Long and winding canal--a very rural start

Frankford is our first stop along the Trent Severn.  This canal system goes for 240 miles, 44 locks and if we pace ourselves we will enjoy a week to 10 days of cruising the scenic sites.  First day we did 6 locks, all timed to get us immediate access and they will handle 2 boats at a time.  Gimme Time with AJ and Amy from Charlottesville, VA shared all 6 locks with us.  While locking up, AJ and I had a fun time discussing baseball since Vanderbilt and UVA are playing for the NCAA championship in baseball tonight.  Neither of us are great baseball fans but know good sports programs when we see them and I happen to think Vanderbilt’s baseball coach (Tim Corbin) is about as good as it gets.  Go Dores! A sweet lady named Stella happened upon my blog a week ago and emailed me about our trip.  She lives in Frankford, near Lock 6 and came by to say “hi” right after we got tied up for the day.  She reported seeing The Duchess of Chaos (the boat with the family with 5 children and a dog aboard) last week coming through—good to hear they are moving along and apparently doing well. She is English and told us a little of the local lore. A lot of people that live in this area were born and raised here and many are part of a group called Empire Loyalist (U.E.) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Empire_Loyalist







All the locks are opened and closed  with swing gates operated by the informative lock masters 



Stella
 

 – they are sort of snobby so it is hard to live here if you weren’t born here.  Along many of the locks you can just tie up for the night at a minimal cost and so that is what we have done tonight. Attached to the lock is a park where people come to swim and camp.  There is a food concession stand and we walked down for and had  ice cream for happy hour.  This picture shows a lot —first notice it is really expensive but the real fascination are the local dishes.  Peameal is a kind of ground bacon rolled in cornmeal and fried.  Pogo’s are corn dogs, Thunder Crunch—a fried chicken sandwich, Pop—cokes, Poutine is french fries with cheese and some kind of gravy and are served in some of the best restaurants as well as parks.