Arrived in Lyons, NY

Distance Travel:  24 nm
Total Distance: 218 nm
Day on Erie Canal  4th

This morning we left at 730am as we thought we were going to have a long day.

Fairport LB with the rain to come in the background

I made Oatmeal on the stove while Phil took the first watch.  It didn't take long for the rain in the above photo to reach us.  It was cool and rainy most of the morning.  Definitely a many layers of clothes day for me, but not as many as other days.  We also wore our new rain pants and foul weather jackets.  After we got to the first lock the rain stopped, but as soon as we started motoring down the canal, we motored right into it again.  This happened most of the morning through 5 locks today.  The vinyl gloves came in handy to protect our hand from handling the dirty lines since most of the locks had rope, but they weren't as slimy as the first lock in the Black Rock Canal.  We saw a few boats - mostly canal boats that were rented but a couple interesting boats including the one docked behind us.   We think that they live on their boat as they have a lot of stuff on it as you can see in the next photo.  They have jerry jugs for water (blue), Diesel (yellow), bikes and kayaks. There was also a motor boat Nomad that passed us as we came out of lock 28A, which was a little unusual we thought.  See Below.

M/V Valentine in Lyons, NY

M/V Valentine from top of hill

M/V Nomad

 After my watch, I started making some Creamy Potato Soup that had Cheddar Cheese in it and I also threw in a can of chicken as it seemed to me that something warm for lunch would be nice.  I had the vegetables in one pan ready to start cooking and then had the pan for the white/cheddar cheese sauce ready in another.  Then we came up to another lock, so had to come out to do my part on the bow.  Afterward, I started cooking so it turned out to be ready after lock 27, which is in Lyons.  The things is the rain stopped, the sun came out, and it got very warm - up to 72F and with the sun shining on us, it felt too hot for soup, but soup we ate.  The soup was good and we'll have plenty for the next couple days.  It's hard to make a small amount of soup!!

Phil got a call from Captain Dave, who was on his way back from Newport, RI to set up a place to meet us.  With  Lyons being on the intersection of Rt 14 and Rt 31, which goes to the NY turnpike and it being a nice town with a grocery store close by, we decided to stay even though it was only 1230pm.

After we ate we decided to go to the grocery store as I had a list started.  We were able to stock up on some fresh meat and other essentials and we used one of our sail bags that I had made, each taking a handle to carry it home.  It was a good thing we went when we did, as there were dark clouds from the west and sure enough another rain storm came and went in about a hour. We then decided to take a walk around town.  They are known for the Peppermint Museum - unfortunately it's only open on Saturdays.  But we did peak in the windows.  As usual in small towns, there were a lot of places that closed down at 3-4pm.  There is also an old movie theater that has been renovated, which is also closed until Sept 17 for maintenance.  They usually have a movie at 7pm.  Lyons is also know for the many murals that are painted on the buildings around town.  I took some pictures of those and maybe one day soon, I'll get a video slideshow going on the blog as I've taken MANY photos of this trip.

Corner building in Lyons, NY

Peppermint Museum - National Historic Landmark

Changes Docked behind Fire Station Lyons, NY

We are docked behind the Lyons Fire Department and they let the boaters use their restrooms and showers.  The gray part of the retaining wall behind our boat is made of rocks held in rectangular cages of fencing.  Just past the vegetation are stair that go up to the Fire Station. Are these very nice and clean!  Picture this:  dark gray 12" tile floors, gleaming white rectangular white tiles with a chair rail of bright red tiles with a black strip on either side.  Then the top painted wall is a dove gray with firetruck photos. It's a one person bathroom that's the size of a bedroom.  The walls of the nice showers are the white tiles.  Phil had a strong stream - must have taken mine as my stream was weak, but the water was hot and that's what counts the most.  All they ask is that we sign in and say where we're from.

Captain Dave and his fiance Louisa came to visit us about 4pm. It was good to see them again.  They had been in the car awhile so we took a walk around the town as we visited.  There are many old brick buildings and it's interesting to see the architecture.  After our walk, we had photos and then they were off to pick up Dave's son, Michael David.  Louisa is camera shy, but here is a photo of Captain Dave and Phil. 

Phil and Captain Dave Block, Lyons, NY

After they left, I made supper of a pasta sauce mix with Glenn's smoked pulled pork and some fresh cooked spinach.  I washed dishes to give Phil a break (usually I cook and he washes).  Then after a while, we went to the local ice cream stand and had hard ice cream cones since we missed out last night in Fairport. 

Our evenings and free time is spent reading and also spending a lot of time on the computer.  Phil prepares for the next day's travels putting the towns, marina, and locks and any caution area on a paper that we tape outside the companionway hatch.  Phil resets the tripometer each day and we've been putting the mile and the time that we get to each location as we go along.

Tomorrow we plan to get an early start.  Phil's thinking about getting started 7-7:30am as we have about 40 miles to go tomorrow to get to Baldwinville.  Actually, we could get started about 5am as it would take us 2 hours to get to the first lock when it opens at 7am, but I'm glad that Phil doesn't want to get up that early!!  He also says that we couldn't see and can't go on the canal without light.

So far we aren't having any problems with the engine and we have some predetermined places recommended to us to get good diesel fuel.  Phil say we also have a chart, which start at Lyons.  Even on the GPS the canal hasn't shown up after the first two locks.  It looked like we were going on land.  The canal has once again appeared on the GPS for the last 10 miles, so that's nice to see.  Tomorrow we will go thru the Montezuma Marsh and Captain Dave said that we won't have a cell phone signal while going thru it.  It covers 3 pages on the charts, but we're not really sure how long that it.  If you call and we don't answer, leave a message and we'll get it on the other side and call back.