Sunday, July 12
First I need to finish yesterday’s entry; I forgot an important item last night. Yesterday before we got underway I had a conversation with a boater at the other end of the lock wall in Hastings. It turns out he now lives in northern Wisconsin not far from Ashland. They frequently come to St Paul, the Ordway and the St Paul Hotel Grill are two of his favorite places. They bought their boat three years ago in North Carolina. The first year they came up the east coast, the Hudson river and then into the Erie Canal. They left the boat there in Brewerton, NY for the winter. Last year they came out of the Eire at Oswego, crossed Lake Ontario, did the Rideau Canal, the Ottawa River, into Lake Champlain and back to Brewerton. This year they have started up the Trent Severn and hope to get to Ashland this fall. He is a retired civil engineer with 26 years in the Coast Guard. The last three years of service were as Commander of the Coast Guard boot camp at Cape May, NJ. I went through Cape May in 1963 while he was at the Coast Guard Academy.
Today started with a beautiful morning, clear
skies, cool at 50 and light winds. We took our time and about 8:45 walked across the bridge t
o the Riverview Restaurant for breakfast. After that we strolled through the lovely town of Campbellford, it was about five blocks to our destination. Any of you that know me well know 
that shopping is one of my least favorite things. That may change; we were now at the World Famous Chocolate Factory Outlet. One can only dream of a whole outlet store with nothing but chocolate at true discount prices. Ten pounds chocolate almonds for $20 was more than the calorie police would let me have. A 6.6 oz box of mint chocolate covered cherries for $1.50 was ok. We had one after dinner tonight they are great. We will be back here in a month.
Campbellford has many old brick houses; this picture is just a sample. We walked past this nice church then back downtown. The highly recommended Dooher’s Bakery was not open on Sunday, maybe when we are back. On the way back across the bridge Diana got a picture of Memories with the two dollar monument in the background.
Shortly after 11:00 we were underway to the first lock of the day which was only about a mile downstream. It was a narrow channel separate from the river channel with nice houses down
both sides.
The next lock was Ranney Falls, another flight lock with a total drop of 48 feet. The gate was
open with a large cruiser waiting to exit. There is a swing bridge just above the lock that had not yet opened. The bridge opened, the cruiser exited and in we went. When we got through both locks we pulled into the lower wall and tied up. 
There is a suspension bridge across just below the falls and we walked back to have a look. We got a picture of the bridge and the falls. There was not much water over the falls; it was all being diverted through the hydro electric plant next to the falls.
As we left again Diana got a picture looking up towards the bridge and one of the lock gates
closed. This shows the lower gate and the high middle gate.
This stretch of the original river bed had a large drop over a relatively short distance. We had three more locks in the next few miles. For most of this time we were in a manmade channel
next to the river bed. At Meyers Lock (our forth of the day) there is still an old lock master’s house. In the early days the lock master and family lived on site.
When we got to the last of this series we waited a short time for another cruiser to exited headed the other way. We then had about 12 miles of open river to the last lock of the day, Glen Ross #
7. We locked through and tied to the lower wall where we will spend the night. It was just 4:00. Would you believe there was a small store right across from the lock that sold ice cream cones? Like all the locks this is a nice park setting but with no town nearby.
When we left, the bright sun had warmed the temperature to the low 70s and it felt like it would be hot. An hour later it had clouded over and warmed no more, with a breeze of 10 to 12 it was almost cool.
All in all another excellent day; (next time I go to the chocolate outlet alone).
First I need to finish yesterday’s entry; I forgot an important item last night. Yesterday before we got underway I had a conversation with a boater at the other end of the lock wall in Hastings. It turns out he now lives in northern Wisconsin not far from Ashland. They frequently come to St Paul, the Ordway and the St Paul Hotel Grill are two of his favorite places. They bought their boat three years ago in North Carolina. The first year they came up the east coast, the Hudson river and then into the Erie Canal. They left the boat there in Brewerton, NY for the winter. Last year they came out of the Eire at Oswego, crossed Lake Ontario, did the Rideau Canal, the Ottawa River, into Lake Champlain and back to Brewerton. This year they have started up the Trent Severn and hope to get to Ashland this fall. He is a retired civil engineer with 26 years in the Coast Guard. The last three years of service were as Commander of the Coast Guard boot camp at Cape May, NJ. I went through Cape May in 1963 while he was at the Coast Guard Academy.
Today started with a beautiful morning, clear
skies, cool at 50 and light winds. We took our time and about 8:45 walked across the bridge t
o the Riverview Restaurant for breakfast. After that we strolled through the lovely town of Campbellford, it was about five blocks to our destination. Any of you that know me well know 
that shopping is one of my least favorite things. That may change; we were now at the World Famous Chocolate Factory Outlet. One can only dream of a whole outlet store with nothing but chocolate at true discount prices. Ten pounds chocolate almonds for $20 was more than the calorie police would let me have. A 6.6 oz box of mint chocolate covered cherries for $1.50 was ok. We had one after dinner tonight they are great. We will be back here in a month.Campbellford has many old brick houses; this picture is just a sample. We walked past this nice church then back downtown. The highly recommended Dooher’s Bakery was not open on Sunday, maybe when we are back. On the way back across the bridge Diana got a picture of Memories with the two dollar monument in the background.
Shortly after 11:00 we were underway to the first lock of the day which was only about a mile downstream. It was a narrow channel separate from the river channel with nice houses down
both sides.The next lock was Ranney Falls, another flight lock with a total drop of 48 feet. The gate was
open with a large cruiser waiting to exit. There is a swing bridge just above the lock that had not yet opened. The bridge opened, the cruiser exited and in we went. When we got through both locks we pulled into the lower wall and tied up. 
There is a suspension bridge across just below the falls and we walked back to have a look. We got a picture of the bridge and the falls. There was not much water over the falls; it was all being diverted through the hydro electric plant next to the falls.As we left again Diana got a picture looking up towards the bridge and one of the lock gates
closed. This shows the lower gate and the high middle gate.This stretch of the original river bed had a large drop over a relatively short distance. We had three more locks in the next few miles. For most of this time we were in a manmade channel
next to the river bed. At Meyers Lock (our forth of the day) there is still an old lock master’s house. In the early days the lock master and family lived on site.When we got to the last of this series we waited a short time for another cruiser to exited headed the other way. We then had about 12 miles of open river to the last lock of the day, Glen Ross #
7. We locked through and tied to the lower wall where we will spend the night. It was just 4:00. Would you believe there was a small store right across from the lock that sold ice cream cones? Like all the locks this is a nice park setting but with no town nearby.When we left, the bright sun had warmed the temperature to the low 70s and it felt like it would be hot. An hour later it had clouded over and warmed no more, with a breeze of 10 to 12 it was almost cool.
All in all another excellent day; (next time I go to the chocolate outlet alone).
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