Alliston - the "You're On Your Own" B&B

The Stevenson Farms B&B

$135 per night

There are not a lot of places to stay in Alliston. There is an older style motel, a large & overpriced hotel with golf course that gets some very bad reviews on TripAdvisor and this B&B. Now I'm not a big fan of B&B's to begin with but this one turned out to be a particularly bad choice.

It is in the country some distance from the town, down a long, gravel driveway. We had no car because my sister would take us everywhere. We were the only guests on our first night's stay.

It was quiet and the bed was comfortable.

This is a good place to stay if you want to:

• Find no one around upon arriving because they forgot you were coming.
• Heat the room by space heaters once you find available wall sockets.
• Cool the room by opening windows because the portable air conditioner / fan doesn't work.
• Find a spot to put your laptop by removing bulb-less lamp from tiny surface, and struggle behind large furniture to use wall socket.
• Have the internet work sporadically - mostly not work.
• Use the tv manually because the channel changer doesn't work.
• Have the toilet plug from normal use.
• Run out of toilet paper and have to grab a roll from a vacant room because the owners are nowhere to be found.
• Bathe in gritty water.
• Dry off with orange-stained towels.
• Wait around until 8:30 am for a hot breakfast.
• Find former patron's underwear in a drawer.
• Go out and return later in the day to find the bed not made and nothing refreshed in your room.
• Be cut off from the outside world because the internet doesn't work and there is no phone available to use.
• Pay more than at the lovely Marriott in Guelph and only $25 less than the Royal York in Toronto!

In short, it's a good place to come to be on your own. Completely on your own.

On the second night two women booked into the room above us. Our ceiling light fixture made strange noises whenever they walked across their floor. The next morning we went out into the kitchen and the new women were trying to fix their own breakfast. "Is this your toast in the toaster?" one asked us. "No." Apparently the owners didn't check the toaster either. I wondered how long that toast had been in there. Welcome to the Stevenson Farms B&B, ladies!

Although we were booked for three nights we couldn't stand any more and told the proprietor, once we found her, that we were leaving. She did give us a 10% discount for the internet not working. We packed up our stuff and moved into my nephew and his wife's spare bedroom for our last night, which was far, far better than this place.

Looks are deceiving. The place looks okay outside and in.

Luckily, my sister presented us with this bowl of goodies. Although we had free use of the B&B's kitchen, I don't know if bottled water was available, so we really appreciated the containers of water... as well as the banana for Glenn.

Although hot breakfast weren't served until 8:30, you could fix yourself cereal and toast. Muffins and bowls of fruit were set out early and I must say the muffins were very good.

However, I will probably never stay at a B&B again.

Alliston - Touring small towns

Friday May 22, 2009
(Mom's birthday. She would have been 82.)

On our last full day in Alliston my sister took Glenn and me on a driving tour of surrounding towns. We passed through Tottenham where there is a steam train but I believe we were just a few days too soon for its running season, Newmarket and Barrie, to name a few. Somewhere along the way we picked up some of my favourite Beeton honey. Too bad we were missing a honey festival by one day.

We went to this interesting church (St. James?) in Colgan.

A Pieta replica is out back.

This house in Schomberg, now a restaurant/pub, was the former home/office of a doctor related to a friend of ours. It wasn't open for business when we arrived but a young woman let me in. She showed me the dining room and explained that it was the doctor's operating room, and the morgue was below it! She gave me free rein to wander the grounds. The lilacs smelled nice.

Continuing the drive we passed this unusual building.

Still lots of farm country.

We came to the East Gwillimbury municipal hall. Right beside it is the Sharon Temple, built by former Quakers I believe.

What vivid greens! This small building was nearby.

We drove along Canal Road where a canal runs through farmland. Farmers bring Mexicans up to work... and in winter cars slide off the road that runs along the waterway. Redwing blackbirds were here. In fact, redwing blackbirds were nearly everywhere we went across the country.

This is one of those things you don't think about on the west coast. My sister says these little roadside huts are built for children when they have to wait for school buses in winter. Of course. Otherwise they might freeze to death standing out there in blizzards and freezing cold temperatures.

We drove in to look at the Honda plant, or one of the Honda plants in Alliston. This is where our little green car was built. I had no idea how huge this industry is in Alliston. Honda wanted to build another plant but a road was in the way. Honda got the road! And now the population has to drive some distance out of its way, but they don't mind, I'm told. There are many, many business that supply parts and services to Honda. My nephew has explained how it all works and it's quite ingenious. We drove by a parking lot with row upon row of white semi trailers. I'd never seen so many in one spot. My sister said that it was Friday so, because of the recession and cutbacks, the trucks sat idle for a day. You could see that if Honda ever went out of business, it wouldn't just affect Honda but all the other businesses connected to it, and it would be devastating to the town.

It may be Honda's home but it's also home to these geese.

Back at my nephew's house, Glenn and I went for a walk around the back streets of the neighbourhood before suppertime. They do use a lot of brick in Ontario.

My sister put on a wonderful big spread including her fabulous potato salad. We visited more relatives I had not seen in years and met some new ones, including my other nephew's wife and their two year old son whose birthday we were celebrating. We spent an enjoyable evening in the back yard watching him open his presents and run all over the lawn. Glenn even did some drawing with him.

So, that was our last full day in Alliston.

Guelph to Alliston

Wednesday May 20, 2009

After breakfast at the Fairfield Inn and Suites in Guelph, my sister 'C' came to pick us up in her new car. I'm happy to report there were no surprises on our bill when we checked out. I would stay there again. We had to return the rental car to Avis before leaving town and there again, no surprises on the bill. In fact, we were charged less than the quoted price.

Now we head to Alliston where we will stay for three nights. Our impression is that people do a lot of driving in southern Ontario. And they drive fast. Unlike here, it seems to be accepted practice on Ontario highways to drive 10 kilometres over the speed limit.

As a Wizard of Oz fan, I couldn't help but notice this tin man outside a shop as we drove through the small down of Erin.

Now we drive through the Hockley Valley.

There is lots of lovely green farmland and wide open spaces. I had not expected it to be so green. Another thing I noticed in southern Ontario was that no matter how big yards are, and some are quite big, people generally mow their lawns.

After touring around and checking into the B&B (more about that coming up), we went out for dinner with my sister, nephew and his wife. I hadn't seen my youngest nephew in about 8 years and his wife in about 15. They were married in a castle in Scotland.

There is a store and a restaurant in a tiny place west of Alliston called Violet Hill.

The store, Granny Taught Us How, had some of the nicest handbags I've seen in a while. One in particular that caught my eye was handmade (in the UK perhaps) - herringbone cloth & beautiful hardware. It would have just about matched my winter coat, but at $375 it didn't come home with me.

We walked across the parking lot to the restaurant, Mrs. Mitchell's. This picture makes me think of To Kill a Mockingbird - warm summer evenings on the porch, a hole in a tree trunk with stuff hidden inside, etc.

The restaurant was casual but quiet, and the food was good and fresh-tasting. Every now and then a crusty older woman would shuffle out from a back room and beeline over to Glenn. The two of them had quite a banter going on. It was all good fun and a very enjoyable evening out.

After dinner there was still enough daylight left for my sister to take us by some wind turbines. I'd never seen them up close and I must say, they were quite fascinating and a bit creepy. The slow moving blades were mesmerizing.

The units make a noise and perhaps that's why people who live near them have reported feeling sick. Maybe it would be better to follow Denmark's lead and put them out in the water. I'm really glad we got to see them though.