In which we get a visit from old/new friends ...
Our cruising distance today to Newark was onlu 2 hours so we started the day at a leisurely pace (in fact, lately, we always start the day at a leisurely pace! We haven’t had a 6 am start for some time). More low bridges ahead and Mike & Dana went first to check on potential hazards. We hadn’t planned it that way, but it turned out to be very nice to have our own personal guides and we started to receive text messages warning us about potential issues. One low-ish bridge was under construction and had a scaffold hanging on the underside. Mike warned us to proceed with caution. We made it under the bridge with about 6 inches to spare.
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| As if they aren’t low enough already-they have decided to make it even more challenging by hanging a construction platform below the bridge! |
Melanie has taken a liking to the many old railroad bridges that we pass. Mostly they are in very poor condition with lots of rust, but the design is intriguing and they do make for a good picture.
We went through three locks today, E-27, E-28A and E-28B (not sure why they numbered them A and B - that is the only example of that use of numbers). The lock masters as always were friendly and helpful, and in this case very chatty. Lock E-28A is the location of a major NY Canal maintenance yard and dry dock. In a side canal is the last of the giant steam shovels used to widen the canals in the 1930’s. The lock master suggested that we stop in Palmyra, which we plan to do in a few days, as there are 5 different museums there with lots of history about the area and the canal.
The locks in this stretch of the canal are not in great shape. The cement walls are deteriorating as you can see from the pictures.
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| Antique Steam Shovel in storage at Lock |
We started seeing these cute canal boats for the first time in this section of the canal. We learned that you can rent one of these boats and have your own canal adventure. It feels very European.
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| Restored canal boat available for charter trips - isn't it cute! |
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| This bird is racing us! |
We had a wonderful surprise when our friends, Skip & Allison who cruised on Legacy, came to Newark to meet us for dinner. They have a house in NY close to Oswego on Lake Ontario and were on their way there. They stopped in Newark, brought us flowers and we had a very nice time catching up with them. While we had always expected that meeting people would be a large part of boating, what we hadn’t really realized was that some of those encounters would become friendships that would last beyond the boat trip.
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