Thurs July 13: Fulton to Oswego free lock wall

I would very much like to report we slept like babies, but that was just Rick.  I don't like being on the wall above a dam, in a public space, where anyone can come along and release the lines, or steal the bikes.  Not that this has ever happened to us, but try telling that to my brain in the wee hours.  I was jumpy about every little noise.  As my friend, Kim, says:  'my brain isn't my friend in the middle of the night'.

It may take a couple of days before we start having:

 

We spent the morning locking through to Oswego city with two other big, but very polite boats.  Manners are definitely an important quality in a captain, since we have to all get along in very small spaces with heavy equipment .  Turns out both captains were from Georgia.  That’s another reason to be kind-you never know who you will run into later in life!

Capt Rick is so polite he apologizes to his balls when they get scraped on the lock wall…

We planned to cross the lake today (in fact we hoped to be anchored on said lake and see the predicted Northern Lights) but Mr Weather was a ‘hard no’ on that, with a major storm coming through late afternoon.  I may ignore him in many areas of life (most? all?) but weather is not one of those areas. (In fact, I used to call him in S. America to ask him about local Atlanta weather)…

Since it was a beautiful day when we arrived, we got our steps in.  It was fun to be back in a town we had explored before; there was no need to rush around.  We went out to look at the lake-yup, whitecaps.  Yuk!

We said hello to a familiar fort!  We learned all about it last time around, but only one of us retained that info.  In my defense, I need that brain space for random song lyrics that pop up when they are not at all needed.

Wandering around one of the marinas, we were reminded that bananas can be considered bad luck aboard a boat.  I wonder if we had bananas along when the Rock Incident occurred…

Around 3pm the storm blew in, and it was a doozy. Rain blew sideways and wind rocked the boat, while I taught my English lesson.  I was so happy we were cozy, and tight to the wall.  Thank you, Mr. Weather.

Good night!

PS:  Welcome, Washington friend Lisa.  Don't you have anything better to do??!

PPS:  Just finished the audio version of Mary Laura Philpott’s book, Bomb Shelter. Her essays just have the most ‘uncanny ability to articulate feelings you just can’t quite put your finger on’.  And she considers herself ‘an anxious optimist’, which I can so relate to.