July 11 – Smiths Falls Layover

Smiths Falls Detached Lock – 44°53′39″ N 76°1′19″ W

Today was the day Emily had to head back to London. She has to return to work on the 12th. We had fun while she was with us but her scheduled time off had run out.

We rented a car in Smiths Falls & drove her to Kingston to catch the 2:00pm train to Toronto, then a connection back to London.

We also took advantage of being back in Kingston to pick up our own car that was parked at a friend’s house & bring it to Smiths Falls. We will leave it at a lock station in Smiths Falls until Catherine needs it to head off to her canoeing adventure in Algonquin Park in a few weeks.

Today was also a big semi-final game between England & Croatia for the World Cup Soccer Tournament. I left Kingston in the rental car & headed back to my “new” favourite pub in Smiths Falls to have lunch & watch the game.

The food was great, the beer was cold, the final score (Croatia 2, England 1) was a disappointment – at least for me. 🙁

After dropping Emily off at the train station Catherine joined me at the pub for the second half of the game.

Early in the evening we went to the local grocery store to re-provision the boat. Supplies were getting low & we have new guests arriving the next day.

This was our second day moored at this particular lock so we will have to move on tomorrow. Parks Canada only allows each boat to stay 2 nights at any location & then you have to move on. The policy makes good sense otherwise people would try to treat the lockstations like a marina & stay moored at one location for a long time.

Tomorrow we will travel just a few hundred meters to the next lock & moor there until our friends Valerie & David arrive from London.

Cheers!