Before we left Waterford the lockmaster gave Colin & Bill a tour of the lock operating procedures & workings - however he was a bit stressed to find a body in his lock next morning, According to news reports it was a young man and cause of death was accidental.
The Erie banks are tree (lots of willows) lined & reminded us of rivers back in NZ such as the Waikato & Ohinemuri . The river flowing in & out of it is the Mohawk. We are still travelling with boating buddies Bill & Joyce, docking together, walking the villages, & eating together - they still like us! Many of these small canal side towns encourage tourist business by offering free dockage, park side facilities & even free electricity & cheaper fuel, or laundry. We did 9 locks in the first day which does take some concentration - they are not all the same. Some have cables or pipes to slip your ropes around or ropes to hold on to for the lifts. We are going up in the locks at the moment - later in the canal we start going down. Drops/lifts vary from 8 ft to 40 ft.
Many locks have been damaged by hurricane Irene & the huge floods in recent years & the engineers are still working repairing & in some cases completely replacing some locks.
The next day we reached Canajoharie where we visited a small but very impressive art gallery with a collection of Homer Winslow painting & reproductions of some famous masters. Most of the collection was bequeathed by Bartlett Arkell a founder of Beech- Nut food company.
The trains (usually 2 tracks & often on each side of the canal) run all day & most of the night. They toot away as they enter towns and 2 or 3 engines are pulling a minimum of 100 wagons/flatbeds. When we dock we wonder how frequently they will be but have become quite used to the noise. Bill & Joyce have taught us the board game "Trains" - isn't that appropriate.
No comments:
Post a Comment