Heading west on the Erie Canal and July stats

We ended up spending 3 nights in Oswego, Wednesday through Friday before the Erie Canal reopened. Thursday was rainy in the morning which prompted us to take in a movie Thursday afternoon. The theatre in Oswego is great with very comfortable reclining seats, depending on the movie I'm just guessing the snoring gets worse than the cell phones. After the movie we hit the farmers market on Main St. and loaded up on fresh homegrown veggies. We had been missing the farmers markets so that was really a bonus.
Thursday also started the Oswego Harborfest and a group called The Family Stone was the top act over at Breitbeck Park. I looked it up and sure enough two of the members were with Sly and the Family Stone and one member is the daughter of Sly. It was definitely a throwback Thursday as we listened to the music...still thinking the sound would have been better with Sly! Think songs like Everyday People, Dance to the Music, Higher.

Friday had us making the rounds at the craft show and looking at all of the boats that came out for the festivities. A much better day weather wise but they only opened part of the closed section of the Erie Canal. We received notification Friday afternoon that the entire Erie Canal would be open at 7 a.m. Saturday with a 5 mph speed limit from Baldwinsville to Palmyra.
We ended up traveling 35 miles and 7 locks from Oswego to Baldwinsville Saturday, stayed at the lock wall as they have power and water for a $5 fee. Sunday we traveled 54 miles and 5 locks to Newark, NY where they have power, water and laundry for free. Monday we traveled 45 miles, 4 locks and 2 lift bridges to Spencerport where they have power and water for free also. Although it doesn't seem like a lot of miles it takes a long time...you have the 5 or 10 mph speed limit, other boats and docks that you have to slow down for and then the time it takes to do the locks and before you know it it's 5 p.m, locks are closing and we are beat.

The neat part about Newark is that is where the AGLCA looper flag actually crossed it's wake. When we started the loop in June 2015 we headed east on the Erie Canal with a plan of going to the 1000 Islands before doing the Trent-Severn Waterway. The summer of '15 was another wet one and Deja vue...part of the canal was closed. We sat in Newark for 2 days and decided to turn around, go back to Lake Erie and into Canada and take the Welland Canal to Lake Ontario. We didn't end up going to the 1000 Islands because we lost a week with retracing our steps and went directly to Canada and the Trent-Severn. It's a good thing we didn't wait for the canal to open in 2015, we would have waited in Newark almost 2 weeks. Although Mark and I have crossed our wake, the boat has crossed it's wake and the burgee has crossed it's wake we are still not back to home port. We will officially cross our wake in Buffalo at our home marina in a few days when we complete the GREAT LOOP.

                          July Stats     Loop to Date
Days looping               31              444   
Travel days                  18              199     
Miles traveled            713            7906

Walking the docks in Oswego

 

Scored at the farmers market

 

The Family Stone

 

A great boating day on the Erie Canal

 

The burgee crossed it's wake in Newark, NY...

the loop is almost complete

 

The bike path along the Erie Canal spans NYS

from Albany to Buffalo

 

Welcome to Fairport, one of the many small

towns along the Erie Canal

 

We passed a couple of the rental canal boats along the way

 

The intersection of the Erie Canal and the Genesee

River in Rochester

              

"Fred" showing us the way along the canal