We decided to stay two nights here, as we need a break every now and then from gathering no moss. So that meant I got to sleep in - hooray!! And that Rick did all the work while I was sleeping, laundry, baking banana bread, filling up the water tanks, washing the decks, making me tea - double hooray!!
Then it was lunch time and he made avo toast. So, once again, I managed to move exercise time to the hottest part of the day. A perfect time for a 13-mile bike ride. Canada is so committed to its trails programs, and they are much used in summer and winter (snow bikes, cross-country skiing, snow shoes, etc).
Our first stop was to see the big challenge that awaits us tomorrow-the biggest lift lock in the world. In fact, there are only eight lift locks in the world, two of them in Canada - both of which we will go through this year. On this one, we will ‘float’ up the 65-foot vertical lift, and admire the town - while trying not to FREAK OUT!
The Peterborough lift lock was completed in 1904, and was considered an engineering marvel at that time. It’s a hydraulic lift that works like a simple balance beam scale. Each of the two pans that hold boats weighs 1300 tons when filled. With one pan (like a rectangular cake pan -but with 330,000 gallons of water that weigh 1,300 tons in it) up (65’ in the air) and the other down, the two balance each other. The bottom of each pan is anchored to a giant piston. It does not matter how many boats are in either pan, each boat displaces its own weight in water. When it is time to lower one pan, and raise the other, one extra foot of water, 130 tons, is allowed to enter the upper pan. This extra weight allows the upper pan to push its piston down down and raise the lower pan up to the top level. The two pans are than locked in place and the extra water let out of the lower pan. Boats then exit, etc
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| You can see the upper pan hanging IN SPACE over Rick’s head. You can see the grey swooping rails of the lower pan at water level just behind me. Several of us Loopers were gathered there getting intelligence for when it’s our turn tomorrow! |
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| Top pan, on the right, on its way down. The bottom pan on the left is on its way up. |
We’ve been on an elevator, we’ve been on a boat, we’ve even been on an elevator on a boat (cruise ship) – but this will be the first time we’ve ever been ON A BOAT IN AN ELEVATOR! It looks so so cool-we can’t wait!!
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| This lock is so big that the road has to go through it instead of over it, like we are used to. |
After that we road around on bike paths, ending up at this pagoda bridge - you will have to trust me that Rick is on the bridge. I don't know why he's kind of hidden...
We learned that Peterborough was a major destination for Irish immigrants, even before the famine. About 25% of the town claims Irish ancestry of some kind. Maybe that's why everyone is up for a party.
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| These people have been on the dock for the whole weekend - only ONCE has anyone ever gone out in their boat, and that was for about an hour! |
From 7-9 we enjoyed the dulcet tones of a Canadian rapper from Nova Scotia - sounds like the beginning of a terrible joke, right?! We like some rap, and admire the poetry and nimble verbal gymnastics, but we couldn't really hear this guy, so we sealed up, put the air on and enjoyed another episode of Attorney Woo.
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