Day 84, Saturday September 14th

Day 84, Saturday September 14th



Leaving Medina in the morning.  Saltine left at the docks.

Well the days start out with mitts on when at the helm.  The last couple of days we have been garbed in rain gear for warmth as much as anything.  By mid day it is much warmer.  The forecasts have summer coming back next week.  At least no bugs in the cold evenings.  We have an Espar heater so get nice and toasty in the cabin.

As we head along our way the bike path to the north which is the old tow path (where the mules and donkeys would pull the barges along) has lots of people biking along.  The bikes go faster than us.  We keep up with the joggers though.  We have put bike the Erie Canal in our future holidays.  Nice and flat with little villages scattered every 5 miles.  Anyone toying with boating the canal could bike this western part first just to see what they are getting into.  Honestly this is very relaxing and stress free.  This time of year there are very few other boaters.  Soon the leaves will be beautiful.  Swimming is out of the question so a great boating holiday for the shoulder seasons. 

Today there are quite a few lift bridges.  We had to wait for only one bridge. There are phone numbers to call but our cell with T-mobile is so bad we have no coverage anywhere so phone numbers don’t do us much good.  A neighbour offers us to use his landline so after 15 minutes of farting about, Dawson gets hold of an apologetic lift bridge operator who dashes down from the next bridge to the east and lifts the bridge for us.  Along the way there are also guard gates we have to go through.  These are gates to control the flow in the event of flooding and leaks I believe.

Blue herons continue to appear everywhere.  We think we may be seeing the same one who accompanies us along for a few miles then does a hand off to the next heron who then accompanies us or a few miles etc.  There is a large healthy looking deer along the shore today, but runs away once we get close so no picture opportunity.

We have some homemade soup as we move along.  This is the last of the pork from our pulled pork restaurant leftovers in Tonawanda 3 days ago.  It is our fourth meal, American servings are way tooooooo big.

Fellow traveler, but has water pump problems.

Lift bridge at Brockport.

As we continue on we pass a sailboat that looks like it has been on the road or a while.  It is called DoLittles.  We yell across to them and they are returning from the south.  We ask them where they are from and they say Sudbury.  Wow, what a small world.  Julie tries to get them on the radio, but there is no answer. Too bad, we would have liked to know more about them. 

After a couple more hours, and lots of lift bridges we stop in Spencerport.  It is now about 3:30 and we are tired of listening to the engine so tie up to another free mooring and head into town.  There are always a few odds and ends we want to pick up.  The town is typical small village and we buy a few groceries, beer, and a new pair of reading glasses.  Back to the boat for some blogging, research on Bahamas, and solar panels, have dinner, and an evening game of Kings cribbage, and off to do do land.

Cheers

Julie and Dawson