Portable sawmill, also featured image.

I was up pretty early again, and after breakfast, I decided to go for a bike ride. After all, I’d made a point of bringing the bike, may as well get some use out of it. The lane isn’t as rough for the bike as it is with the truck since you can pick the smoothest portion of the roadway. The lane is nearly half a kilometer long and once at the end, I opted to go west first. About a kilometer and a half later, I arrived at an excellent example of a portable sawmill setup. Since I have a personal interest in portable sawmills, I took a few pictures.

Then I turned around, pedalled back to our lane, then continued on for over two kilometers to a small gathering of vacation trailers before returning to home base. Over 7 kilometer ride altogether. Quite enough exercise for one day, but quite enjoyable. I didn’t encounter a single vehicle the whole time.

Did a bit of Cyberloafing on the laptop during the afternoon, then after a bit of Google research, we decided to go for supper at the Portage Restaurant in Chatham. (Pronounce Por-taj) One of the primary draws to this particular eatery was that while we were enjoying our DQ sundaes the night before, we watched as numerous trucks came and went at that establishment across the road. If 43 years of trucking taught me nothing else, I know where the truckers eat is usually a good bet. Unless, of course, it’s the only place for miles with a big enough parking lot to turn that rig around. My theory proved valid, and we had an enjoyable meal. Marilyn had the homemade roast turkey dinner, and I opted for the grilled pork sausages. The waitress was friendly, and we took a couple of slices of coconut cream pie back with us for afters.

Portage Restaurant

The other reason I was interested in the Portage restaurant was that while perusing the menu online, I discovered the mention of Raddlers at the bottom of the menu under ‘Beer and Raddlers’. Having never heard the term previously, once again, I turn to good old reliable Google. Turns out in Britain they have a drink that mixes beer with either 7Up or lemonade, called a Shandy. A radler, (They spelled it wrong on the menu.) is the German version of the shandy that uses fruit juice instead. In Canada, Moosehead makes radlers in four flavors: grapefruit, strawberry lemonade, cranberry mango, and raspberry. Who knew?

Portage Menu

When I asked our waitress about radlers, she looked at me like I had three heads. She had worked there for 12 years and had never heard of such a thing. Sure enough, a perusal of the menu showed no such thing, so while she was getting our orders, I brought up the online menu on my phone and showed it to her when she got back. She assumed the owner had intended to bring radlers in along with the beer order, then not followed though. She said she will mention it to him at the first opportunity.

Back at the cottage, we watched a couple more episodes of Party of Five, then called it a night. About 2:30 in the morning, I was awakened by a sound. It sounded like a kettle boiling in the kitchen. I thought, ‘Oh Marilyn is having trouble sleeping and is making a coffee.’ I tried to go back to sleep but the sound continued for what seemed like a very long time. When it finally stopped, I thought, ‘Great, now I can get back to sleep.’ But then there was a different sound, like water running in the sink or something. ‘Good Grief! Surely she hasn’t decided to wash the dishes at 2:30 in the morning.‘ That sound went on for a long time until finally I got up to investigate. Nobody in the kitchen. Nobody in the bathroom. And the sound had stopped.

Back in the bedroom and the sound started again. Upon closer investigation, I discovered that large components of the cottage’s water system were in the closet in my room and they were doing their thing, whatever that was. Mystery solved, I went back to bed and fell back asleep.

One thought on “2024 Vacation – Day Five”
  1. If you don’t got it, take it off your menu and web site. Radlers a re a dime a dozen at craft breweries. I did not mind the shandy in the UK but don’t ever make the mistake of ruining good German beer by putting a sweetened coloured syrup in it. Yech. Water sounds at night keep me awake too or make me think, do I need to get up. Glad it was not a leak or a flood for you. Cheers. Allan

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