On the road to Meaford, North Bay and Perth

Saturday we left our Southampton friends and made our way to Meaford, where we had this unusual sighting of a pair of Furry Gnomes in their home habitat:

With a Cathie lurking in the nearby bushes

From Meaford we made our way to North Bay for a moochdock with Barb and Bob (Barb is my younger sister, and Bob her husband). They have a nice little place on a quiet street right in North Bay, just a short block or two from Lake Nipissing. The 4 of us went for a good walk on a lovely evening, along the shores of Nipissing:

Local volunteers keep up the gardens in this lovely park along the shore

Nice paving-stone walkway, with a paved bike trail right across the road.

 

After a good visit we retired to our van for the night. Just after 4am we both woke up; it sounded like something had hit the van. I got up to look and could see a flashlight moving around the car parked in front of us in the driveway. Somebody was trying to get into each of the vehicles, including our van! He came back to the van and tried the drivers door. I think he almost fell over when I hollered at him from 2 feet away inside the van, and told him to GET THE H... OUT OF HERE! He sure did, although cursing me all the way. 

I'm told North Bay has a lot of drug problems (certainly not unique these days), and this guy was likely looking for something to hock. We've never had a problem before when boondocking, even in the southern US almost at the Mexican border. Now here in safe old Canada, go figure!

Anyway, in the morning we set out as planned, following Highway 17 for quite a while towards Ottawa. Near Pembroke we headed inland and worked our way down to road 511 (Calebogy Rd) and on to Perth. A beautiful drive on a gorgeous day.

On the way to Perth we stopped in Lanark for a break and a cone. Right behind the ice cream place was the lovely Clyde river, where we could relax with our treats:

There's an osprey nest just above the treeline in the center of the picture

Kids playing in the river almost in the center of the picture

After a really nice drive on a beautiful summer day, we rolled in for another moochdock, this time at Beth and Sandy's place in Perth. Beth is my (Gord's) youngest sister. She and her husband Sandy are gracious hosts as always. Perth is a lovely town on Hwy 7 west of Ottawa.

Saturday's drive:

 Sunday: