Lock 19 and beyond to Sylvan Beach/Lake Oneida

We went to bed before 10pm, last night. Obviously we were pooped! It is the first early night for some time, so of course we woke early. I was up taking photos at 5.53am! It was light already, and very pretty. The cruise boat ahead of us on the floating dock..we would have loved to have been on that, but we were stuck on a med. height concrete wall with a steel cap. There were only large barge balls to attach to other than the fence, so we used both. Looks how still it is!

 You can see the Gates just beyond the highway bridge.

 There is a cute little Canal Tug parked in front of us. The water is so still:) These mornings make us happy to be alive:)

 

We are parked outside  a very well presented and landscaped Gift Shop and Restaurant. The wall is a bit nasty though...steel wrapped, and I didn't tell Waz to stop in time and we crunked the wall a little. Didn't crack anything, but left a yellow mark. It will come out, I'm told. I hate miscalculating these things because the boat suffers.

We weren't in any hurry to leave town, so decided, having already had breakfast at 7am, that we would go for a long walk. We didn't go into Herkimer, being a little far, so we crossed over the canal bridge (where we took the pics) to the other side which showed much promise in the historic building front.
First up was this old church, showing signs of wear and tear...too many harsh winters?

 

I guess it is allowed to! 

 So many Victorians that had been added to...somewhat badly, I might add...this one isn't too bad but...

 ...most of the large houses have been made into apartments, which totally spoils them. This one needs some attention!

 We cracked up watching this squirrel try to run across the lawn with the plastic drinking cup in its teeth.

This Homestead was built by two cousins who were originally Teachers, for their retired brethren.

Bummer, we missed the auction...this one is a beauty!

This is the home that sold at Auction! Read the history...

This is a former private home, now turned into apartments.

 as is this one...

 We loved the Bears on the front lawn...all for sale!! They were very well done, I might add.

 Pigeons roosted everywhere in these old homes. Apparently they are quite aggressive, taking chunks of wood out of the window frames, to get inside an attic, out of the cold and wet.

 

 

 Love the shingles on the roof spire...will tell you the story of this home further down...

The Clematis are glorious:)

The detail above the main doors of the simple church.

 

 

 This home was built by the same teacher (spinster) who built the Home for retired teachers. Her cousin, also a teacher, built the brick home next door, and the two spinsters lived side by side. The one who built this home, in the late 1800's paid $2,700+ to have it built. It was a small fortune in those days. As she and her cousin neared their golden years, they built the Home for Retired Teachers, and moved in there. The current owner of this home is letting it go to rack and ruin, but she said her heating bill was $6k for the last 6 months of winter. It has been divided into three apartments, and out back, which is huge, has been converted to a café...and not a pretty one either. Ho hum.

 

It is very evident that this part of the country is still in the grips of recession. There is not a lot of work, in some of the small towns. One lady we talked to recently said she has owned an apartment building in a small town, for 20 yrs, and this is the first year she has had any vacancies! She has also had to evict tenants for the first time, for not paying their rent. She said there is just no money in some of these places.

 

 

You know you are in serious snow country when you see these snow plough on vehicles.!

 

 

We got back to the boat around 9.10 am, and got ready to cast off almost immediately.

 

We had Lock 19 to go through and it was ready for us...It had been closed the day before.

 

We would finish the day with two locks going back down to Lake Oneida. It was quite a change to go down, instead of up!

 

Time to cast off!

 

 This area is the home of Remington...as the sign says!

The lead up to Lock 19 was full of debris in the water, including this whole tree trunk. It must be a continual battle to keep the waterway clear of this stuff, especially just after winter...lots of flooding!

We had to call ahead and ask if the 20ft on the gauge on the side of the concrete wall to left was correct...if so, we would just squeak under this bridge, and go straight into the lock. We made it with about 4 inches to spare...I was holding my breath as I stood outside ready to go into the dock.

Out the other side of Lock 19...about 25 feet up, this time.

 

We encountered more Dredging pipes, straight out of the lock.

Once through those locks, we found small dams with plenty of debris sitting perched on the top...our wake sent a lot of this over the falls.

Pretty scenery on the other side of the highway.

The usual blots on the landscape...but we all need electricity!

A dock we could have used at Rome....we have been through Verona, Amsterdam and New London, to name a few...theme??? :)

Cuties!

 One of the few houses that was actually on the riverside, today.

Lock  # 21 is the first Lock to take us down again. It took us down 25 feet.  At this stage we were 394 feet above Sea Level.
We locked through #22, again going down 25 feet... and that was it for us on this side (east) of Lake Oneida.

 

Lock 22's walls were very rough, as you can see..This is taken looking out the back (the flag tells you that!). here we are at the bottom of the lock

 I raced upstairs as we left the lock, to take these photos. The walls were some of the worst we have encountered, and the ropes were a long way apart. Waz tied a rope to one of the pipes, as I hung onto the forward rope. It isn't sufficient to have only a mid-rope attached, we find, because either the stern or the bow swings out into the middle of the lock. We are 55 feet, remember, and 55,000lbs, so we have a lot of windage, and with the combined effects of wind and the current made by the filling or draining of the lock, it makes our girl a challenge to control.

