Rideau Retreat

 

As we left Prescott, Don messaged to say we should watch out for a garden tour along the road to Brockville.  It was definitely worth the stop.  The entire large front yard was filled with day lilies and other perennials that were in full bloom.  In the back yard, overlooking the St. Lawrence River, were huge beds of hostas under the shade of massive trees. My pictures don’t capture the beauty of their garden. If this is their therapy, they must need an awful lot of therapy!

We went on to Brockville to find the farmer’s market.  First of all, markets are usually in the downtown or touristic part of a town.  Secondly, that may involve street closures.  Thirdly, we’re pulling a 33 ft. fifth-wheel trailer. Where to park?  Thankfully, google maps are pretty good at visualizing where one might be able to take up three or four parking stalls:  Along a residential street – hopefully not too far away.

Turns out it wasn’t just a farmer’s market, but also sidewalk sale day so there were even more street closures.  Again, it was still piping hot so we opted for the shady side of the street.  We wandered around a bit, bought some fresh vegetables and local brews and then found 1000 Island Brewing Company restaurant for a lunch stop. 

Brockville has some beautiful historic buildings and churches in the downtown.  It’d be worth exploring further but we’re on to other adventures.

We drove up to Smith Falls and then found our way to the Rideau Retreat Boondocker’s site.  It was down a beautiful wooded roadway in the middle of nowhere. With a name like that, we thought it would be a perfect retreat to sit down for a couple of days to rest, relax, fish and do nothing.  It’s on a driveway, so not that exciting, but it’s a level site, the host is very friendly and loves to visit.  The first night was stinkin’ hot and without A/C and a loud party down the road, we had a restless sleep.  The second night began with a scary thunderstorm, complete with tornado warnings!  Our host offer us shelter if needed.  (A tornado did touch down about 100 km away).  The last night was so much cooler, we were looking for the extra blanket.  That’s weather in Ontario!

                                         

This place it’s half-way between Perth and Smith Falls.  And only a few kilometers from an excellent place to fish on Rideau Lake at Rideau Ferry.  As Dave always says, "A bad day of fishing is better than a good day at work."

Sunday we attended church at the Presbyterian church in Smith Falls. It was a small older congregation led by an enthusiastic young pastor.  It also had the most beautiful stain glass windows to enjoy while listening to the message. 

The Rideau River system is a series of locks connecting Ottawa to Kingston.  It was built back in the early 1800s as a military defense of Canada, but it never saw any military action.  Instead it became a useful commercial route allowing for supplies to move from Montreal to Toronto.

Now it’s a system of locks that are used for pleasure boats.  We watched the Parks Canada personnel work the hand-turned locks as some boats made their way through.  That would be an interesting trip – take a boat from Ottawa to Kingston.

We spent exploring downtown Perth.  It is the quintessential tourist town with many shops and restaurants, historic buildings and beautiful shady trees in the parks.  We poked into the high-end stores (and then scored a few deals at the thrift shop on the other side of the tracks).  It was a perfect day to wander around and relax and enjoy a coffee and gelato.