Day 2 to Ilion, NY

      We are backing away from the dock at Rome (photo at right) on our way 25.9 miles to Ilion, NY. I had not mentioned it earlier, but we have long time family friend Ann Mowery from Lorain, Ohio. She will be with me for 2 weeks while the Admiral leaves on Day 4 to drive back to Texas for some family events. She will then fly back to Syracuse on June 7. Ann will be leaving near the end of May to return to Lorain and go to her niece’s high school graduation. So, Lucky and I will be alone to work on Lucky Us. Sound complicated? Yup. Today, Ann will be following along in our car, and tomorrow, Ann will be onboard while Terry follow in her car. There are scattered clouds, and it is expected to only warm into the upper 60s.  So we are bundled up for the trip today.

     The water levels have been high everywhere we have gone, and there were some concerns that the canal might not open as scheduled. Thus, water levels remain high, and there has been some debris, including this whole log with some of the roots sticking up (photo at left). The floating debris is easy to see, but as always, we worry about the “invisible” logs floating just below the surface.

      On our way to the Hudson River Valley we will pass through seven of these Guard Gates, which are used for flood control (photo at right). They can also be used to lower the water level for maintenance in a segment of the canal. They are not beautiful, but they are part of the trip...

      We pass a variety of (old) tugs and their barges in our trip. This is the tug Erie and behind her is a crew boat (photo at left). In the general area of the Hudson River, Erie Canal and St. Lawrence River there are many restored tug boats. There are a number of week long festivals in this area that feature tug boat races, pull offs, etc. Sounds interesting, but we have not been around when a festival was happening.

      Lucky Girl spends most of each trip in her kennel on the flybridge. However, she does wonder around to stretch and in this case, get some loving (photo at right). The center window in the enclosure was open today so I had a chilly breeze blowing on me. Thus, a nice warm dog in my lap was actually a good tradeoff for some serious scratching of Lucky’s ears.

       The Admiral took this picture of Lucky Us in Lock 19, which was the second and final lock for today. She took the picture while standing on the catwalk across the gate at this end of the lock. The photo gives a good perspective of the size of a typical lock chamber. What you cannot see is the 10 to 15 mph wind blowing toward Lucky Us. The wind makes it difficult to hold the boat up against the lock wall as the water goes down. These locks were built to hold a commercial tug and two barges, but there has been almost no commercial traffic on the canal since the early 1970s.

      This photo (at right) of Ann Holding the line near the bow. The lines are tied off at the top of the lock and hang down along the wall with a small weight at the bottom.  My job is to get the boat close enough for her to grab that line, and then I have to bring the stern over to the wall so that I can go (run?) down and grab a line near the stern. I am sure that it looks like one of those crazy fire drills in an old silent movie, but it works well most of the time…

     …and as if on que, there I am at the stern holding my lock line (photo at left). I look pretty relaxed, but that is because I have already been there a few minutes. In most canals it is possible to actually go through the locks singlehanded (i.e. with no crew), but I would think that would not be very easy unless the boat was fairly small.

      Our series of photos of a typical lock through ends with this photo looking back at the lock after we have exited (photo at right. You can also see some water leaking through the gate on the upstream side. The bridge is a railroad bridge, but there is also usually a road bridge near the lock as well. There were no boats waiting to enter the lock, but this channel is narrow so if you had to pass boats anxiously trying to rush into the lock, it would be quite close maneuvering.

   After about 5 hours we reached our destination of City Marina (and RV Park) at Ilion, NY (photo at left). We had first docked opposite the office so that we could get a pump out, and then we pulled the boat back to where she is moored for the night. We went into town and had a nice dinner at a local café called the Knight Spot. Their specialty was ice cream, and as you entered, you had to walk past several coolers full of ice cream. Well… After dinner, we all abandoned our will power and sampled really excellent ice cream. Ya gotta love these small towns!

Gonna sleep well!!!