[EDITOR'S NOTE: I've jumped ahead to Dave and Mary Bernheisel's 18th filed report of their adventures on their boat Going There as they traverse the Great American Loop. I'll backfill their previous reports within the next few days so you can see how things have gone so far. Please have patience...]

Posted 07.04.02
On the Great American Loop

DAVE BERNHEISEL

Aboard the Going There

Hi

Today is Canada Day (independence day), and Ottawa is the place to be.

Canadians really go in for this in a big way, not just official recognition but hats, shirts, flags and much more. We do it a lot in the States but the Canadians far out do us.

We're getting ready to go to the parade and tonight are the fire works at the Parliament Building. (Later) The festivities were fun. It was hot, maybe mid-90s, and the Mounties in their uniforms with red wool coats must have been sweltering. Mary asked one if he had an icepack under his coat.

Among other things in the festivities, they had groups singing. When they did This Land is My Land it got our attention..."From the Arctic Circle to the great big waters, this land was made for you and me."

Yesterday we suddenly changed our plans and left our anchorage, crossed the river and started up the Rideau Canal. The canal starts off with the Flight of Eight -- that's eight locks with no intermediate space. It's really just a set of steps that go up the hillside.

This is right in downtown Ottawa between the Parliament Building and the chateau-style hotel, and spectacular is an understatement. We got a photo after the fact. I would liked to have gotten a photo of Going There going up, but when you are actually doing it there is no time to do anything else.

I keep putting a lot of emphasis on the locks. To the people up here they are not that much of a big deal, but to we 'flat land boaters' they are a marvel.

Actually, the locks capture the locals imagination also. Each one (not the Seaway) is a park setting, and people are enjoying the parks and watching the boats go through. Canadians make better use of their parks than we do.

Once through the locks, we tied to the canal wall. That put us right downtown in the middle of everything. We had intended to spend two nights there but moved on after only one because, had we waited until the next morning, we would have had to wait until after 9 AM to get through one of the drawbridges.

Today (07/02) was going south on the Rideau Canal out of Ottawa. It is all very pretty, but single noteworthy attractions don't stand out. The eight locks that we passed through are getting to be not noteworthy...just another beautiful site, ho-hum.

I was feeling very smug for fixing the depth sounder which was acting squirrelly until it quit working all together. Now the fridge doesn't work on 12 volts. Works fine on 110V. I checked to see that it had power and the fuse was OK.

It has a built-in inverter and I am fearing that the inverter may be fried. That makes cold beer a scarce item, it's not hard to see the seriousness of this problem. I'm toying with getting an external inverter and have the 12V go through that. Even if it were available, a part for my 22-year-old fridge would probably exceed the cost of a new fridge. Items to ponder in my spare time.

That's it from this end. Hope all is well with you folks.

Dave & Mary