 |
| Morning in Fairport |
The hustle and bustle of people and live music last night gave way to a quiet Sunday morning in Fairport. Erik got up his usual pre dawn and wandered around town for an hour or so before Renee woke up a little before 5:30am. Riva did her morning business and we had a cup of Joe before heading out on our bikes to a 6:30am meeting held in the shelter house of a park a couple of miles away. It was a crisp ride with the temp being only 51 degrees. We will likely appreciate and wish for these cool temps over the next week with the incoming heatwave 🥵. The meeting was very good and in a peaceful park setting. There were barn swallows flying around the shelter house (couldn’t get a good pic) and we were visited by a deer. About 25 folks with what seemed to be some good recovery. We stayed after and chatted for a bit before heading back to the boat. We had some breakfast and sat for a couple of hours watching the canal and town come back to life. We were preparing to shove off around 10:30am when John and his labradoodle, Monty, whom we had met at the meeting earlier came by the boat to visit. Riva was ecstatic to have a canine friend aboard to play with. They stayed and shared for about 45 mins; nice to meet new friends.
 |
| Nice setting for some morning recovery |
 |
| Our new friend, John Riva and her new friend, Monty |
We pulled out of Fairport at 11:20am to head east toward Newark, about 20 miles and 2 locks. We weren’t sure if we would stay in Newark or just stop in briefly and move on to Lyons which was another 5 miles (but 2 additional locks). We cruised for about 1.5 hrs on one engine at a blistering 5.7mph in order to both ‘smell the roses’ as well as conserve some fuel. The landscape turned quickly very rural again. There were many areas of ponds and swampy land where the canal would widen out. We also noted that there were significantly more hills on the horizon. It was an uneventful, warm day of cruising with temps reaching the lower 80’s and a blistering, bright sun 🌞.
 |
| More hills along the banks than previous couple days |
After traversing the first two locks of the day we picked up the pace a bit to get to Newark where we had read they have a free wall with electric and water AND FREE laundry. Arriving in Newark at 2:58pm we were greeted by a lady from the village who signed us in, gave us bath and Wi-Fi codes, and shared a little about the town. We’ve experienced nothing but kindness and true hospitality thus far all along the canal 🤗. Within 10 minutes after us another looper boat, Bucket List, came in from the east. We caught their lines and helped them to get secured. Boris and another guy whose name we can’t pronounce let alone recall started from New Bern NC on May 29…..they are making miles fast! The are lifelong friends from Moldova (Eastern European country and former Soviet republic) who both immigrated to the U.S in 1991. Their accents are thick and they both have good senses of humor….fun to communicate with.
It was a hot afternoon and we were pretty tired so it was pretty much decided we would stay put for the day. Then came the swim lesson! Problem is that IPhones don’t swim 😩. As Renee was stepping onto the boat from the high canal wall her phone came out of her pocket, plunging into the water below. Ugh. Erik quickly considered jumping in and attempting to dive down and get it as the water depth on our gauge said it was only 8.8 ft deep, but, it was very murky water and to dive under the boat in a canal didn’t seem like the wisest move. The remainder of the afternoon and evening was spent making dinner, shopping online for a new phone for Renee, and chatting some more with the Moldavian friends. Oh yea, and since the ice cream shop was only 200 ft from the boat we HAD to try that out. It was run by ARC which is a non profit that supports people with developmental disabilities….good cause so Erik had to have a double scoop tonight 😝
No comments:
Post a Comment