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Day 91: Friday, July 15th: We were leaving Ottawa today but we needed a few things from the grocery store.  Ruth and Esther (from Sadie B) decided to walk to the store and catch a cab back.  They changed their minds about the cab and called Dennis (Sadie B) to come carry stuff.  Dennis and I walked to the store also to haul the few hundred items.  Big LCBO store (Liquor Control Board of Ontario - government run liquor store) on the way back, so we ended up with quite a load.

Underway at last, we bid farewell to the delightful city of Ottawa and started up the Rideau Canal.  Actually going south, this direction is called "up" because we are going uphill for the first two-thirds of the Rideau.  There are some 45 locks along the canal.

The Rideau Canal was built in the early 1800s (completed in 1832).  It covers 125 miles from Ottawa to Kingston, Ontario and was built in six summers using the manual labor of thousands of workers.  The Ramrod behind the project was Lieutenant Colonel John By, of the British army.  It is truly an amazing feat of engineering and organization.  Most of the canal still stands as it did over 150 years ago, with manual lock operation and shallow depths.  Enough history lesson!

Leaving Ottawa we passed under Pretoria lift bridge.  The bridge tender's office was unique.  That's Sadie B up ahead of us: