Our Journey Tracks

On to the eastern side of Erie Canal…

Tuesday, July 26, 2022

Woke up this morning to 58 degrees!! At last!!! We did our usual get ready routine and left for Lock 23, which was relatively close to us. We were leaving the lock at 7:30. Eight hours later we are tied up below Lock 25 having gone 53 miles. Needless to say, it took a while to transit the rivers between locks. For one thing, much of this water had houses and docks along the side…read: slow going. And then there’s always the time it takes to ready the lock when you approach and then to lock through. But…we didn’t get hot until we stopped. ;-)

Again we had a lovely “back yard” for Maggie to romp around in….

Wednesday, July 27, 2022

Got out early again and traveled to Fairport, NY, today going though 5 or so locks. (They’re all alike now!) The scenery was more remote…not as many homes by the water…so we made good time. The only thing that started slowing us down was the railroad bridges we had to fit under. Our boat measures 15.5 feet. The bridges up here don’t have depth gauges so it’s hard to tell whether the water level is up (easier trip under) or down (will we still have a bimini top on the boat when we’re through). One of the lock masters warned us of a 15.5 ft. bridge coming up. Gulp. Turns out there we at least 6-10 inches (as it looked to me as I was standing on the back of the boat while Wayne drove slowly under. AND A TRAIN CAME THOUGH, to make it worse. We survived. But we are going to have to go through a practice session on letting the bimini top down.

While in one of the locks, as we’re hanging on to our nasty lines and trying to fight the wind, the lady in the boat next to us started asking questions about our boat…and finally asked if they could come see it that evening in Fairport. I told her that would be fine…but that we don’t make up the bed when traveling like this. ;-)

We got to Fairport and found a nice place on the wall right beside the bridge. Great deal here for docking, water, and electric $14/night. If you want to stay more than 14 days you need to talk to the dock master for info. I was just getting ready to take Mags for a walk when Janet and Peter came to see the boat. They have a Mainship, too, but it’s smaller. It’s a sedan, i think. Anyway, they came through to see our size and layout because they are interested in buying one. Nice people..from Florida…who want to live up here in the summer and store the boat in Brewerton, NY.

Thursday, July 28, 2022

Today was a nice catch up day. Fairport has a a UPS store within easy walking distance, so I was able to make Amazon return. I also got a few necessary items from the small grocery store nearby that sells mostly locally made foods…and visited my favorite store ever, Crafts Bits and Pieces. It’s a thrift store that benefits elderly population here. They also have a tool thrift store. I came away with two storage cases for my collage papers…and an antique tool that enlarges an image for drawing.

AND…I visited the public library which is in the same shopping center as the UPS, craft, and tool stores. I was hoping they had bags or t-shirts that I could buy…but no. The library has an interesting story about how it came to be in the shopping center. They had a building that had been erected back in the 30's and by the 70's they needed more space. The town decided to lease space in the shopping center. In 1978 the library was moved by over 400 local residents, a box at a time.

For lunch we had hamburger from local restaurant and it was delish! There was a nice breeze today and it felt especially good if you stayed in the shade, which is what we did. Tomorrow we’re going to go under the lift bridge and head on over to Holly, NY for the night. We’re planning on being in Buffalo, NY, August 4 and 5 to catch prescriptions and Amazon stuff.

Friday, July 29, 2022

Well...plans have changed. Instead of going to Holly, NY, today we're going to Brockport, which is only a few miles from Holly. We've been to Holly and decided to do Brockport this time. ;-)

The trip was easy and pleasant. Temps in the mid-70's and a good breeze blowing kept me in long sleeves until we tied up to the Brockport wall. Cost for the night is $20 and includes water, electric, wifi (open, of course), and laundry.

The only grief we suffered today was going under a TON of bridges and sweating out clearing many of them. It's a good thing water is down a bit on the Erie Canal or we'd be boating in a convertible look (top down!) We also had several life bridges, beginning with the one in Fairport. Easy, peasy. Call the bridge tender and request a trip through. One little hang up in Spencerport. The bridge tender didn't answer our call. We finally tied up to the side of the basin and Wayne went off to find the person in charge. Meanwhile, Maggie and I took a short walk. Bottom line, the bridge tender missed the call out (he came back to his office just as Wayne was going into town to find our if the bridge opened on request...or only on the hour, as some bridges do. Anyway, we all got back to the boat and made it easily through.

Beautiful scenery as we went...and I'm just going to put some of the photos in now...

Another stay on lock wall