Our base was Barrie, not the one with the island, the nice one! This seems to be a booming Toronto based commuter town, but just far enough away that you need a big truck for the winter! Well you need a big truck for anything as the place is designed to drive around. Nobody walks anywhere! Seemingly, it hasn’t rained in Barrie for 197 years, well, it felt like it – and the grass looked like it! Our first trip in Barrie was too Hooters – it has the best patio – with great views of… the lake! We come next to one of the running themes of the trip – there are a lot of Canadians who love to claim to rather be Scottish or Irish! Or something like that… Some would call themselves Scottish, having a Scottish Gran, who they’ve never met, they don’t know where she’s from, and has died years ago. But I guess that’s a nice thing in a way, a fairly young country – looking for some heritage, some meaning?
Another stop was Orillia… well the Orillia Beer Festival – sorry the Orillia Scottish Festival. Like a Highland Games without the extreme sports i.e. the things that involve wood or wool! Lots of pipe bands, Highland dancing, competitions, stalls, merchandise, and beer!
The Beer Store is now one of my favourite shops! It is like Argos, but for beer only! There are products on display, but the real good stuff is out the back, magically appearing on a conveyor belt, still chilled! Marvellous. Plus, yes, there is more, you get money for the bottles, like on Barr and Corona (the pop we got as kids). Barr are great though, 20p a bottle! What happens to the bottles, are they cleaned and re-used or smashed up first and re-used?
Orillia is much smaller than Barrie. Seems pretty nice, but there seems to be a large divide between the haves and the have nots… and a large suicide rate… or perhaps it wasn’t that large, it was just our guides knew them all personally!
A highlight for the Big Yun was to see his favourite band in the world ever, at a casino, on their, “We’re just about able to stand up but need the cash” tour. That’s Toto by the way. Yes, aged rockers, with aged groupies throwing aged bras… no, really! It was actually much more of a rock fest than I expected, in true 80s glam rock style, with 4 minutes guitar solos and 2 minute rock drum endings! Didn’t really know much of the set, something something something Rosanna Rosanna, then in the encore, Africa of course! I bet they really hate doing that, as many bands with one big hit must. Surely you start to resent it after 27 years?
