Driving Around the Countryside (8/3/2015)

After a rainstorm during the night, sometimes pretty heavy, we woke up to clouds and cool temperatures.  It's been in the 60s every morning since we've been here, warming up into the 70s during the day.  Collins ran down to a friend/neighbor and got something to put vehicle oil in, and then changed the oil in the Johnson's motorhome.  Joe had changed ours yesterday, so there was quite a bit of old oil to get rid of.  After all that, Dave and Mazie decided to drive into Smith Falls to take care of their laundry and do a little shopping.  Collins and Marilyn took Joe and me on a drive around the countryside, through all the little villages they had grown up around.  We are never very far from water here, rivers and lakes inundate the area, many of the rivers have locks on them, and they all are very pretty.  We stopped off at Sylvia's first to drop off a dish of potato salad that Marilyn had forgotten to take to yesterday's potluck get-together, then drove into Smith Falls for Joe's soda.  We then headed out of town.  We didn't get a very early start, so the next town we hit was Perth and it was time for lunch.  There was an antique store on the street where we parked, so we browsed it after we ate, and Marilyn found another glass butter dish.  I think she has started collecting them.

I can't begin to remember all the little villages we saw, but one of our stops was at the Foley Mountain Conservation Area, which is part of the Rideau Watershed.  The locks in Smith Falls that we saw the other day are part of the Rideau System.


 We also drove back around behind Westport, where you can see the village below.  We drove back to an "interpretive center" but it was locked up, but we did see the lake and the town from there.  I took a path through the folage to get a better view, but it was a jungle out there!


  Down another road was an overlook called Spy Rock Ramp, which afforded a beautiful view of the lake and the town, and picture ops for us.

 

On the way back to the car, I found WILDLIFE!!!  (I'm getting a little desperate for wildlife, as you can tell).  I thought it was a worm we could save for fishing, but Collins called it a hardshell snail, then decided maybe it was from the centipede family.

I did see a few wild turkeys today, but nothing any larger.  Our driver proceeded on down the road.

Our next point of interest was Jones Falls, which I thought was the prettiest stop of the day.  It is a series of 3 joined locks, and another lock separated by a little pond area, for a total drop of 60 feet.  We walked up to the top of the 3 joined locks, and just missed a boat going through.  We could actually see it in the last lock, but we didn't walk up there, it was a bit of a trail.

Jones Falls is world-famous for its beauty.  "Among the many wonderful guests to Jones Falls, there have been those from the White House, Hollywood, Buckingham Palace; guests from as far away as Great Britain, Australia, China, New Zealand, British Columbia, Herzegovina, Italy, Germany, and many more.  National Goeographic has endorsed this United Nations World Heritage Site as the second most important place to visit in the world." The difference in lake levels at Jones Falls is nearly eighty feet and was overcome by the construction of four locks . . ."  "It was also necessary to build a solid stone dam to hold back the waters of Sand Lake. . . The dam is 400 feet in length, 90 feet high and 300 feet thick at the base."



 There were 2 boys jumping in the water here, having a good old time.

 

I could spend a day here with a book, waiting for boats to come through the locks.  For some reason, this fascinates me, and I feel very fortunate that not only have we got to see this a few times, but we even took a boat ride through the locks last month on the old Erie Canal in Pennsylvania.

There was a little open building visitor center here with a video about the history of the building of the lock system here.  Very interesting.


"The Rideau Waterway between Kingston and Ottawa ... was developed following the War of 1812-14 so that the British would have an independent means of conveying war material other than through the international waters of the St. Lawrence Seaway.  The building of the canal, which actually entailed building only about six miles of artificial waterway and several locks to compensate for the difference in the levels of the fifteen lakes involved, was completed in 1832.  The Rideau Lakes waterway traverses over 125 miles of beautiful Ontario ... "  "The locks themselves are 120 feet long, 24 feet wide, and 6 to 8 feet deep."

We had to walk across a wooden bridge to get over here, and Marilyn said they used to be able to drive across this bridge.  The water was laying picture perfect here, although when we parked we took our umbrellas because it looked like a storm was on its way.


There was also an old hotel here, Hotel Kenney, that was pretty grand in its day.  Marilyn said she used to spend a lot of time across the road at the snack bar, waiting for her dad to come out of the bar in the hotel.  Inside the hotel are several photos on the wall, including two with her grandfather in them.  He was a hunting/fishing guide back in the day.  When Marilyn told the desk clerk that her grandfather was in the pictures, she asked Marilyn her name, and when Marilyn told her her maiden name, the clerk went to the back and got another girl, who said Marilyn's grandfather was her grandfather's brother.  So another cousin, a few times removed.  Marilyn has lots of relatives around here.


This is a very popular area in the fall when the leaves are turning.  I would love to see that!

Throughout the day, we drove past several cemeteries where Marilyn has family buried, and when we left Jones Falls, we stopped at another lake, Charleston Lake.  Marilyn and Collins had stayed in a cottage here several years ago with Collins' cousin Judy and her first husband Darrell.  An older lady happened to be walking outside and Collins recognized her, so he pulled over and they talked for a few minutes.  We might get to go fishing in this lake later in the week.

Our last area to cover was Lyndhurst, where Marilyn was born and raised.  In this little village is the "oldest bridge in existence in Ontario," over Furnace Falls.  This is another significant drop in water level, but it's nothing like the 60 foot drop back at Jones Falls.




Marilyn pointed out the church where she and Collins got married,

and the last house her father lived in before he went into a nursing home.


She also pointed out several homes of family and friends she grew up with (some of whom we have met over the years).Many of these old homes are brick and well preserved.

We finally ended our road trip and got back to the RVs.  Marilyn had leftovers from yesterday's potlock (enchalidas and the other bowl of potato salad she forgot to take), so she fed us.  And Collins had bought a blueberry pie at a farmer's market we stopped at, run by Marilyn's cousin's granddaughter, or her bridesmaid's brother's granddaughter, or something like that. Dave and Mazie joined us for the pie, and we caught up on the day's doings with them.  But we were tired, so no cards tonight.  We have a busy day planned for tomorrow.