Friday, September 4, 2009

Lake Simco and Orillia

Last night at Lagoon City was nice... a great marina, with power, water, cable TV, and (oh, bless them) hot tubs. And a reasonable price.

Today, we ran across Lake Simco. It's a big lake; big enough that there are warnings on the chart regarding weather. One source says 16x20 miles. The locals say it's best to cross it early, before the wind comes up. We left Lagoon City about 10:00, and had a beautiful run to the northern part of the lake, through the Narrows, and into Lake Couchiching (I just like to say, "Couchiching"). We are down for a couple nights at Orillia, with the plan to avoid some of the heavy holiday traffic. We're in a city marina that closes after Sunday. They gave us a key to the showers and said, "You can still stay here after we close. One of the docks has power and the showers are cleaned daily, until Thanksgiving." Pretty good deal. We'll probably hit it again on our way back through.

Joan made arrangements for us to take the shuttle to a nearby casino. She downloaded rewards info for a couple free meals... I think this officially makes us old fart tourists... now which way to the penny slot machines? ;-)

Town is right beyond the marina, with a grocery store, laundry, liquor store, ice cream stand, and plenty of restaurants to keep us occupied during our stay.

Here's a look at Lake Simco from the helm...


---------------------------------------

Casino Rama was a good experience. Not good as in: we won a bunch of money kinda good. But, the food was good, the casino was non-smoking, and our entire "investment" for the evening, including 2 shuttle rides, 2 nice meals, and an evening of gaming, cost us less than $20. Cheaper than a movie. And we dressed like grown-ups. Certainly different from a quiet night at anchor or on a lock wall, but a very pleasant change of pace.

No comments: