October 11, 2012

Home again

We were tied to the wall in Seneca Falls, NY, Wednesday morning, and before midnight, we were home--without the assistance of a tow truck.   The new Chevy truck rocks.

Time to winterize.


October 9, 2012

Seneca Falls again

The view out our window while tied to the high wall in Lyons was spectacular.
After we got away, it turned out to be an eagle day.  
We saw two different pairs and a youngster.








This pair had one on the nest, and another in a nearby tree






Walking through Seneca Falls, you never know who you might run into....................

There's more boats here today than any other town we stopped in.  The guy in the trawler next to us is on his way to Fisherman's Village in Punta Gorda, Florida.



I've learned a trick when tying to town walls.  We run a line through the base of a cleat, and back to the boat, and cleat it on the boat's cleat.  That way, no vandals can set us free in the middle of the night without stepping on the boat, and waking me up--unless of course, they want to cut our lines.  We've had no problems so far.


There are some folks here from Spokane, WA.  They chartered this Nimble Nomad.  Not the most beautiful boat, but ok for the canal.




They left Cayuga Lake bound for Seneca Falls. As I mentioned, when you go through a lock, the lockmaster asks how far you're going today so he can call ahead to let the next lock know you're on the way.  Seems these folks took a wrong turn somewhere, because as they exited a lock, the lockmaster asked that question, and when they said they were headed to Seneca Falls, he told them they were heading the wrong way.  They had to turn around and go back out the lock.

You might have noticed that I sometimes misuse the word hysterical when referring to the houses and museums that Pam enjoys visiting.  Today, we went to the visitor center in Seneca Falls, and Pam asked the attendant where we could find the HYSTERICAL museum.  I laughed so hard--it was historical.
  

October 8, 2012

Lyons

It rained all night again last night after we arrived in Fairport, but by morning, it had stopped. 



Since we didn't have a chance to walk around Fairport when we arrived in the rain, we spent a couple of hours this morning looking at the hysterical homes.  Pam even found a hysterical museum, and you can see the "OPEN" sign in the door.  However, it's only open on Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursday.  (It was Monday.)


We found another tribute to Sal.


This pontoon was tied up right in front of us.  The name on the boat was "Tacky Tiki"  It's not to clear in the photos, but it even has leopard skin seat covers.  Way Cool !




We departed Fairport and made our way to Lyons. Another town with a hysterical museum that's closed on Mondays. The fall foliage is in full bloom.


Wildlife along the canal consists of hunderts of herons and kingfishers.


And a few fish.


We're tied to the FREE wall in Lyons, hooked up to the FREE electric.  However, I think they were expecting bigger boats.


We can climb on the roof and step off on the wall.


While we were walking around downtown Lyons, our daughter called to tell us she was in our neighborhood and stopped by our house to check on things.  She discovered that the water heater was spewing out water.  We've been away for more than two weeks, so we were concerned how deep the water might be on the first floor. She told us that she was going to get some of her valuable stuff out of her old bedroom on the second floor.  (She's 40, and still has stuff at our house.)

We can't speed up our return trip home.  The locks close a 5pm, so we're limited in our canal travel time.  The earliest we can leave here is Wednesday.  Fortunately, our son-in-law has a Serv-Pro business.  So he went over to our house and shut the water off, drained the water heater, and started drying things out.  I'm sure when we get there, it will be "like it never happened."
 

October 7, 2012

Fairport

It's getting colder every day.  The overnight low temps are in the 30's.  Our decision on where we stop for the night no longer involves anything other than making sure we have electricity for the heater.  It's my job to wake up in the morning an hour before Pam awakens, and I crawl out into the cold to turn on the heater.  We only have a small ceramic heater, and of course, it requires electricity.  Pam has started using the hair dryer at night to pre-heat the inside of the sleeping bag before crawling in. 

I broke down and walked back to the gas station again this morning before we left Brockport.  Even though it's a half mile one way to the station (up hill and into the wind both ways)  I figured it would be as easy as anyplace to get more gas since I could use the little red wagon and not have to carry the 5 gallons.  The reason I'm trying to figure out the amount of gas required to finish this trip is so that we won't be left with too much gas in the tank when we trailer the boat home.  The ideal situation would be to have less than 10 gallons left. Our tank holds 87 gallons, and gas weighs a little over 6 pounds per gallon.  So if the tank was close to empty, that's about 500lbs of excess weight that I wouldn't be towing the 600 mile trip home--or the 1200 mile trip south in January.