Thank goodness that is the last lock of the day! phew! and we only did 4 locks, today.

The gates closed as soon as we were out, because there was another boat on the radio requesting an opening.

We are now on 'The other side' of the Erie Canal, before Lake Oneida.

Along the 5 knot controlled canal to the town of Sylvan Beach, were some lovely scenes. We had been under so many low bridges today, more than any other day, anywhere. We are coming to more populated areas, which means more traffic, which means more highways crossing the Canal.

  ...we got a brief taste of things to come at Sylvan Beach, when we encountered more Pontoons Boats and other small ones, along with plenty of Fishermen. The fact that we were already doing 5 knots meant we didn't have to button off the engines to pass any of them. We were the only ones doing 5 knots, I might add....All the other boats had captains with lead feet!


This is the scene that greeted us when we approached Sylvan Beach. Soooo many boats coming and going.

Single wide trailer homes, and pontoon boat cities!!!

See the white Sea Ray boat on the right, against the wall?? slightly to the right of the middle tree?? We were going to try and tie up in front of them, then realized that the town wall did a jog, half way along, to the left. Hmmm....That meant we ended up fitting ourselves in behind the last boat on the wall straight ahead. Our stern was poking out a bit but we decided to stay put...really, there was nowhere immediately available to park. We didn't count on this kind of chaos. It must be summer???

We sat on the back of the fly deck with a beer (much needed, after the hot and humid day) and watched the amazing spectacle of all the boats parading (yes, literally) up and down the canal./river past us. It was something else:)

We were happy to drawn the curtains as the sun went down, though it was still hot and humid. I had kept the curtains and windows closed, downstairs, in the somewhat vain hope of retaining some semblance of cool. I was partially successful!

The one thing about travelling on a gorgeous day, is that we have to contend with the humidity and when we stop, the heat, because we don't have any breeze, anymore.

We both got a good night's sleep, despite the music coming from the other boats docked around us...it appears that people come to the town dock for the weekend and party, bar-b-q, drink too much, run their generators out on the grass, to provide air conditioning in their various sized boats.

We had been for a walk, earlier in the afternoon, along the town dock, like so many others, looking for an Ice-cream for Waz. We were flabbergasted by the sheer numbers of boats and people, both in and out of the water and on the beach.

 ...and in amongst it all were a gazillion ducks with lots of little ducklings, all dodging the boats! aieeee!

We were told that the summer is so short in these parts, that everyone enjoys every single day to the max! They sure were...but some of them need to learn some manners, and some rules of the water.  We had to reset the fenders to accommodate the rock and roll at the rock, when boaters were going past us so close, but at 10-15 knots! sheesh!  The Sherriff was in evidence, but we wondered what he was actually doing, other than texting! (we saw him!!)

all the boats parked just in front of the beach and swimmers... not a great mix!

 

Lifeguards in the water...all four corners!

Couldn't resist! a Hummer parked next to the beach.

 And there was a meeting of the Harley owners in one of the bars.

Our walk took us to Captain John's Seafood Restaurant. This came highly recommended by some locals.
Never trust the locals!! We didn't know what to order from the menu, to begin with, but chose Coconut Shrimp for an 'Entree'..or as they call it here, and Appetizer. We still don't understand how an Entrée is a Main Course. Never mind!!!

We then ordered a Hamburger for Waz, which he said tasted like cat food, lol. I wasn't brave enough to try it!
I ordered the jumbo shrimp Caesar salad. Normally I wouldn't object to only getting three shrimp on my bowl/plate, but the shrimp to salad ratio was incredible. By that I mean that the shrimp was so little and the salad was so much. It was overwhelming, and I am an avid salad eater!

After eating the bacon wrapped shrimp and some salad, I gave up...I felt mad that the salad didn't have any anchovies in it (there rarely is), but at $16 for the salad I was feeling cheated. I complained about the inequity on the plate, and was fobbed off with.."Those are Jumbo Shrimp and we only get 7 per pound!! " and " there is anchovy in the dressing!!"..what? which culinary school did their 'Chef' go to??? Grrrrrrrrr..We didn't give the waitress a tip..she didn't stop at our table long enough to even listen to our order, let alone gripe!

I had trisketts and spinach dip, at 9pm, I was hungry again by then.

We are determined not to eat at any more of these restaurants. Anything with a Captain, before it, is bad news in our experience. Wait, did I say this before???I have a feeling I did! lol.

I bought a small cup of ice-cream on the way home, and spoon fed Waz a couple. He was full from his burger. It was way too sweet and we didn't really enjoy it.

We were happy to get back to the boat, sit up top with a cup of coffee, until the bugs started to bite.

All done for the day!