Trenton, ON, CN
Two nights in Trenton. The Kingston to Trenton leg on July 15 was 61 miles so definitely our longest leg so far. The water was smooth, scenery nice but there was lots of smoke haze from fires in northern Ontario so everything was dulled. Reminded me of 60’s smog in Los Angeles. Not a lot of color and visibility was reduced.
Once we got to Trenton we took care of some boat necessities, grilled some chicken and enjoyed a cocktail in a nice breeze.
Trentport marina is a great stay. They have gas grills, tables and chairs set up in the shade for socializing, free laundry and more. Loopers meet every night at 6:00 PM for cocktails and the word just seems to get passed down. Trenton is usually a more than one night stay for most boats either to take a break, catch up on boat maintenance or have more thorough repairs done.
For today, we rode our bikes about two miles to visit the National Air Force Museum of Canada. It was a nice museum with some well done displays indoors and I would recommend anyone go visit if in Trenton but, sadly, it appears to be lacking sufficient funding and some of the well known Canadian aircraft are outside in the elements and they have seen their better days. That said, the Museum does have the world’s only fully restored Second World War Halifax Bomber. This aircraft was shot down in World War II over Norway by a single 20MM cannon shell that hit a fuel tank and, while it was still controllable, it was ditched in a Norwegian lake with only one crew member surviving the ditching. It was recovered and restored by Museum volunteers and it’s beautiful.
The Museum also had a display about “The Great Escape” from Stalag Luft III during World War II. A popular movie from 1963 got many of the main points right but much of the movie was fictionalized for the movie. One of the things the movie did get right is that only 3 of the 76 prisoners who escaped made it to freedom and 50 of the remaining prisoners who were recaptured were murdered on orders from Hitler. The movie happens to be Will’s favorite movie and Paul Brickhill’s book (he was a prisoner) is a must read. So, while Will knew much of what the display showed, one thing he didn’t know was the inventory conducted by the Germans to learn what was missing. One of the pics below displays that inventory. Take a look and tell me how the Germans could have missed the fact that 52 20-man tables were missing.
After the Museum looked around the town a bit, had a bite to eat and found a book exchange where we both couldn’t resist a book or two. Fish and chips for dinner closed out the day.
Go here to find the Nebo summary and track for the day. On to the Trent Severn Waterway tomorrow.
