ShangriLa docks, below Jones Falls Locks

Young woman in the blacksmith shop showing off a courting candle; when the candle burned down, the date was over. If the father really liked the young man, he could raise the candle so that it would burn more slowly. If the young man was not approved of, the candle could be pushed down to burn more quickly.

Lockmaster's home doubled as defense for the lock. In the case of attack by Americans, soldiers would be called up to defend the lock

Dinner on the dock

Got up this morning to clouds and gusty winds, wondered if we would be travelling today. However, sun came out and winds died down so we left, still thinking that if the winds got up we could stop at a lock. It turned out to be  a beautiful travel day, light breeze, sun, perfect summer day. Came through Upper Rideau lake, Newboro Lock, Newboro Lake, Indian and Clear Lakes, Chaffey's Lock, Opinicon Lake,  and Davis Lock. The last three locks, Davis, Chaffeys and Newboro all have power, and all were full of  boats tied up and looking like they were not moving on any time soon. Lucky we didn't plan to stop at any of them, although it was Plan B. We went on to Jones Falls, which is  a flight of 4 locks. The lockmaster at Davis Lock said that they were just bringing  a boat up the Jones Falls locks and they would be ready for us when we arrived. By the time we go there the gates were open and waiting.  There were only 3 of us in Davis Lock, but by the time we got to Jones Falls several other boats had joined the parade. We all fit in the locks, but it took some juggling. Two boats rafted off other boats, and in each lock the lockmaster rearranged us to try to make it work better.
We turned off and tied up at the ShangriLa docks just below Jones Falls locks. We were here three years ago and enjoyed the restaurant here but as we tied up thought it funny that we didn't see the restaurant that we remembered; turns out that it burned down last year. Too bad. We went for a walk, and looked at the restaurant at Hotel Kenny right next door. They do have a restaurant, but with a set menu and a set price of $29.95 per person. We decided we could cook on the boat.
Toured the area here around Jones Falls locks, they have a restored blacksmith shop and the lockmaster house, also restored to the time when the first lockmaster lived here with his family. Two students showed us the blacksmith shop and the lockmaster house, both did a good job. They have a diary kept by the first lockmaster, so have a lot of information about the house and about life in those days here at the lock. His wife apparently lived quite a lonely life, she was of a social class above the  people living around here, so had no one to socialize with. She turned to drink and he has frequent entries in his diary about her drinking and a quarrel. Mind you, he apparently drank quite heavily as well. Got ice cream cones while we were out touring, then returned to the boat and made dinner. Beautiful evening to sit on the dock, cook on the grill and eat.  Lots of Canada geese here, the men cleaned off our section of the dock so we could have a clean place to sit. Walking across the grass to the bathrooms is somewhat challenging. Nancy and Wayne have just returned from the bathrooms; there is no hot water in the showers. I think I will use the one in the boat.
On to Kingston tomorrow.

A small one car ferry that the individual hand pulls to the other side

One of the narrow channels we went through today