6/18 - Lyons to Seneca Falls NY - It’s A Wonderful Life 🔔🎄

To take advantage of the coolest part of the day we decided to head out early to arrive at our first lock( of 4 today) right when they open at 8am.  This meant leaving about 6:30am.  The first 11 miles to the lock were pretty low stress, Renee drove for a bit while Erik finished the previous days blog.  As we arrived at the lock we found another boat also waiting to enter.  The other boat, Venture, out of Cleveland Ohio was a beautiful 39’ Greenline.  They were headed to the Hudson also, as they learn their new (July 2023) boat.  They alternate between electric and diesel.  They encouraged us to go ahead as they would be moving slow.  We decided to slow down in order to lock through with them at the next lock( trying to save them from a long wait). They apparently had the same idea and sped up to keep up till the next lock in about 5 miles.  After the next lock we turned off of the Erie Canal onto the Cayuga-Seneca Canal toward the finger lakes.  Our new acquaintances continued toward Baldwinsville.  

‘venture’ out of Cleveland entering the lock ahead of us and exiting after us
Their 39’ Greenline hybrid starts at only $675K…much more reasonable than the 1.3 million one we saw a few stops back….we could get his and hers ones! 😝 

The area is known as Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge and is very lush and green with lots of herons, ospreys, bald eagles, and ducks.  The first lock on the Cayuga-Seneca Canal was our first lift(went up not down).  The next lock between Cayuga and Seneca was a double lock with a total lift of about 50 feet.  Very shortly after the double lock we tied up at the wall at Seneca Falls.  

Serene morning cruise 

 Captain Riva preparing to lock through
She’s gotten into a bad habit of jumping up on the dash every time we slow down and sometimes walking over to sit on the compass between the shifters and throttles…makes maneuvering a challenge!

A sampling of short videos of the wildlife along our trip today:

Osprey takes flight

So far no deer has jumped out to collide with us…much better than our luck driving SR 60 at home!

Bald eagle 🦅 sitting in top of tree in distance

We had several sittings of eagles and STILL cannot manage a good pic or video 

Ospreys talking to us from their nest while waiting to enter a lock

Lots of herons 

Egret takes flight

We walked Riva, turned the AC on …it was starting to get hot 🥵.  We made some lunch then headed to the Seneca Museum which we understood was free and allowed dogs!  The museum had some very interesting displays of the history of the area in industry, women’s rights movement, and Erie Canal history.  The ladies at the desk gave us maps and information about the other museums in the area and must see sights.  

Sites coming into town on the canal and at the Seneca Museum

We are suspecting that each town in NY must be the ‘something’ capital of the world 😂 
Gould Pumps was started and headquartered here for many decades
It’s estimated that over 25% of all pumps in the world still were manufactured here 😮 

Next was nap time, then Erik logged in for a work meeting.  Riva was content to remain on the boat in the cool AC while we ventured back out to the main drag of the town where we first checked out the ‘It’s A Wonderful Life Museum’.   It is said, but never confirmed by the creator, that Seneca Falls was the town that the fictional town in the movie was based off of.  

Yes…it is in fact a wonderful life!

Down the street a little further we visited the Wesleyan Chapel, the site of the first woman’s rights convention and the neighboring building was a museum on women’s rights and the part that Seneca Falls played in the movement.  We watched a short film in their theatre but the museum was closing for the afternoon so we didn’t get the opportunity to see many of the exhibits.   Seneca Falls is a town that had a huge amount of industry and manufacturing in its early days of which many women in the town played a huge part in.  

The water wall with the full ‘Declaration of Sentiments’ is very cool
We hope to be able to get back to the National Park Museum to see more 

Full Declaration of Sentiments from 1848 Seneca Falls Convention which kicked off the women’s rights movement 

https://www.nps.gov/wori/learn/historyculture/declaration-of-sentiments.htm

We came back to the boat to grill up some burgers for dinner and shortly after walked up into town less than a quarter mile to a 7pm meeting.  It was an uplifting meeting where we met several more genuinely nice folks.  Got some good advice on places to go and see, had a couple guys say they’d stop by the boat tomorrow afternoon, and even had a member who has a car sales/rental business in town say that he’d likely have a car for us to rent tomorrow for us to drive around the area and see some of the many waterfalls that we are hoping to explore.  The sun had set and the temps cooled slightly so we took Riva to the park with her frisbee to attempt to get her some needed activity….unfortunately she heard a clap of thunder in the distance which quickly had her tail between her legs and her hiding at our feet.   Back at the boat we bat toned down the hatches for the potential incoming rain and retreated inside to the lazy chairs to enjoy ice cream cones and relax.   

We’ve seen many of these canal boat excursion rentals along the way