If you're ever navigated on the Erie Canal!

July 6th - Day Number 4!!

It was and is a HOT day!! We started our journey this morning at 8:07am. Our first lock was number 23 and is known as "God's Lock". It was absolutely beautiful. This lock was our favorite of all of the 30 locks that we passed through. Even the Lock Master, Pete was a sweetie. He even had a perfect vegetable garden.

Lock 24 was our last lock in the Erie Canal. It was time to head north to Lake Ontario on the Oswego Canal and start all over with Lock 1.  The siphon lock at Oswego is the first lock of this type to be built in the United States and is the largest of its kind in the world. Once we got to Oswego we were making such good time, we decided to carry on and go all the way to the cottage on Sodus Bay rather than spend another night on the boat. The water conditions were perfect on Lake Ontario.  We passed by Fair Haven and Port Bay, and finely saw that old familiar lighthouse on the Sodus Point pier. From our departure point in Saugerties, until we arrived in port at Wintergreen Point, we were blessed with tremendous weather, met some interesting people, and most importantly, shared unforgettable memories.


From the book called "The Towpath" by: Arch Merrill

"Calmly the Erie waters rolls on, across the state it had made great, through the towns it had mothered - unheeding the clash of changing  moods.   It, too, in its time had shaped the course of history."
I would love to say "Thank You" to Don Day for recommending this book to us.

And you'll always know your pal

Happy 5th!

This is day number 3 for us and we are loving it!  The weather has been on our side and so has the HEAT!   We got under way at 8am and settled in at 6pm.  Little Falls was remarkable! While we were waiting in the Little Falls Lock I gave my Uncle Jim a call. It really made my day when I heard his voice! Just to let you all know that he was the one that put the bug in my ear to make this blog. He is the BEST and I LOVE HIM. If anyone knows about the water ways, it is him!! My Dad and Uncle Jim have been  water bugs since they were born. If it wasn't for these two men in my life, water would not be part of my life. So I would like to take this time to say "Thank You!" and dedicate this trip to them both. It also helps that I married a guy that was raised on the Thousand Island waters too. So, Tom (Mr. Paul) " I LOVE YOU TOO!"

We ended with Lock 22 (lucky number) and we are settled in Winter Harbor for the night. Talk to you all tomorrow night. Not sure what tomorrow will bring. It just might be a chill day on the canal ! God  Bless you all and I  know that God is blessing us on our way!

And you'll always know your neighbor

Happy 4th of July everybody!

Ahoy Maties !  Day number 2 and we were under way at 8am this morn. Lock 9 was waiting for us. Our last lock was number 15.  We are secure in port for the evening at St. Johnsville Marina, (Redneck Yacht Club). Rednecks is subject to interpretation as there are also 2 million dollar yachts tied up in port with us.

I was thinking about a 4th grader today, Matt Seyfarth because he showed me pictures of lock 15. So Matt, I dedicate our passage through Lock 15 to you!  There is also a future 4th grader that I would love to honor and that is Jenna McD!  She is one of my followers and I love her very much!

Tomorrow will be the big lock at Little Falls. It is remarkable because it has a lift of 40 1/2 feet and this is a greater lift than any single lock on the Panama Canal.

xxoosmiles

Low bridge, for we're going through a town!

So - we made it!! We shoved off at 9:05 a.m. from Saugerties. Our first mile stone was the Federal Lock in Troy with an arrival time of 11:25 a.m.  Next , was Waterford when we entered the Erie Canal and climbed (The Flight of Five). They are the world's greatest series of high lift locks. The total lift is 169 feet, which is twice as much as the total lift from sea-level to the summit of the Panama Canal. After that we made some time as we passed under the twin bridges of the Northway in route to our final destination for the evening at Schenectady Yacht Club. Docking time for the night was 3:20.  We definitely worked up an appetate and were ready to chill on the dock with a ham dinner. 

Have a wonderful evening and we will talk to you all tomorrow night. Our goal is to end in Little Falls.

C'mon, C'mon lets get started!

Our goal is to arrive in Schenectady for our first night of sleep. Our first lock is in Troy. Troy is known as the Federal Lock. 

150yrs ago, Minnie the Mule worked for Captain John Fairweather's family on the busy Erie Canal. Every yr the Captain spent his winter cutting wood in the Adirondack mtns. The lumber would be loaded onto 2 barges and hauled in NYC. They would return to Buffalo, where the canal emptied into the Niagara River and then in the Great Lakes.  CANAWLERS  were rugged families who traveled the canal from early spring until the water froze each winter." Minnie the Mule and the Erie Canal" by Lettie A Petrie is a great book for the kids to read this summer and then go visit Troy's lock too!

couple more days

Hey Everybody!

A couple more days and we set off the shores of the Hudson River. The weather looks perfect and we will probably be arriving in Sodus Bay on Tuesday or Wednesday! Say prayers, xxoosmiles

Canalize

In 1903, almost 90 yrs after the beginning of Clinton's canal, the people of the State decided again to enlarge it by the construction of what has been generally termed the "Barge Canal." This time, in order to accommodate much larger barges, the engineers decided to abandon much of the original man-made channel and use new techniques to "canalize" the rivers that the canal had been constructed to avoid - the Mohawk,Oswego,Seneca,Oneida and Clyde- and Oneida Lake.

A uniform channel was dredged ; dams were built to create long, navigable pools, and locks were built adjacent to the dams to allow the barges to pass from one pool to the next. When it opened in 1918, the whole system was renamed the NY State Barge Canal.