We arrived in Hogs Back, Ontario yesterday afternoon and are tied up on the "blue line" at Lock 11 of the Rideau Canal. We have no electricity or wifi at the dock, but the lockmaster will give us access to water to fill our water tanks. We have free wifi at the local McDonald's which is a short walk from the Lock. That's where we are now. We're watching videos of the storm damage in Linwood and Northfield, NJ. We've been in touch with the family and everyone is okay...just still reeling for that storm two nights ago.
Yesterday, I did 3 loads of laundry and hung them out on the boat with lines Ralph strung fore and aft -- it was quite a scene. Being at the lock on the Canada Day weekend, we had many boats coming and going by us -- some asking if I was taking in laundry, as they had some for me! We had a lot of fun with that. It's hot and breezy so everything dried quickly. I'm so grateful for the washer on the boat -- what a Godsend when there are no laundromats.
Yesterday Ralph helped the lockmaster hand crank the locks open and closed, as they were short-staffed and were quite busy. Ralph was glad for the work-out but said he wouldn't want to do this on a regular basis!
Yesterday Ralph helped the lockmaster hand crank the locks open and closed, as they were short-staffed and were quite busy. Ralph was glad for the work-out but said he wouldn't want to do this on a regular basis!
This morning I did 2 more loads of laundry and hung them out and we took Striper for a walk to Hogs Back Falls which flows into the Rideau River that runs parallel with the canal. On the way back we stopped at the Rideau Canoe Club to watch the kayak races -- very interesting.
Here are a few pictures from the past couple days:
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| Here they come the new guard for the traditional daily changing of the guard at Parliament |
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| Jacques, the lockmaster at Hogs Back Lock # 11 welcomed Ralph's help to grind the lock gates |
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| Hogs Back Falls |
Celeste,
ReplyDeleteWhen visiting a real bakery try a butter tart or Nanaimo bar. Of course, the local ice cream shop that has homemade ice cream will be the absolute creamiest. The strawberries may be out of season now but they are the best! Canadians are famous for doing strange things to their fries, apple cider vinegar, gravy, cheese, ground hamburger and gravy with peas.
Hi Elle: Thanks for the tips on the nanaimo bars and butter tarts. We arrived in Smiths Falls around noon today and after lunch took a walk to Darlene's Bakery -- found both items and a few more and brought home a box of goodies. We also had ice cream while there which was delicious. We haven't eaten a thing from the bakery -- we had already had enough sugar today, so we'll enjoy all those treats tomorrow. We've been enjoying the strawberries all along the way -- got more tonight as well as peaches, cherries and apples at the local grocery store. We found poutine gravy in a can at the grocery store, but it was light gravy with 2,000+ grams of sodium -- yikes! It was light gravy and we had dark the other day which was delicious -- I wonder how much sodium was in that!! It was 95 degrees today. The kids had a wonderful time fishing off the dock -- our boat neighbor loaned them fishing rods and they caught and released about 20 fish! So we are purring along. Tomorrow, Col. By Island to anchor out -- hope the Rideau Lake is as clear and beautiful as they say -- we'd like to swim with Betsy and the cherubs. Best regards to Dick -- how is his knee coming along?
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