Smiths Falls

We had a pretty easy day today - only 2 locks and a few miles of some lovely countryside.

We saw this fellow along the way and at first thought he was a vulture because of the way he was sitting, but I've never seen a vulture with these colourings.  I think it is an osprey, but I've never seen one sit like this!

We wanted to stay in the basin - between the locks - in Smiths Falls, but discovered that 2 of the docks had been damaged in a big wind storm, so we managed to find space on the wall.  We were ON one of these docks last year when if came apart in another big storm, and I think it was just a Mickey Mouse kind of fix, so had come apart again.  We enjoy power, water, showers, wifi, good swimming, picnic tables, etc. here, so like to be here.  We also needed to stock up on groceries - which Paul went on the bike to get!

There used to be 3 consecutive locks at this location, but has now been changed to one big one.  I love what they do in the 3 old locks.  You sure wouldn't have to water the plants!

This is the new one - very deep!

The water tower USED to say Hershey on it when they had the Hershey Factory - which we LOVED to visit every time we passed through town!  Then they sent the factory to Mexico, and we understand they use powdered milk, and you know what Mexico's water is like.  Are you ready to give up on Hershey yet?

The old mill at this location (you can see the raceway in the foreground) - a gorgeous stone building - now houses the offices for Parks Canada and a museum of the Rideau Canal.

Well tomorrow, it's on our way toward Ottawa.  It's supposed to be very hot in Ottawa this weekend, so I don't know how that will go.....