Day 20, July 16, 2007

Day 20, Monday, July 16, 2007
We got a bit of a late start this morning, Willa and I showered, which filled the gray water tank. I was hooked up and it was time to empty the tanks anyway. The pipe from the toilet to the black water tank was plugged, which is a problem with the motorhome. I have a special tool that is a long flexible hose with a sprayer on the end. It took a bit of work but it did clean out. A shitty job but someone has to do it. Anyway, we got the tanks dumped, showered, fed and we are off to Fort Henry in Kingston. We arrived at Fort Henry with the idea of spending a few hours. Well the tour alone took an hour and then we went back to look at a few other things. Fort Henry has been taken over by Parks Canada and sounds like they have taken on quite a handfull. They are redoing one of the Gun Posts and because they try to bring it back to original, and the Fort is made from cut stone, they have to bring in people that know how to do it. I wouldn’t think it is local people either. They fire off a cannon during the tour and have demonstrations of what Fort life would have been like. Not easy I would say. All the people are in period dress. Plus they have extra costumes that the people coming in can wear while they are doing the tour of the Fort. They also have the kids make like soldiers and get them marching around, kind of cute. Couldn’t talk Tegan into dressing up though, such a poor sport. The Fort is very impressive and the restorations have been well done plus what they have planned. We spent about 4 or more hours at the Fort. I met a lady from Alberta and we got talking and she was complaining how she did not enjoy her trip out east. I said “I can’t understand that because we have been in awe of everything so far.” She said “but I am so disappointed in the shopping”. I thought to myself ’lady if you want to go shopping fly to Paris or go to the Edmonton Mall”. I guess everyone is looking for something different and if it is not there they are disappointed. From Fort Henry we started back on our tour of the Rideau Canal. We thought we would put a few miles on and find a campsite up the road. The plan is to stop and see some of the locks and small towns along the way. We came to Jones Falls Locks and pulled in. Again the setting is spectacular and about a 40 foot cruiser and a 25-30 foot boat were on their way up the locks, so were able to watch the locks in action. Hard to believe this is all done without any power other than the people opening and closing the gate or opening and closing the valves all by hand. We spent about 2 hours watching the boats and touring the buildings. This lock system also has a dam which up until 1876 (I think) was the biggest dam in North America until the Cleveland Dam was built. There was also a power generating station below the dam. All the park people are very informative and helpful, I even gave a hand opening and closing the lock gates. Not that hard to do considering the size of the doors. They are made from West Coast Douglas Fir and last 25-30 years. The main timbers I would say are about two foot square. Turns out there is a campsite right close to the Locks so we headed there, a little expensive at $35.00 with electricity and water but not much different from most of the other sites we’ve camped in. Not many Walmarts in this area. We got into the campsite about 7:30 and we were tired from all the walking at Fort Henry and then at the Jones Falls Locks but a good tired, we read and I updated my diary. I was two days behind and I went to bed about 11:00 pm. Willa was already sawing logs but Tegan was reading. Well another bend in the road coming tomorrow and exciting to see what will appear.