It's yet another day of RAIN.  We're tied to the wall in Fairport, and today was their Octoberfest.  But it's pouring down rain, with temps in the forties, and we don't feel like getting drenched and frozen to listen to polka and eat brats. 

In the old days, when traveling on rivers, I've always had a habit of tying the boat with the bow facing the direction I'm heading.  I think that habit started back when I was consuming mass quantities of beer.  That way, no matter how I felt in the morning, I could always remember which way to go.  Here on the canal, we've been tying port side to the wall regardless of which way we were heading or which side of the canal we tie to.  Even though I no longer drink beer, I sometimes have to double check our correct direction when we start out in the mornings.

We've been out long enough on this cruise that the underwear count is running low.  Pam and I are trying to change underwear daily.  She doesn't seem to have a problem wearing mine, but her's doesn't fit me at all.  And it's a little cool for commando.

Tomorrow, we plan to stop in the town of Lyons.  Another FREE dock.  With FREE electric and FREE showers.  However, there is a problem regarding the showers.  The town dock is close to the fire station, and boaters are allowed to go into the firehouse and use the showers there--unless the firemen are out on a call.  You might not see a problem with showering in the firehouse unless your pal (The Dawg) is a retired fireman, and has told you stories about what goes on in the firehouse showers.   We will not be showering in the Lyons firehouse.     

October 6, 2012

Brockport

Last night in Lockport, we walked back into town and had dinner at Cousin's Cafe.  We walked in the diner about 5:30, and they immediately turned the open sign around to closed.  There was only one other occupied table, and they were playing cards.  The owner of the place came over and gave us the Friday menu.  Our choices were fried fish, grilled fish, or broiled fish.  We ordered fish.  It was not bad.  I think the owner was the waitress, cook, dishwasher, and cashier.  She even sat in on the card game while we ate.  She did a good job selling us desert, and we carried two pieces of pie back to the boat in the rain. 

At one of our earlier stops, we went into a used book store.  Pam bought a couple of books, and I bought a used copy of "The Hunt for Red October."  We watched it last night.  I just love it when Sean says "One ping only."


I saw this red flag along the canal this morning.  When I first saw it, it was fluttering so I could clearly see what it was--it's an IU flag.


We passed over Culvert Road today.  The only road that goes under the canal.

That red car went under about the same time we went over.  I was standing on the roof of the boat to get the photo, and they honked and waved.

 
In hindsight, I suppose I should have gone on to Tonawanda, and rented a car to drive back and get the truck and trailer.  But on our way West, we leapfrogged the towns, and only stopped at every other one.  So on the way East, we're stopping at the ones we passed.  Today, we stopped in Brockport for the night.  It's a college town--but I'm not sure what the correct name of the college is.  I've seen some students wearing shirts that say "The College in Brockport."  So maybe there's some issue about the correct name. 


The welcome center here is great.  Here's a sculpture down from our boat.  I can't figure out what it is.


Here's a statue of "Old Sal."   You remember the mule in that song............"Fifteen Miles on the Erie Canal."


Pam says it's a photo of two jackasses




I mentioned that I bought a gas can.  Here in Brockport, the nearest gas station is about a 1/2 mile from the canal.  I calculated that I should put in at least 15 gallons of gas to be sure to make it back to Seneca Lake, so that was going to be 3 trips to the gas station.  The nice people at the visitor center said they would loan me a wagon.  So me and my little red wagon took off for the gas station.


Across the lift bridge

When I got back with the first 5 gallons, I discovered that my expensive gas can has one of those "safety" spouts that your federal government mandated in another effort to control our lives.  You have to push in on the spout for it to operate, and there is no vent to let air in.  The end result is that it took me longer to pour 5 gallons of gas into the boat than it did for me to walk a mile to buy it.  And, since it goes into a fitting on the side of the boat, I spilled more than if I'd taken the stupid spout off and just poured from the can. 

So, I only bought 10 gallons of gas.  I poured in the first 5, and have the second 5 in the can.  If I can't find a closer place to buy gas at one of our next stops, then I'll try to make it back with what I have.  If we run out, I can pour in the reserve 5 gallons, and start scrambling to find more. I've tried running on only one motor the past few days.  Since I've never done that before, I don't know the fuel mileage is better or worse. 



 

October 5, 2012

Lockport

Another rainy day.



