Sorry this is a day late, but here we are at travel day 18. We are shooting to get close to the end of the Erie Canal today. But, before we leave Ilion I have to get a picture of this cute little boat at the marina. It’s hand made and it was launched a couple of days ago. The guy who built it lives on it for the season and toodles (the boat is so adorable, I have to say toodles, not motors) up and down the canal all summer. Anyway, although cloudy, it looks like another good day for travel.
We get to the first lock in under an hour, navigating locks is getting easier as we have a good process that works well going through them. It doesn’t hurt that for most of the locks today we are the only boat going through. In the picture above you see what they call a “guard gate.” The gates can be lowered to control water flow to do things like maintenance, managing emergencies and they can even be used to drain sections of the canal.
Another low bridge, yikes! We pass under it just fine.
They are doing quite a bit of dredging on the canal. We passed several operations and they are tricky to get around, but Doug does great keeping us in deep enough water. Although there were some tough spots where the depth seemed a wee bit low. Also, if I had a dredge boat, I don’t think I’d name it Poseidon. I’m thinking of the movie Poseidon Adventure of course.
We passed several cities on our journey, Utica and Rome among them. The name Utica is based on a city in Tunisia. When the city name was to be chosen, names were put into a hat and Utica was drawn out. And Rome is known as the “Birthplace of the Erie Canal” because that’s where the first shovel of dirt was taken when building the Erie Canal.
We get to Oneida Lake! No, it’s not named for silverware, it’s the name of a Native American tribe who inhabited the area. The lake is the largest lake located entirely inside the state of New York and is 21 miles long and around 5 miles wide. With an average depth of 22 feet it’s an easy crossing.
However, as we begin our journey across the lake, I take a nasty fall and have trouble getting up. My back and ribs on my left side are injured and I’m having trouble getting up, the only comfortable position I can find is laying on my back. Doug helps me get below and he continues on to the marina and takes care of everything. It’s not an easy job getting the boat to the marina and docked single handedly, but he does so marvelously. The marina staff has been incredible, they even have an EMT on staff. He comes on board and does all sorts of checks and can’t determine if I’ve broken a rib, but says the treatment for bruised and broken ribs is the same; pain killers and wrapping them up. Even in the midst of all this turmoil, we have seen the Lord by our side; getting across the lake safely, Doug docking and handling the boat on his own; the marina having an EMT on staff and the marina staff has been excellent sending over breakfast, snacks and medical supplies.
The western end of Oneida Lake empties into Oneida River. This side of the lake is gorgeous with beautiful homes. Doug took a picture of one of his favorites above. A beautiful home with interesting and unique architecture. Nice boat garage right?!
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