Today the weather finally broke and we
awoke to drier air and sunnier skies. Owing to our rather filling
dinner last night, we decided to skip breakfast and cast off through
the Smith Falls Lock. Really it was the second half of the Smith
Falls Lock. The lock is actually made up of two sets of locks. The
first in the set was passed through yesterday and that left us in a
“pool” between that lock and the next one that we would traverse
this morning. This morning's lock is a two stage which means when we
lock through and the outer door opens, that door now becomes the
leading door for the next lock down. Very cool.
We exit out of the Smith Falls lock
system and head down the Rideau River towards Ottawa, now just under
60 miles to the north. We don't make a lot of progress however and
we find that at our next lock, barely a mile farther downstream,
there is a museum to visit. We've seen enough of “Colonel By”
and his team that constructed the Rideau Canal and so hope that we
may find something unique in this particular museum. We are
pleasantly surprised to find this to be exactly the case. The sign
on the museum indicated opening time to be at 10:30 and our timepiece
indicated it was just barely past 10:00am. I peered in through the
window to have a look inside and perhaps to see just enough of the
museum through the window to be able to justify our waiting an
additional half hour. My peering was met with a return smile from a
young woman on the other end who raced over to the door to let us in.
Huzzah!
We are led through the museum, known as
the “Heritage House Musuem” and given a personalized tour. The
home represents a cross section of the history of the region and some
of the early inhabitants who settled here. Both artifacts from the
period as well as from the family who lived in this house are on
display. The exhibits go further to also provide a number of
artifacts from the archaic period when the native Americans called
this place home. For more information, you may want to check out the
website at
https://www.smithsfalls.ca/culture-recreation/museums-history/heritage-house/
Onward down the river through more locks until we tie to the wall at the Nicholson Lock, where they have showers!!
Earlier in the day we passed a father and son in a yellow canoe. As a canoe instructor (merit badge) with the Boy Scouts, I cringed to see their inefficient paddling style, especially knowing they were going all the way from Kingston to Ottawa, 126 miles. As we finished dinner, they paddled up to set up camp. So I offered to teach them some basic strokes, which they were both eager to learn.
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| Home for the night at Upper Nicholson's Lock in Andrewsville, ON |
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| Claimed to be the best Gelato in Canada.... OK...let's try it out! |
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| Choices! Choices! |
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| That was easy! Choose three different flavors! |
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| At the blockhouse in Merrickville.... A device to churn butter using your dog to run the treadmill |
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| Gary helps close the doors on Nicholson's Lock |
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The falls on the main river just west of Nicholson's Lock. The lock is a pleasant way to avoid having to go over this waterfalls!
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