Sunday we had another short walk about town in Lyons and then topped off the water before leaving. Very hot and humid here but today a small breeze from the SW, which is very welcome. Thunderstorms were forecast, so we played toneau on-toneau off on the fly-bridge, and then we ended up taking down the bimini when we heard how low the upcoming railroad bridge was. Good thing, because Dan could touch the underside of the bridge from a standing position as we passed under it. After this bridge, we’ve heard we don’t have to worry anymore about the bimini, as the heights are all 18 feet or more.
We spent a leisurely day cruising through the Montezuma Heritage Preserve. Just inside was a spendid example of an aquaduct - pity it isn’t used any more. Saw lots of herons and kingfishers, a few turtles, and some great white egrets as well as one bald eagle. It’s a thirty mile stretch through this preserve to the next lock, which made for a long day, but it was a pleasant one.
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| Great blue heron |
Baldwinsville is yet another charming town with grand, historic houses and a lot of history they are proud to display on plaques. We took a long walk, in search of ice cream, and finally came to what looked like a gas station/convenience store called Byrne Dairy. We not only enjoyed some great ice cream, but scored some River Rat cheese! We discovered River Rat cheese on our last big adventure, when we spent a couple nights in Clayton, NY on the St. Lawrence River. (We love the cheese so much, we’ve even ordered it online for Christmas presents.) As we sat eating our ice cream, we met a wonderful woman from Baldwinsville who told us she was 90 years old and filled us in on her growing up in town (no plumbing, no electricity) and her many vacations in Maine with her husband. She was funny and full of stories and I hope she enjoyed our company as much as we did hers.
Monday we awoke to a high-pitched alarm going off somewhere outside- we finally traced it to our own fly bridge, much to our chagrin, as the Monk 36 right behind us was also searching to find the source. It was a propane sensor - no propane nearby, but the sensor was diligently alerting us anyway. Dan spent the morning dealing with that and working in the engine room changing the fuel filter and inspecting the impellor while I tied up and kept Tommie distracted from the open hatch. We had a short day cruising to Phoenix, so we weren’t too upset that we didn’t set off until just after noon. We got to our destination about 2:30, plenty of time for a walk and a visit to the laundromat, which is located just steps away from the tie-up.
Phoenix is at the mouth of the Oswego Canal, in 2015 and decided it would make a good overnight stop before we travel into and through the Oneida Lake on our eastbound course. We have officially traveled halfway through the Erie Canal and are now retracing our 2015 path. Phoenix is a great, friendly little town, famous for the Phoenix Bridge Brats - teenagers doing their community service for church, scouts, or school. They offer to run errands of any kind for the boats tied along the seawall here. There is also a cute little canal-side park with a band pavilion and tonight it’s busy with a church supper/fundraiser and dancing courtesy of the local band. Unlike other canal-side parks, we get the feeling the town would be doing this whether or not boats were in residence - many townspeople are here dancing, eating, or just sitting in the lawn chairs they brought for their evening out. We had hotdogs and 'coneys' (think red hotdogs only they are white) and pie and listened to a mix of country and sixties music. So fun, so small town.
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| Church supper table. |
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| The band pavilion and dancing. |
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