2nd night at Newboro

44°38′45″ N 76°19′16″ W

The weather forecast for today was mostly rain with possible thunderstorms so I decided to stay put in Newboro.

The Kawartha Voyager came into the lock shortly after 9:00am, headed towards Kingston. There is lots of room on board the KV & the top deck is well covered so a little bit of rain didn’t seem to be bothering the passengers too much.

I was confined to the inside of Santosha so my options for things to do were considerably limited. With a little spurt of ambition I organized the pantry & the pots ‘n pans drawers & then I cleaned the bathrooms.

My sister Jane had told me that Curt Miller, a friend from public school days in St. Andrews had dropped in to see her & to ask how he could get in touch with me. He lives in BC now & was in New Brunswick visiting family. I haven’t seen Curt since grade 6, but I won’t bother trying to figure out how long ago that was (1963??).

I called Curt & we had a great conversation catching up with each other for about 1/2 an hour. Hopefully we will be able to connect up when he & his wife are driving back to BC in early September.

After our phone call “reunion” there was still lots of rain coming down so I spent some time studying up on the Rideau System & planning my strategy for the next couple of days.

All those activities tired me out so a nap was next on the agenda.

After my nap I called Catherine & we got caught up with all the stuff going on at home & abroad (here). She is planning to join me for a couple of weeks so I’d better start getting my act together.

Tonight I’m going to watch a classic movie on my iPad – Pulp Fiction. I’m having a bit of a Quinten Tarantino movie festival in the evenings – watching movies that Catherine is not particularly interested in seeing. Lotsa’ big name actors in it. Hopefully I can get to sleep OK after this one.

Cheers!

Overnight at Newboro

44°38′45″ N 76°19′16″ W

Tuesday was a pretty quiet day – except for the lightning strike… ⛈🙀… more on that in a minute.

Monday afternoon after Wayne & Jaden headed back to Ottawa I had some boaters join me on the dock at Jones Falls. Kent, Vicky & their dog Aspen are from the Perth area (photo below) & are traveling to Kingston & the St. Lawrence River on their pontoon boat. They have it neatly set up for both day travel & overnight stays.

Later in the evening we got together for a nightcap & a gam session, trading stories of our boating adventures over some Margaritas. I really enjoy meeting people on the water. Almost everyone is relaxed, friendly & focused on having a good time. Kent, Vicky & Aspen certainly fit into that category.

This morning I resumed my journey north. I was tempted to stop for a while in California but I didn’t have my passport with me so I continued on my way to Newboro lock, arriving there at noon.

I was a bit hungry & there was a storm in the forecast for the afternoon so I decided that this would the place to stop for the night. That turned out to be a good decision.

The sun was shining until about 2:00 & then it started to rain. Then the wind came up strong along with thunder & lightning. I was sitting inside Santosha watching the storm when all of a sudden there was a massive bang & a “fireworks” display started coming from the transformer on a hydro pole about 50 feet away from where I was tied up. Needless to say, that generated quite a bit of excitement on the dock!

Thankfully the storm didn’t last very much longer & a couple of hours later a utility crew arrived to repair the transformer.

More rain & thunderstorms are forecast for Wednesday so I think I’ll stay put for another day. Hopefully lightning won’t strike twice in the same place.

Cheers!