Made it to Canada!

We're in Canada!!  Gananonque to Campbellton    

June 20, 2013

Well, guess where I am.   Did you guess a bar?  You are amazing.  And what am I doing?  Did you guess watching my Blackhawks in a Stanley Cup Playoff game?  You are soooo very good.  And what is the score?  Did you say tied, in overtime?   Right again.   What surprises await me tonight?   Debi was too comfy after her shower to dress and come out – she’s tucked in and reading.  

This bar is not much bigger than our boat – and yet we have a pretty good singer/guitar player – though I’d rather be hearing the sound from the game.  Too much to ask.  Actually, I didn’t know Brown Eyed Girl could work as an acoustic half-tempo melancholic almost-ballad.  It’s working. 

Some days are like others – there is some degree of repetition on this trip.  How could there not be in five months of boating?   But today had a couple of different elements. 

It started with some of the same, six locks in fairly short order.   Two were interesting because they were connected.  After one giant lift, the doors opened and we simply drove forward a couple hundred feet and we were inside the next one.   As you know, Debi is the captain, but she has been making me dock inside these locks, not always an easy task, but definitely easier than backing into a slip. 

After a fairly full day of beautiful travel through marshes and woodlands, we ended in Campbellford.  We docked at the town docks, right alongside a park.  As luck would have it, Wednesday night is music in the park night – so we had a perfect seat within 50 yards or so of the gazebo with a pretty good bluegrass/country band.   Debi fixed a quick dinner, picking some peppers and tomatoes out of our bow garden.   We brought that meal out to the folding chairs on the bow of the boat, and joined the hundreds of locals who came out for the big entertainment.

The other beautiful event was a great bike trail alongside the river, connecting to a 300 foot suspension bridge over some waterfalls.  After the bridge, we rode up the other side of the river on a great dirt trail, with the river and falls on one side and woods on the other.   That brought us back to town and the park concert.

Let me back up.  I think I last left you in Cape Vincent, waiting for Bob and Peg Webber to arrive.  They spent time with us on the Potomac  last year, so we knew they were great guests – enthusiastic and helpful.  And they did not let us down this year - we had an adventure-filled six days and 5 nights with them.   As you may know, Bob is a great cook and has an appreciation for good food -some of which he brought with him and some of which he bought in markets along the way.   And I’m now a fan of Rare Eagle bourbon.  He was also a guest chef on Sea Fever, for a lovely brunch.  

We left Cape Vincent and headed up the St. Lawrence, crossing onto the Canadian side of the river at Gananoque.   This is one of the primary ports for cruises through the Thousand Islands – so the four of us signed on for “a three hour tour” (repeat…”a three hour tour).   Beautiful scenery, interesting history, communities, architecture. 

Gananoque led to Kingston, a pretty major metropolis.  We arrived in time for a French culture festival, live bands, markets, etc.   How many of you have seen the Gay Pride parade in Kingston?   Well, that’s been checked off our bucket list.  Good English and Irish bars for watching the U.S. Open, the Stanley Cup Playoffs, the NBA playoffs.   Bob and Peg treated us to a first class dinner at Chez Piggy, a place they had enjoyed 20 years ago.  We had a waitress who had worked there for 31 years  - maybe they had met before?   

Kingston was good enough to stay for two nights – then on to Picton, which was a much bigger small town than we had expected.  Big enough for me to get a haircut, for each of us to do some shopping and for all of us to have a decent dinner before retiring to (guess what?) a bar to watch hockey and play pool.  Bob beat me handily (as many of you have), but in Kingston I extended my National Bocce Championship to International Championship status, by beating Bob and Debi soundly. 

We left Picton yesterday morning and cruised about 30 miles to Belleville.  Belleville was not on our itinerary, but it turns out they have a train station – so we docked long enough to let Bob and Peg off to end their journey with us.  They took our boat to a train to a car to a ferry to another car ride to another ferry to their car.   The car referred to above was driven by John – a guy who just happened to be docked next to us in Cape Vincent (on the right in the picture).   He heard Bob and Peg’s proposed transportation logistics and offered to pick them up at the train station in Kingston and take them across in the ferry.   These are the things boat people do for each other, because life can get complicated out here and if there is any easy way to help – people do.   Plus Canadians are just plain nice.  They seem to have that northern California sensibility – mostly mellow, liberal, good taste – but without the attitude (Debi says she doesn't think there is a lot of whining in Canada).  John is also the guy who spent hours going over future charts with me – giving me local knowledge of where to go, what to avoid, what trouble lurks where – above and below the water.   We are still a bit daunted – especially the stretch of nearly 200 miles that are pretty remote in terms of dockage, cell service, internet, stores, etc.   Sometimes I wake up thinking about it. 

But I digress (and digress and digress, and sometimes progress, occasionally regress).  After dropping our friends off we continued on to the start of the Trent-Severn Waterway, a 240 mile stretch of rivers and lakes, occasionally linked by man-made canals that wind in a very roundabout way through Ontario – connecting us from Lake Ontario to the Georgian Bay.  We are only 31 miles into it,  but have already done 12 of the 45 locks.  The locks here are much smaller (narrower) than the Erie Canal – much less room for error, especially when there are other boats involved.  

At each lock, boats are invited to tie up for the night on either side (top or bottom) of the lock, alongside cement walls.   These walls separate the river from park areas, so it creates a very nice setting to hang out.  Last night, we docked under and alongside a weeping willow – and lucked into one of the few such areas that have electricity.

OK – this place is Cheers.  Everyone knows everyone – except me.  And now the bartender has taken the mike for a song– and damn if she isn’t just awesome!   Like professional awesome. 

And meanwhile we are trying to keep up with the adventures of Emily and Drew as they move into the last couple weeks of their seven weeks in Europe.   Texts, emails, Facebook, Skype and Viber have all contributed to this crazy cross-continent communication. 

Hawks win!