We are enjoying the rural, woodsy and sometimes marshy surroundings on the Rideau Canal after our more urban/suburban travels earlier in June. There are 45 locks (operated by Canadian Parks staff) over the 126 miles of the canal. The ” lock stations” are part of the Canada Parks system and most offer overnight mooring and large green spaces with shade trees, picnic tables, flower beds, potable water and clean restrooms. At many, we can plug into 30 amp power for $10/night.

A few lock stations are adjacent to small towns where we can find groceries, hardware supplies, a few restaurants and farmers markets. Merrickville was one of our favorites with low traffic volume, interesting history, houses and community buildings, a great grocery, and very friendly locals.

As we move south on the Rideau Canal towards Lake Ontario, the water clarity is increasing daily. The Canal, which is also the Rideau River in its natural course in this section, passes through several large lakes where anchoring out overnight, stopping to swim off the back of the boat and fishing (with a legally purchased license) is possible. We stayed in Westport on Upper Rideau Lake for Canada Day. Enjoyed a great community breakfast to benefit the library, a wood-fired pizza lunch at the local winery, a swim in a nearby lake where the local Lions were selling food, beverages and raffle tickets and late evening fireworks across the bay— very much like being home in Cable on the 4th of July!

We also enjoyed a short visit and lunch with good Cable friends Vivianne and Larry Hanke and their granddaughter Ayla. They had flown to Syracuse, retrieved our car from a storage facility, visited Viv’s Canadian family and were enroute back to Cable to deposit our Subaru in our garage! How sweet was that plan!

On one of our last days on the Rideau at the Davis lock station we “found” our old friend Doug whom we’d met last August while he was hanging out at a lock station with his dog Sadie on his 45-ft Cris Craft named Wy Knot Moor. After spending nearly 30 summers traveling up and down the Canal, Doug had recently sold his boat and was spending his last few days on it before handing it off to a young family who would take it on new adventures… We enjoyed a beer with him and more evening stories of his long-ago days as a young, newly-hired law enforcement officer stationed out in the Canadian bush. We think he’ll enjoy his new retirement venture as a mechanic, consultant and docent on the SS Keewatin, a grand old ship (5yrs older than the Titanic, but also built in Scotland) as it moves to a new dry-dock museum home in Kingston ON.

Arrived in Kingston on July 5th in the midst of a 3-day extreme heat stretch ( but thankfully, no more smoke). Completed an early morning engine oil change and some laundry and later raised a glass to Doug and the Rideau and began to plan our next moves west toward the Trent – Severn Canal and closer to home.