Ice Cream in Fairport, NY
Tuesday, June 18, was a day of work on things that needed doing. Jeff had the lovely job of working on finding out why our head (toilet in landlubbers terms) was having difficulties. Both Jeff and Barbie worked on paying bills. Even when traveling, once in a while, bills and maintenance must be done.
So far we were re-tracing our steps to places we had already visited earlier this year or last year. Wednesday, June 19, we were on our way to Seneca Falls, which is a new stop for us. We had to go through Lock 1 on the Cayuga/Seneca Canal. Last year when we went through this lock Jeff watched the sky and clouds. As we left he told Barbie where to steer so that he was able to drop anchor and get it set before a thunderstorm and winds of 45 miles per hour hit. This year was very uneventful. We continued on to Seneca Falls and tied up on the town wall. Summer was finally arriving with a temperature in low 80s.
Church at Seneca Falls, NY
Seneca Falls, NY Knitting Mill
Another interesting thing was that Seneca Falls was the inspiration for the town in the movie "It's A Wonderful Life".
The movie was based on places in Seneca Falls, NY
On Friday, June 21, we enjoyed the Seneca Falls Community Band Concert in the park. that was a very short walk from our mooring in Seneca Falls.
Concert in the Park -- Seneca Falls Community Band
Hans and Greta at the Community Band Concert
When we tie up in the evening there are two things that Barbie and Jeff enjoy looking for: Jeff enjoys going to breweries and Barbie enjoys going to quilt shops. If we plan to stay at a place for several days we often rent a car to explore. Other times we explore with our small electric-assist bicycles. When we were in Seneca Falls we rented a car for. We discovered a wonderful Mennonite market that had a restaurant as well as many baked items and unusual canned items. We found small sweet pickled beets. Barbie has added these to our salads and it is delicious. We also visited many breweries since Seneca Falls is near the Finger Lakes, a region known for it's wineries and breweries.
On Saturday, June 22 we drove to a park in Ithaca, NY and helped Delight and Jim Scouten celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. There was lots of food, friends of Delight and Jim, and their children, Edith and George and his family.
Jim and Delight cutting their cake.
Delight and Barbara
On our way to the celebration we stopped at two quilt shops. Barbie is doing the annual Row by Row, but also buying three different fabrics at the quilt shops and planning to make a quilt using the fabric. Jeff usually buys beer at the breweries. The boat is getting a collection of fabric and beer. However, Jeff does drink the beer, but the fabric stays on the boat, waiting to be made into a quilt. Barbie did bring a Singer Featherweight sewing machine and last year made a quilt top.
We returned the rental car and left Seneca Falls on Monday, June 24th. We were planning to cruise two days and arrive at Oswego, NY marina where we would pick up mail and packages and have the oil in our two engines changed. Oswego is on the shores of Lake Ontario. When the weather was good we would cruise across Lake Ontario to Picton, Ontario, Canada.
However, the weather had different plans. Areas near Oswego experienced up to three inches of rain on Thursday, June 20. This meant the rivers going into the Erie canal were running high which made the Erie canal high. We hadn't noticed any rise in the water at Seneca Falls and didn't think much about the heavy rain when we decided to leave on Monday, June 24. We navigated through the lock at Seneca Falls and continued on our way to the lock at the beginning of the Cayuga/Seneca Canal, When we got there we discovered that the canal was closed due to heavy and high flow of water from the storm of Thursday, June 20. We had to wait behind Lock 1 for 5 nights. The lockmaster did unlock an electrical station so we had electricity.
Cayuga/Seneca Lock 1 waiting 5 days
We were able to rent a car and drove to Oswego to get our mail and also stopped at a quilt shop on the way. We also discovered there was a community band concert in the park so had supper at a local brewery and enjoyed the concert.
Oswego Community Band Concert
On Thursday, June 27, we drove to Auburn, NY which is known as the Prison City because the State penitentiary is there. The local brewery is called Prison City Brewery. Their food was excellent. We also stopped at a quilt shop.
Delicious Salad at Prison City Brewery
We returned the rental car on Friday, since Enterprise is not able to bring us back to our boat on the weekend. Friday we just stayed on the boat and did jobs.
The canal locks that we needed to go through to cruise to Oswego finally opened on Saturday, June 29. We noticed more current before and after the locks as the rivers and dams near the locks were higher and faster than usual. Barbie kept the speed up and steered madly through the current. The experiences of last summer helped her know to keep speed up for efficient steering.
We stayed one night a Phoenix and had a wonderful dinner at the Lock One distillery. They made a pizza coil and lollipop drumsticks which were excellent.
The next day we traveled through 7 locks and Barbie did an excellent job backing into the slip at the Oswego Marina. We spent a few days in Oswego and enjoyed riding our bikes on a rail trail that went over the canal and river.
Rail-trail over the Oswego River
This was the end of our cruising time on the Erie Canal and we prepared to cross Lake Ontario for over a month of cruising in Canada before returning to USA.
