Best Western Mariposa, Orillia, ON $150-ish

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WITH a few things on my mind last night, I had a difficult time getting to sleep. In case I slept in because of this, everything was by the door and ready to go. It didn't end up being an issue.

I finally fell asleep, but awoke around 2 am before falling asleep around 4 am, which was not that long before the alarm I had set for 4:45 am. So, at 4:30 am I just got up and left.

The road to my start point was straight south along Highway 11 for about 600 km. At this hour of the day it was dark out, so the sky was filled with bright stars - a great benefit of living in the north away from city lights. Big Dipper, Orion, Polaris. Beautiful.

Before long the sky started to lighten in the east, though from time to time, it got really foggy outside so I would have to slow down. There was enough traffic for the time of day (this seems to be the norm these days) so I had to be very vigilant for both moose and oncoming cars. All was fine.

I arrived to my vehicle drop-off point around noon. I had asked a former high school friend and her family if I could pop my car into a spot near their house and was welcome to do so. We chatted a bit as I re-assembled the bike and attached the BOB trailer to the bike, then loaded the one bag onto the trailer and by early afternoon was rolling out their driveway toward Orillia, ON, and to my hotel for the night.

It has been a while since I toured with the trailer but I was reminded  immediately how well it tracks behind the bike. So well that I checked a few times to be sure it was behind me. Of course, with such a short tour, I have brought a bare minimum of stuff with me which made towing a breeze.

I went along Horseshoe Valley Road to Highway 12 which I followed into the city. The latter was VERY busy so I was happy to see a walking/cycling pathway for part of my route. As I got closer to the hotel the route meandered through residential areas so was relatively quiet until I reached the hotel's street.

At the counter I asked the lady if there was somewhere to put my bike - she suggested out against the fence if I had a lock!!! No way!! She must have seen the look on my face because the next thing she said was that if I didn't mind, I could roll it down the hall and right into my room. Yes!

Now that I have lazed in my room, I am starting to get pretty hungry. There are a number of restaurants nearby, but with me uncomfortable going indoors, it will have to be either take-out or a patio. I will report back later.

I suppose the plans for supper became plans for lupper. A great thing about having wifi whilst travelling is that you can look up the best restaurants 'near me'. A few came up including the one here at the hotel, which was rated 4.6/5 online. Very good, indeed. There were two problems with this great idea. First problem: the restaurant was not going to open until 5 pm but I was hungry at 3:30 pm because I had not eaten in a long time, plus had been cycling at least a tiny bit. The second problem: just down the road was an East Side Mario's, which is no gourmet restaurant, but once I had the idea of their salad and fresh bread in mind, soon there were visions of sausage and pepper penne dancing in my head. The dancing won.

It was a beautiful afternoon for a walk so over I went to ESM and had a tasty but filling dinner on the patio. I spoke with the server and she confirmed that downtwn Orillia is no wonderland once late evening comes along, so any thoughts I might have had of cycling down to the waterfront without the trailer were tossed aside. Instead, after a lengthy dinner, I came back to the hotel to clean up, relax and prep for tomorrow's long ride.