Saturday July 1: Canada Day in Merricksville

It's a pretty wet, miserable day today in Merricksville as we are front and center waiting for the Canada Day parade to pass by us on the main street.

Even though it was a rainy day, that didn't seem to deter the Canadians from coming out in force to celebrate the special 150th anniversary of the formation of Canada.

Flags were flying, Shriners were driving around in a variety of motorized vehicles, horses were on parade and military vehicles were on display!

But back to Burritts Falls. After a wet welcome Tuesday, Wednesday was a really pretty day. Warm and sunny - just the day for Craig and Steve to get the kayaks back out.

There is something about the sunshine that makes the day so much nicer :-)

It was a full house above the lock with the nice weather bringing out more boaters than we seen since we started on the system in early June.


We had a great spot below the lock and on the small waterway that led toward the dam. Horses playing in the field across the water - just a really perfect place. And power to boot. Unlike the Trent Canal which has power at only 4 of the 45 or so locks, the Rideau has power at more than half of it's locks. We are definitely getting spoiled!!

The sun also brings out the turtles. Many sightings again on the kayak ride.


And with all of rain of late, the waters below the dam were running pretty strong.




And then the rains came. All. Day. Thursday! The locks have a limit of 48 hours tied on the docks but would they enforce that in an all day downpour? Thankfully not!

Steve spent part of the day tracking down an electrical issue in a GFI plug - turns out it was a skinned wire creating a short. Easy fix and WAY easier than replacing the outlet itself due to very short wires.

Otherwise he was out in the rain checking out the happenings.

A number of Dragon Boats were headed to Ottawa for the 1st. Talk about a group of soaked people ... had to have just been miserable in the literally all day rain. Not sure how far they were going this day but it's still 40 miles to Ottawa from here.

After a bit I was hearing what I thought was bagpipes but that couldn't be. But it was! A lone bagpiper playing to support the group of Dragon Boats.

Finally Friday morning came with a reprieve from the rain - good thing as we found leaks in the boat we never knew we had - mostly around the windows.

The lack of rain didn't last very long though - off and on for the next 5 miles as we continues south on the canal. Steve gets the front line in the locks and there is no escaping the rain up there.

It's amazing how good a cup of instant hot noodle soup can taste on a day like this!

Fortunately it did quit as we were getting close to the marina.

With it being the long weekend, it would be luck of the draw as to whether or not there would be a spot on the wall for both boats. So to make our lives less stressful, we just booked into a marina for the long weekend. Turns out the dockage would have been filled by the time we arrived - even though we left first thing yesterday.

Pictures from the parade!

Drums and Bagpipes!

Several dragsters were in the parade.

Shriners in planes :-)

Another group of Shriners - performing on minibikes!

And the Shriners on tractors towing an outhouse :-)

Funnest thing yesterday???

Recognizing that I can shuffle cards again :-)