Day 7 - Jeff

Probably my favorite day so far, they just keep getting better, that or I am getting more relaxed. One might think otherwise after reading how the day started but it's all part of the experience.

Let's go back, settling in for a nice night with the tent shell off for a cool breezy night under the stars, walking back to tent and in the horizon we see sheet lightning, great! We are starting to doze off, well Julie anyway and all I can think of is the sky opening up and getting soaked and having to put up shell at 4am, Julie is adamant it won't rain so I do what any self respecting man would do, I wait till she falls asleep and I put the top on the tent, of course we wake up and no rain, I am pretty sure I got my first "I told you so".

At around 4am I got a terrible leg cramp and woke me right up in severe pain, finally got to sleep and when I got up and told Julie she said oh, thought you were having some "wild" dream cause you were moaning and moving around, upon finding out it was a cramp she said it was from dehydration and/or low potassium (eat a banana) and told me how to make it go away if it happens again, pssst, and where were you last night when I was in excruciating pain?

Now the payback, and it was all so worth it, Julie heads up to bathroom and I being a man pick the nearest tree, hmmm why would julie leave a bag of trail-mix out, hmmm there is another one, oh wait front hatch of kayak open, uh oh, racoons! Then I see they have crawled under her deck and got into her deck bag she left snacks in, tsk tsk, the little critters are smart, they actually opened the zipper and unlatched two tie downs to get at food, lost all bags of trail mix a few bars, some fruit packages and my NIBS. I had a pretty good laugh at the whole thing, anytime we couldn't find something it was "damn racoons took it"

On the water by 10, was a beautiful day, warm with a nice breeze, quiet day, almost no sound other than the sound of a paddle hitting the water, I so like that sound, and was just so peaceful, was also another short paddle day clocking in at 13km. I do however feel as though the scenery is behind us, lots of the same thing, swamps and lily pads with narrow channels, missing the open lakes and beautiful vistas.

Reached Merrickville lock at around 12:30, beautiful set of three locks in the middle of a historical old town, cutest little village I've ever seen, epitome of small throwback town from early canal days, old buildings and they don't have one commercial store, all small shops, antique stores, mom pop stores, etc, my mother would love this place, they even have a year round christmas shop.

Setup camp and a quick skinny dip and off for patio lunch and cold drinks, local people watching is just funny, bought a book because I didn't bring my sony reader (next time) setup hammock and read 4 pages, feel asleep and woke up couple hours later, ah, love it, soooo relaxed.

Headed out for dinner at this Charles Dickens theme restaurant, was soooooo good and really cool old architecture building as are most in this little town. Met some cool older couple, their son is lead mechanic for one of the teams poised to win Tour de France and he did it years ago in his earlier days, he still does cycling and a quick ride is 100-150km, not bad for 81 years old.
Met demon cat called "Bob" cross between a cat and a lynx, who would look at those animals and say, oh ya, let em mate, weird cause no tale and looks like the thing wants to pounce on ya, did take a swipe at my leg through the fence though, kick, opps, sorry "Bob"

Just crawled into tent, nice and cool, should be a good night sleep.

Fyi, hooked up alarm system to kayak hatch which contains food, Racoons in for a treat if they try that again, we aren't talking noisy pots and pan on string here, this is an actual alarm system with highest ear piercing sound ever, Julie doesn't call me gadget guy for nothing.

Lots of fireflies out tonight, and Bats, Julie doesn't like bats.