Friday July 2, 2021.
Temp: 70/60, Humidity: 67/99%, Top Wind: N10 mph, Precip: rain, Miles Traveled: 48, #of Locks: 2
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We were once again parked right under a lamp post, so it seemed like daylight all night long in our bedroom. It did actually help with waking up at 5:00, but wasn’t so helpful when waking up at 1:00 for no reason. Oh well. Plus we have lots of dead bugs onboard now. 😫 We were both up by 5:30, got our coffee made, unplugged, pulled our lines and were cruising away by 6:00. Even at that, we were the fourth boat off of the wall! Our plan was to travel 48 miles to Lyons. There really isn’t anything in between here and there, so we wanted to get out first to hopefully ensure ouselves a spot on the wall there.
We saw a variety of living accommodations along the canal today. A few nice homes, a lot of homes that need work, and then there was this huge camping/RV camp that stretched along for about a mile!
It was interesting to see the variety of camp spots; most had a golf cart, some had BBQs, one had a full size refrigerator near the campfire. 🤷♀️. Yep – there be rednecks in upstate New York!
We saw these two bald eagles that were patient enough to pose for a photo. I need to get out my telephoto lens!
This old aquaduct was really cool. We are actually traveling on the Seneca River. This 900 foot long aquaduct is where the canal of 1862 crossed the Seneca River. It seems kind of odd to us today, but the original canal did not travel through lakes or along the river in most places, because barges were towed by mules. There wasn’t steam engines or power vessels yet, so there had to be a tow path alongside the waterway.
This was the remaining aquaduct ruins on the other side of the river.
It was 30 miles before we finally arrived at our first lock of the day. This one had a really long wall and then it was only a 6 foot lift.
I always find it interesting how the water floods into the lock – it boils in like a jacuzzi on Island Girl’s belly.
We went past several agriculture fields of various kinds. I was surprised to see corn fields…I always think of corn as being a midwest crop. And we smelled plenty of cow foof.
Only five more miles and we arrived at lock 26 – in the village of Clyde. Where do you live? Clyde. Huh?🤔. We had to maneuver around a barge to get into the lock, and then it was just another small 6’ lift.
This made me giggle out loud. Check out the chimney on this little lock house.
I don’t know if you can see it, but it made me think of the Muppets Sam the Eagle character.
Just a half mile after this lock, we had the lowest overhead bridge so far. The canal system says it is 16.13’ air height. I put my camera on the radar arch and took a video of us going under it. It was really hard to tell how much room we had over the highest part of the blue canvas, but we were OK. We’ll have a shorter bridge (likely the shortest on the whole canal) to go under tomorrow. 😬
This was just some of the remote canal. It was scenic, and our weather today was cool and humid. We were a little bit cold and damp today. The forecast called for rain all day, and so far we had been super lucky to not get rained on yet!
I don’t know the story on these big walls. They looked like they belonged to an old bridge or something maybe? I just thought they looked so cool with all of the jungle growing up around them. It was like driving through a Disney ride, waiting for Indiana Jones to pop out somewhere!
We arrived at Lyons and were happy to see that there wasn’t a single boat here yet! YAY! We have our pick of spots.
We found a spot near a power pedestal that was not under a light. The wall AND power are free here! We were just finishing up securing our lines and power when it started to sprinkle rain. Then it rained for about an hour and a half. Whew! That was perfect timing!
When they say it is a “high wall”, they mean it! This was a much higher wall than yesterdayd in Baldwinsville. We had to walk forward to the bow to get off, since our bow slopes up a bit in elevation. It’s still a giant stride over to the wall, a one legged squat, then stand up.
Lyons is a friendly town to loopers – check this out!
There are a lot of educational signs to tell the story about the canal.
Would you look at that? We could get fried dough tomorrow morning! What is fried dough? I don’t know…. in the south it could be hushpuppies, but here its probably a donut or some other kind of deliciousness.
This is a good sign – it explained the construction of the lock and how the water flows in from the bottom. There are chambers on the side where the water comes in.
I decided to go scope out town. On my walk up from the canal I crossed paths with Mr. Bob Stopper. He is the town host and he loves loopers. He gave me the whole scoop – that the town is “this street here, for about three blocks, and that’s it.”
Lyons is the county seat for Wayne county, and has a pretty fancy county building with a big dome.
There were lots of pretty flower baskets decorating the town.
The town is also known for wall murals, so I captured a few.
This whole side of the building was painted to display a story to go with the two real windows.
The Ohmann Theatre was built in 1915 and has been restored to its original beauty. It shows first run movies on two screens.
Some more murals.
This is Mr. Bob. Next to him is a barrel of peppermint plants, and he was explaining how Lyons used to be the peppermint capital of the world. Peppermint fields were everywhere, and peppermint oil was extracted and shipped everywhere. He invited all of us to take some clippings of this black stem peppermint, so that it would continue growing and bushing out.
Here is our wall. This isn’t a place that all boats would be able to use! There is a floating dock in front of us where a little Ranger Tug docked.
And here are some of the peeps! We first met Jim & Marilyn on Spinning Dreams back in the Dismal Swamp, and now we’ve just officially met Ike and Terry on Paradise Falls (the little tub).
Here’s Island Girl and Spinning Dreams peeking up at us from the wall.
There is a Pub right here next to the boat that might have been good for dinner. They even had live music tonight! But…. the music wasn’t that great, so we decided to go find another option. Our first choice wasn’t open for the holiday weekend, so then we found another spot. It was OK, but nothing great. On our way back, we saw this colorful sign.
Tomorrow we have some navigational challenges. And it will be Saturday of 4th of July weekend. We’re thinking we want to get an early start, but it can’t be too early because the next lock is within spitting distance from us, and it doesn’t open until 7:00. Hopefully we’ll be able to dodge the rain again, since it’s a 50/50 bet we’ll get wet tomorrow.