We had a relaxing start to our day, not leaving Lockport until 824am. We entered Lock 35 and immediately went into Lock 34, the first 2 locks in the Western part of the Erie Canal. Phil paid for a 10 day pass which is $37.50. It’s pretty amazing how quickly the water empties out of the locks, as it took us only 13 minutes to get through both locks dropping 49′ total. 10 min later we were through the first of many lift bridges. First the bells clang, clang, clang as the bridge starts to go up. You might hear the grinding of the equipment as the bridge rises, then after the boat has pass under the bridge, the bells clang again as the bridge goes down to be repeated at the next bridge.

The next bridge, the Adam St lift bridge (LB) is now in the permanent up position and the road was taken up and is now grass. We tied up at the Gasport LB to see some sights, until the bridge tender came up to us saying that he had to drive to the Medina LB, so we hurried to untie the dock lines and went through the LB instead of waiting for him to return. The Erie Canal are short bridge tenders, so he had to take care 4 of the bridges today driving between them as the need arose.
The next place we tied up was at Medina to get a free pump out, and does it work well! Our tank wasn’t that full, but that’s ok. The last thing I want to happen is for it to overflow and have THAT SMELL. After redocking, we talked with S/V Senior Moment, a Gemini 105m. Murray and Sandy are cruising on the Erie Canal with their daughter and 2 pre-teenaged grandsons. We exchanged our first boat card. We walked around Medina, hoping for a grocery store, but all we found was a Kwik Fill store. It seems that Sunday is not the day to visit as most of the stores were close except the Liquor store and the video store.
By 134pm we were on our way again this time with the windows on the dodger removed not expecting to stop again until we reached Holley, NY. I don’t know how hot it is at home, but it’s very hot here, about 90F. You know what they say about best made plans? Well we had to stop and tie up at the Knowlesville LB as the bridge tender wasn’t there. When you buy the pass, they also give you the phone numbers for the different LB’s so we called Knowlesville LB and heard the phone ring outside. Phil also tried the Eagle Harbor LB and Medina LB, no luck. Phil called the Albion Main St LB and success! Our Bridge tender was on his way from Medina 5 miles away. That’s ok, as we were docked in the shade. A little after 230pm, we were on our way again.

Supper tonight on our way was cheese and crackers and canned peaches. It’s too hot for much more. Soon after we arrived at the Holley LB and passed through to dock at the nice park on the east side of the bridge. S/V Senior Moment was there too. The bridge tender came over and gave us the important code to get into the all important showers. I remember when we went camping as kids, and it was important that the campground had a swimming pool. Well showers rate pretty high on my list now. Can you tell?? Haha.

The town of Holley does have a nice Save A Lot and the bridge tender was kind enough to give us a ride to the store. That’s why we like this part of the canal, everyone is very friendly and helpful. Once the backpack was loaded with fresh fruit, veggies and a couple meat items, we walked back on the trail to see the waterfall they are famous for. It is beautiful and most of the walk home was in the Shade and slightly cooler woods.

Our friend Dave P has kids and here are a few pictures of some animals we’ve seen along the way today. Geese and a blue heron. I don’t know if you know this, but Blue Heron are very skittish so every time the boat came just close enough to get a decent photo, they flew off to land ahead, to be repeated many times. Of course, it had to be when we were eating that one DIDN’T fly off, but I think between the two of us, we got a couple good photos. We also saw a white duck in with some geese, but not fast enough to get a photo.

We hope to make it to Fairport tomorrow and see my brother either tomorrow night or Tuesday.