5/20/2009 Kingston, Ontario

5/20/2009 Kingston Ontario Cool, Sunny. Up to 75*F finally.

Up late, breakfast, into town to the tourist center. There we purchased tickets for the "trolley" ride around town to get acquainted with the place.

Dave was our guide on the tour. He never stopped talking about his town (he graduates from Queen's U here in a couple of weeks). Local limestone makes up many of the buildings here, so they call it the Limestone City. The tour encompassed Fort Henry and the Canadian National Military College, plus the U and many local landmarks. One could spend a week or more exploring this town of 117,000. Nice place.

We lunched at the Kingston Brewpub. D had lamb shank with the house fruit wine, I had fish and chips with my dark lager.

We walked around a few blocks near the waterfront and around the visitor's center before we hopped into the truck for a ride. Up the Rideau Canal toward Ottawa. This old canal connects Kingston with Ottawa, making shipments less vulnerable to United States interception in the various border wars and scirmishes over the years.

We stopped and inspected a few locks, still in use by pleasure craft and small barges.

It was a nice ride of 130 miles.

We came back to the trailer and found our neighbors, Dale & Mary-Lou Dillenbeck from Nepanee, Ontario outside. We chatted with them through three or four beers. They were both laid off from the same furniture firm last December. They've given up the house and apartment and are living in the trailer here.

They like Bluegrass, so I gave them some of my recordings of the Ray Davis show on WAMU-FM. They've been in Florida, but not our part.

We exchanged cards and will try to keep in touch. Nice people.

Then back to the little house to scrounge a light dinner and settle in....