Hello from Hastings

We've been in Canada for just over a week now and we're nearly one third of the way through the Trent-Severn Canal. Today we are in Hastings, Ontario a small village that has been declared the best fishing location in Canada by the World Fishing Network.  For those of you who don't watch a lot of fish TV the World Fishing Network is a 24/7 cable channel devoted entirely to shows about fishing. Everyone here is very excited by the award and the $25,000 prize money that comes with it. Apparently it has not yet been decided how the money will be spent, but we did overhear one person involved in the process tell the WFN representatives that they would be shopping over the border "to get U.S. prices." Yes, things really are more expensive here in Canada.

We've had a great combination of staying in towns and staying at locks on our way here. One night we stayed at a lock all by ourselves. Most nights we have one or two other boats with us. Our previous town stop was Campbellford, Ontario, a town whose claim to fame is that the designer of the Twonnie lives there. What is a Twonnie you may be asking? Canada uses coins, not bills, for denominations less that five dollars. The one dollar coin is called a Loonie because the art work on the back is of a loon. (The front, of course, is Queen Elizabeth.) So when they developed a two dollar coin in 1996 it came to be called a Twonnie.

Twonnie front

Twonnie back

Campbellford celebrates its place in Canadian monetary history with a big statue of a Twonnie in the town park along the Canal.

Most of the locks we have encountered so far have been standard, single lift locks which means you enter one end, they lift (or lower) you some distance and then you proceed on. But two of the locks we have been through have been lock flights, which means there are two locks built together. When you leave the first lock, you enter directly into the next lock. The two locks have a total lift of 54 feet. You really feel like you are in a cave when you enter the first lock at the bottom.

At the bottom of the first lock looking at the second

When the door opens there is another lock

These flights are hydraulically operated, but most of the single locks are still hand operated. That means the lock tenders open and close the lock doors by pushing the handles that you see below. The lock tenders are happy to let tourists open and close the doors if they ask.

Another thing that is very expensive here in Canada is Internet access. We're only going to be posting to the blog when we can find a WiFi network. So no news is not necessarily bad news, it just means we're between WiFi networks.

Now I hear the bagpipes playing. It must be nearly time for the award presentation, so we're off to the town celebration. Bye for now.