July 4 / Day 44 / Campbellford

We started the day by taking Millie on a 3 mile loop along the canal which took us back to the Campbellford lock.  A short walk from the lock is the Ranney Gorge Suspension Bridge.

Suspension bridge as seen from the Trent Severn before the lock

Looking across the suspension bridge

Unfortunately, we all couldn’t cross the bridge together as the footing was very rough and we were concerned that Millie would be very uncomfortable, not to mention freaked out by the fact that when you looked down, all you could see was rushing water and rocks.  So while Tim stayed on land with Millie, I walked across to take some photos.  We stopped in the Chamber of Commerce welcome center on our way back to pay for another night as we decided to stay an extra day and check out the local sights.  The first of these is right next to the Chamber and is a large statue of the “toonie” which is the Canadian $2 coin.  The artist that designed the image of the polar bear represented on the coin is from Campbellford so this statue is in honor of him.

After dropping Millie back off at the boat, we headed into town to the very popular Doohers Bakery where we stocked up on blueberry pie, butter tarts, Chelsea buns, turnovers and donuts.  After the Bakery, we went to the market to stock up on more healthy eats like fruits and veggies.  They had a wonderful meat market so what little room that was left in our small freezer is now full of meats and baked goods!

After lunch, we got on the bikes and rode about 4 miles to another popular destination, the Empire Cheese Co-op. 

We were told it was an easy bike ride, but with today’s heat and humidity, it turned out to be quite the workout for me.

Our friends on Hour Plan and Fins had asked me to text them as to whether the ride was worth is or not.  As I was trying to catch my breath and find my phone to send a text to them, all four of them walked out of the store completely refreshed and crawled into an air conditioned taxi.  Why didn’t we think of that?   Here, we loaded up on 4 different kinds of cheddar and, after sampling their cheese curds which they are well known for, we bought a bag of those as well. 

The bike ride back took us by the “World’s Finest Chocolate” shop so a stop there was a must. I ended up buying a bag of chocolate crispy bars, chocolate covered pretzels, chocolate covered almonds and a box of pecan turtles. 

                                                              A fun filled foodie day!

Docktails tonight was on Hour Plan along with the crew from Fins.  Just before, I was getting my glass of wine ready to take along and accidentally knocked my favorite insulated wine glass onto the cockpit floor where it bounced out the transom door and off the swim platform.  Fortunately, it landed upside down with an air pocket captured underneath so it was floating, but the current was so swift, it promptly got carried away in the direction of Fins docked behind us.  Barefoot, I went running in hot pursuit, alerting Phil on Fins my dilemma.  It was too late to grab it as it floated past Fins, but Phil joined in the recovery attempt by grabbing a net and following me to Hour Plan docked behind Fins.  Again, the little bugger was out of reach, but there was another boat behind them.  I have never met these people before, but with net in hand, I asked if I could board their beautiful Sabre as Phil kept an eye on the elusive wine glass.  With the help of these wonderful people and Phil’s net, I was successful in snagging it.  Yeah! Sorry, no photo!