Friday August 22: Brewerton - Where Does the Time Go?

The night was peaceful enough with just a bit of rippling of the water in the canal which runs next to the Oswego River. The last three of seven locks are within 2 mile of each other so it makes for an easy start upriver to the Erie Canal. We were alone on the lock wall.

Steve took advantage of the sunny afternoon yesterday to dry our bedding - the last rain when we were aft end to the wind really managed to find some way to get under the door and get the mattress wet.

After a quick trip to the post office to pick up our replacement phone (thanks Wendy for sending!!) we were on our way south - up the Oswego Canal.

This river/canal system connects the Erie Canal (which runs east-west) with Lake Ontario to the north. We'll be traveling south until we come to the Erie Canal.

It's still unseasonably cool - even the trees are beginning to think it's fall :-)

The locks on the NY State system are much larger than those of the Canadian lock systems - 328 feet long and 45 feet wide. It make it easy to maneuver even with the 6 boats with which we were locking through.

Some of the locks had lines so far apart that we could use only one cable - a center line only was the only way to hang on.

Mmmm... what a great idea. Steve could just get the center line and I could, well .... not do anything :-)

It was an uneventful trip through the 6 locks until we came to the junction of the Erie Canal. Turn east and head to Brewerton - a short 10 miles and 1 lock away.

Finally about 3 pm we arrived at Brewerton - and docked just in front of Peter and Cheryl on Deja Vu and Jim and Linda on Symmetry II!

Steve had called them last night to find out where they were. Last we saw of them was at Lakefield six weeks ago.

They were headed west on the Erie Canal and we were headed east - bound to cross paths! It was good to see them again - and weird. It's like we saw them just yesterday .....

The weather continues to be wet, cold, no sun and thunderstorms rolling around. Definitely not a day to travel. Instead? A road trip!!

Jim and Linda kindly loaned us their truck for a drive to Watkin Glen and the Finger Lakes region of NY.

The only comment I will make was that it involved a lot of walking (1 1/2 miles along the Gorge Trail at the state park). Fortunately, there was a shuttle that would for a mere $3 take you from the bottom of the gorge to the top so you can just walk down the 800 some odd steps down to the bottom.

I LOVED that shuttle :-)

Cheryl kindly came along with me as Steve and Peter walked UP the gorge trail and the 800 odd steps.

The waterfalls along the way were amazing. I lost count of how many we actually saw. And of course I took lot of pictures but it really is hard to capture the beauty. Click here if you would like to see pictures folks have posted on yelp.

Eventually we met Peter and Steve coming up as we were going down. They didn't seem any worse for the wear but for my money - give me the shuttle ANY day :-)





Were we done? Of course not. There were more falls to be seen! Buttermilk Falls in Ithaca. And then Taughannock Falls just north of Ithaca - nice that we were able to drive to see it. The rain by that time was just getting downright nasty.

All in all it was a great day and a nice chance to get caught up with Peter and Cheryl.

By 10 am the next day, they were off - headed down to Oswego, north across Lake Ontario, back north on the Trent - destination: home near Midland Ontario at the southern end of Georgian Bay.




Jim was pointing the way as they headed out of the marina :-)

After an enjoyable evening with Jim and Linda last night, it was time for them to head home.

Symmetry will be stored here for the winter. Haul out was completed by noon and they were on their way back home to Edisto.

Goodbye's again. We'll see them on the waterway down south :-)