" that could only be used at the company store. The portion of the building devoted to the store had been re-created with period goods. The four lumber companies finally succumbed to their own success. They cut down so many trees, without planting more, that they ran out of raw materials. Some shifted gears to produce goods like skis and sleds, etc.

It was wonderful evening, with a chance to meet some more fellow loopers and see some that we haven't seen since Norfolk. This morning, Steve is at a session for charting Georgian Bay and the North Channel. The marina folks are very knowledgeable, as well as some of the loopers who have been here before. It is a chance to find out what we absolutely must see and what we could let pass. They are also going over hazards to navigation, which is always good to know.

The provisioning will be more scarce as we continue on, so we have stocked up on just about everything. Tonight there is a barbeque and tomorrow we are off again on our adventure! The wonderful people at the marina let me use their office and their private network to get my blog done. I don't know how often I will be able to post over the next few weeks, but I will keep a written journal and continue taking photos. I will update as soon as I can.

The first two days were misty and rainy.

There are fields of Queen Anne's Lace and other wildflowers.

Ryder has returned from her vet visit - on the bike.

Olivia's coat. The sleeves are in it now and I am sewing it together.

Beacon Bay is a large marina. This is only a portion.

Part of the museum. We didn't go in this building.

Steve and fellow loopers.

Note the stroller to the left. Gigi (from The Cooper) attended. She is very well-behaved, unlike another little dog we know.

This is a steam-powered car, purchased by Mr. Beck - owner of the lumber company. That is his bust in the background.

The cutting edge time clock.

I had never seen one of these in person.

The "company store"

These shoes were so cute - about 2 or 3 year old size.

All the modern conveniences of the time. They had 4 types of butter churns!

When the lumber business fell off, they started producing goods for winter use.

This was a "shoe store".

Getting ready for the next part of the journey.

Ryder had to supervise the chart plotting.

I apologize for the delays in posting. Although we have had WiFi, it is very, very slow, which makes it difficult to upload photos. I will post some of them here, but I store all of them on picasaweb.google.com

We will post as we can!