Adventures With My Family

What do cheerios and clevis pins have in common?  They are part of our current experience of stepping the mast.  We are in Buffalo, NY getting our mast, which we carried all thru the Erie Canal, reinstalled.  It's scary watching the mast hanging on a crane with a muscleman holding on for dear life.  With all this large and very heavy  equipment, success depends on a simple clevis pin.  Just enough to keep a massive peice of metal in place.  I find this fascinating. Conjures up the poem..For Want Of A Nail. Whilst all this is happening, whafting through the air is the slightly distinct odor of toasting grain with a hint of vanilla. Turns out immediately opposite us in the channel is the General Mills/Gold Medal Plant.  We are smelling toasting cheerios. We may, or may not, get underway into Lake Erie today, if we (that would be John) are able to get the boat ship shape for more open water.  Lake Erie is for all practical purpo...

I like history and soaking in the scenery along the way.  John likes walking around the small canal front towns.  Brian likes activities.  The last few days we’ve immersed ourselves swimming in the intermittent lakes along the way, Brian’s delight.  Lake Onieda was first, Cross Lake yesterday and Lake Cayuga, one of the finger lakes today !  We barely drop anchor in a protected bay and bust out the bathing suites.  But immersion in the lake requires a certain inner fortitude.  Oneida was 62*.  Cross lake was 68* but honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference---it was all cold.  Brian and I are the hearty souls.  John…well…he requires considerable persuading.  So we expound the virtues of the water—brisk, clear, refreshing water…which, curiously, after about 2 minutes is how it feels.  It clearly cools me off and functions as my bath for the day.  Brian and I have fun while we wait for John (about 15 minutes or longer) to sl...

If you've ever tried to make the top of a bunk bed you get the idea.  Trying to tuck a sheet under something that you are lying atop of is...well absurd.  Early efforts resulted in fits of uncontrolled laughter.

Spent two nights at Lock 22...just downstream from Rome, NY.  Lots of great historical events occurred along the Mohawk...Ft Stanwix and Oriskany Battlefields.  These were not numerically large battles but the outcome drove a stake in the Brits plans to split the colonies along the Hudson...leading to his defeat at Saratogo.   Brits tried to capture the fort by starving it into surrender.  Continental forces accompanied by Oenieda Indian came to the rescue and were met by Brit and other native Indian allies. The Continentals were ambushed and decimated in a narrow ravine near a village of Oriskany.  Though a tragic loss for the continentals, the native tribes supporting the British were demoralized and abandoned the Brits when they discovered their camp ravished by militia from the fort.  The brit allied natives withdrew forcing the British to abandon their efforts to capture the fort and retreat. Couldn't help but ponder the significance of thi...

Ilion, NY does not have a whole lot going on but it is home to Remington (as in rifles not razor blades).  There is a major factory here and museum that was recommended to us.  But the winds are peppery today and the air temp in the 50s...so we decided to lay over here at the Ilion Marina.  Dollar a foot, so that runs about 43 bucks per night for us, with tax.  They have water and electrical hook up, showers, bathrooms, washing machines and something we've come to prize...wifi. Well the factory was a bit of a disappointment but the setting here in the marina is lovely albeit a bit noisy.  Highway runs by close and the railroad across the channel.  So today we loaf.  Take a nap, read books, post to the blog and breath fresh air. Dinner out tonight.  Get to walk, say 20 feet to the shack (see picture) for a steak sandwich.  That comes recommended too. Will see.  I get a night off from cooking. We are docked next to a snappy looking...

Waterford, NY.   We did it!  We successfully transited our first lock just above Troy NY in the Hudson.  It was a thrill.  Brian did all the hard work holding our boat to the wall as the water lifted us up. Proud of him! We took a bit of a chance moving into the canal system knowing that some of the larger lock system was not yet open.  We, along with about 20 other boaters are now camped within 50 yards of the first lock on the Erie Canal along the canal walls of Waterford.  Almost all the other boaters, many Canadians, are waiting for the locks to Lake Champlain to open.  The rest are waiting for the Oswego Locks, which splits off of the Erie Canal, to open. Seems both places have been fraught with high water keeping the canals closed.  As a result there is a backup here in Waterford and back down the Hudson of boaters waiting for the words, "It's open!"  Today we learned that the Owego is opening tomorrow so some traffic should star...