Lily, A Dog's Life Aboard Moondance: More Locks, but the Quaint Towns, Sites & Moments Shared are Worth It!

Lakefield, Ontario Lakefield Lock #26 Wall July 24-25, 2016

The loopers decided who was leaving first and so forth, so we wouldn’t have to wait at the locks too long…We ended up getting separated from Kevin and Steve on Lone Star. They got through first, so they were able to make it to Buckhorn before the locks closed. We got too far behind to do that, so we ended up stopping for the night at Lakefield.

“Going through the Petersborough Lift Lock was better than an amusement ride!” mom said. It was completed in 1904 and was the first one designed out of all unreinforced concrete. The two pans weigh 1300 tons when filled. With one pan up and the other down, they balance each other. You can have as many boats in each pan as will fit, the weight doesn’t matter since the boat displaces its own weight in water. When it is time to lower one pan and raise the other, one extra foot of water is added to the upper pan. The two pans are locked in place and the extra water is let out of the lower pan. The extra weight allows the upper pan to push the lower one up, while it comes down. It was so magical that mom shot a couple short videos while dad shot stills…the ride was really smooth…

After 6 or more locks in the heat (high 80's), it was 3:30 and we were all beat!

Our cheapest night yet on the loop, we docked on the wall outside the lock and ate onboard. Some of the boaters walked down a steep flight of stairs to float in the rapids by the dam but by that time Lily and I were getting a shower. We didn’t even go into town since we had seen it the day before by car with Bev and Gary. The town was quite lovely! Our generator kept the AC running, so we were snug and cool all night; despite the thunderstorm that came through in the morning.

Once again we were without any kind of internet or phone connection with the exception of texting…Ironically, a text with photos from an OH girlfriend came through during the night??? Crazy how technology works sometimes!!!

Our first smaller lock before the big Peterboro Lift Lock

The Famous Peterborough Lift Lock

It was impressive!

One of the doors inside this structure

Our view before our lift

The last few moments of the lift lock...I'll put the longer video on my Facebook page

Mike staying busy while we waited on the blue line for a lock to open

Photographing Kevin holding the cable lines, they are much cleaner in fresh water

Some of the lock stations go out of their way decorating and landscaping

Trent University, a liberal arts school who is making a name for itself in human genome research. It was founded in 1964 with the help of GE Canada

I'm a sucker for beautiful old farms

Here we are lined up along the wall for the night

Some of the dams are far more elaborate than others

Nothing like floating in the rapids after a long hard day!

Bob is looking rather blissful here...

Buckhorn, Ontario Lock #31 Wall with Electric July 25-26, 2016

We took off about 8:30 AM with Knot Sew Easy and Chasin 80 and had a easy, but very overcast morning. Fortunately, the winds didn’t start to pick up until our last 2 out 6 locks, so that kept our boating much easier for everyone. The lakes we crossed today had even more tiny islands with cabins, houses and even one small church on them…Talking about living on an island…these sure are small! Hardly any room for me to go on some of them…

The House boaters are out in force, so we try to stay out of their way since most of them have no clue how to drive those boats!

Thanks to this morning’s rain, our boat lines that were tied to the walls were covered in grass and dirt…the minute we brought them on board all that stuff was covering our boat. YUCK! Mom and dad were not happy about that! They like to keep Moondance Ship Shape!

The good news for me today is we got in about 1:00, so I didn’t have to hold it so long.

Dad immediately started cleaning the boat while mom helped me catch up on my blog. The other loopers took off to see this one couple, Laura n Rick (who had hitched a ride on Knot Sew Easy’s) leave today.

We will see the loopers at dock tails later…Mom told dad they are bringing me with them when they go into town in a few because it’s too hot to leave me on the boat without AC. (They are working on the dock’s electric panels .) I’ll be happy to see the town especially now that the sun came out and it’s a prettier day!

We have a long park right beside our boat, & the canal, so I’m really loving that!!! Dad informed us that we are about half way on our Great Loop trip and past the half way point of the Trent Severn Waterway.

We enjoyed dock tails on the picnic tables beside our boat. After dinner we all came back there…Kevin & Jill ate dinner there, while dad, mom, Liz and Bob played Kings in the Corner, (a card game similar to Soltaire.) Mom & Liz were lucky last night, so Bob is looking for revenge tonight!

Here we are docked at the Buckhorn wall

Some of the cottages on these tiny islands

No man is an island???

I decided to make the photo look old tyme too... a church on an island

a natural dam creating smaller falls

I could live here

Hanging on the blue line at Bobcaygeon...it looked fun!

One of the more contemporary boat houses

Here is a good example of flowers everywhere

Fenelon Falls, Ontario Lock #34 Wall with Electric & Water July 26- 27, 2016

Thank you Lord for another gorgeous day!!! This part of Canada is definitely as advertised! Just pristine views everywhere you look. We saw more cottages beside the water and on small islands again along with a couple McMansion’s Canadian style. They sure love their seaplanes up here too. Mom can’t blame them!!! She and dad only rode in one once, but they loved it!!!

It turns out we couldn’t have stayed at Bobcaygeon today, if we wanted to!!! The lock wall was packed when we went though about 11:30 AM. It’s just fine! Fenelon Falls looks to be just as beautiful and interesting as Bobcaygeon. The waterway along the lock walls here is just beautiful! Flowers, grass, sculptures, darling artist cottages, B & B’s and so on…Can’t wait for mom and dad to go out exploring so I can get a decent nap in!

Mom told me she that they went to Tim Horton’s to send out some of my blog…but they came back for dock tails on our boat later. After dock tails, Kevin, Jill and Mom and Dad went to Murphy’s Pub. They said the food was really good. Mom said her hamburger was as good as the Culinary Institute’s Tavern and dad had stuffed shepherd's pie potato skins.
No leftovers again…How rude of them!

They came back and the 3 of us watched a lovely sunset from our flybridge…before enjoying another Downtown Abbey episode and bed…
Somehow mom managed to get a lot of laundry finished in our short stop here.