July 11…still plan to do our 40 miles and 11 locks today…and we are joined in the first lock by three other boats. The next several miles and locks are a parade…first in is first out…the rest follow in order…easy up…oh, is that a little fawn grazing by the canal? Why yes, it is…and she/he is gone before anyone else in our little parade gets a peek. One fast boat zips by us once we find some open space…TRAVELER  diverts off at Merrickville…where once again we are the tourist attraction…locks here are a flight of three…piece of cake…Now just the two of us are together until we reach Lock 29A at Smith’s Falls…where we stop for the night and they continue on.

Today has reminded us of sweet grass/swamp of the Carolina’s…biting flies and scenery…nothing about it to entice you to hang around. We laugh about learning the Canadian folk dance…hopping around and waving your hands to beat off the deer flies. Bug repellent moves to the top of our list…… geesh, I hate bugs…especially those that bite, hey. I do manage to escape below for awhile…I’m still trying to find a dog groomer in Trenton.

The lock wall at Smith’s Falls is in the town park…no electric…and it is HOT…strong breeze helps…but the shade is on shore instead of us…but there’s is lots of it. A short walk to town…purchase of bug repellent with serious DEET…and supper at the Rob Roy Pub. We are back in the shade of the park and Dakota is running like a wild man, winning hearts and giving out kisses. Whoo Hoo…a dog groomer is found…Mosquitoes are held at bay tonight by this wind and our Canadian strength repellent…Floyd cranks up the generator long enough to charge everything and runs AC enough to cool thing off. And then, yep, you guessed it…we are OUT. These locks are wearing us out, hey.

Tomorrow we have only 4 locks in the next 33 miles …let’s do the happy dance, hey.  By the end of tomorrow,  we’ll start locking down instead of up. This will get a little trickier as we’ll be starting with just inches of concrete and an inability to grab our own cable. Parks Canada folks will just step up to help, I’m sure. Looking at the chart  gave the Captain a thrill…Wide parts with narrow channels…follow the markers to avoid the stumps hiding outside the channel markers…his kind of challenge…not mine!!! Should be another hot one…I may have to join the Canadian women who boat in their swim wear…trust me, I’ll be more covered than most of them….