Merrickville is worth the stop 44◦55'.046N 075◦50'.250W

We traveled farther than anticipated today, a whole 7.2 miles. In the process we got to cross 7 locks. We arrived here around noon and after we got ourselves all tied up. we went for a little bike ride to find a place for lunch. The chip wagon got my attention. I have not had chip truck fries in forever. 

After our quick lunch, we went to the marina boat yard. We were hoping to find a cleat to replace our broken bronze cleat on the front of the boat. We have looked in every boat salvage shop along the way. This is an old boat and this part will not be easy to find, but the lock master advised us to stop there and take a peek. We struck out. Our next stop was the foundry, where the gentleman said he could try to heat it and fix it, but it would take a week. Struck out again. However after chatting for a while, he said that if we cannot get it repaired once we get home, we could send him the pieces and he would forge one for us. Yippee!

So we peddled our little buns back to the boat and gave it a much needed wash. We discovered much to our surprise that the locks along the Rideau do not supply water, so we have been challenged to get water in our tanks, let alone getting some to wash the boat. 

We solved the water tank issue last night but it took 250 feet of hose to do it. Fortunately the lock had 100 feet of hose in their garden, We took 3 other hoses which we carry and finally got some water back in our tanks.

After working up a sweat and burning a few of the calories from the french fries, we headed out to the ice cream parlor as recommended by Grace. Thanks for that Grace! We were good though, we only took one scoop. No wonder we've both put on weight on this trip!

Merrickville is a very picturesque town and the bike rides where lovely. I left my bike out tonight, and I'll go for another ride in the am.

We are at the cement wall separating the upper canal from the lower canal and it is kind of weird to see our boat, looking like it's parked right beside the road.  Higher than the road, in fact, which makes it all the more weird. The view on the Starboard side may be weird ...

but the view on the Port side it unbelievable.

We'll be leaving this cute historic town tomorrow around 9am, but I am sure glad we stopped. Not sure how far we'll get tomorrow but hopefully the town is just as cute as this one!

Good night all