Lockport is as far west as we're going. It's about 15 miles from Buffalo and Lake Erie.  We stopped between a lift bridge and a lock--both of which close for the night at 5 pm.  So we couldn't leave if we wanted to.  Not really a designated docking area, but it will have to do.


Lockport was the last part of the canal to be completed.  There was a 60' elevation difference here that had to be dealt with.  They managed it by building the "flight of five."  It's five locks in line that each lift twelve feet (or drop twelve depending on which direction you were going.)  Back in the early 1800's when these were built, there was no power equipment to move mountains.  There was also no engineering school to teach lock building.  Originally, there were 10 locks.  Five up, five down.  Since then, one set of 5 was replaced by two locks lifting 30' each.









 

I bought a canal chart book / cruising guide when we launched near Seneca Lake.  At that time, I checked the locations of marinas where I could purchase gas.  I figured how far we could go, and located two marinas close to where we are now.  This one is in Gasport.


What I should have done was call to see if the marinas are open.  They're not.
So today I found an old hardware store--a lot like Kirk's in Noblesville, and I bought an expensive 5 gallon gas can.  On our return trip, when we stop in a town with a gas station not too far from the canal, I can make enough trips with my can to buy enough gas to make it back where we started.

October 4, 2012

Holley, Medina

There aren't many locks in this part of the canal, but there are a lot of lift bridges.  Here's the one at Spencerport.


You call the bridgetender on the VHF radio, and let him know you want to pass.  Several times today, we discovered that the same person operated three bridges that are 3 or 4 miles apart, so when you get to his second and third bridge, he has driven there in his car, and is waiting for us to pass.  They usually ask how far we plan to go, and call ahead to the next few bridges to alert them.  The last one today, asked if we wanted the code to the showers here on the FREE dock in Medina.

We stopped this morning in Holley to walk down a path to look at a waterfall.


 I mentioned that my navigation programs only show a single line for the canal. So I finally figured out that I can get internet access by making my phone a hot spot, and then get Google Earth on my android tablet.  The blue spot is us.


Tonight, we're tied up to the FREE wall in Medina.  The people in the sailboat are from Kentucky and on their way to the Florida Keys.  The people in the canal boat are from Missouri, and are cruising for a week.


The canal here is above the surrounding countryside.  We have been looking over the embankment at rooftops of nearby homes, and the tops of trees.  Across from where we are tonight the canal is 80 feet above a stream that runs underneath the canal.  It comes out and over a waterfall.  This photo was taken from the canal trail, just above the surface of the canal.


There is a railroad museum in Medina that has a very large model train layout.  The guy is one of those whacky retired firemen, so in addition to the train stuff, he has a couple hundert fire helments.
I took too many photos.  You can see the museum online at www.RailroadMuseum.net




October 3, 2012

Spencerport

There's a 10 mph speed limit on the canal.  Through towns or locks it's 5 mph.  So you can't go a long distance each day. The other problem is that the locks and lift bridges only operate until 5 pm.  We bought a cruising guide for the canal (a good thing because both my laptop and android tablet with Navionics only show a single line for the canal.)  The guide is just that--only a guide.  The lock numbers are not always right, and the distances shown are only sometimes close to being right. 

The Fall foliage is in full force here--if you like looking at dead leaves.  If the sun ever comes out, I'm sure it would be bueatiful.



The old path where the mules walked to tow the flatboats follows alongside the canal.  It's now the Canalway Trail.  A bike and walking trail that goes from Buffalo to Albany--365 miles.


 This part of the canal appears to be cut out of the rock.






There are lots of bridges over the canal.  These are close to Rochester.



There's also lots of guard gates.  These things lower down into the water to prevent the entire canal from draining in the event of a break in the wall.  Such an event happened a couple of months ago west of here.  They shut these gates, and repaired the damaged walls without loosing all the water in the entire canal.




We're staying in Spencerport tonight at the FREE wall with FREE electric and FREE water and FREE showers.  Here's the view from the bridge.


The rental canal boat came in shortly after us.  You can see the guy in the red shirt on the boat.  Imagine my surprise when I got closer and saw his shirt.
My new best friend Stan.


We have been curious about these boats, so they let us peek inside.  It has a small diesel engine.  Travels a little over 5 mph.  They steer with a tiller on the transom.  Pretty spacious.


Stan and his wife, Dawn are on the canal boat for a week.  They are from East Lansing, Michigan.