Locking Through to Lake Champlain

Today we locked through the last 5 of the 12 Locks on the Champlain Canal. We are now at the headwaters of the Lake overnighting at a very reasonable, okay, cheap marina! 

Today I remembered (for a little while) what someone said, “the difference between an ordeal and an Adventure is attitude”.... so we had several low bridges again but I was okay with this UNTIL the nice lock master at our first lock said, “the next two bridges have 16 ft clearance”! What?! Walter didn't hear him nor did the boat in front of us and I was hoping that I didn't hear him either... but when he repeated it I thought we would have to go back!  I told him we were 17 ft 1 inch. Then he says, “oh, I always tell people a foot less than the clearance really is”!!  So now we only had to worry about one inch? And if I doubled my blood pressure meds I would be fine.......

View from Top of Miss gg as boat ahead barely makes it under low Bridge

I spend a lot of time on the roof of the sun deck today.  When the low Railroad bridge, pictured above, came I ducked and found we had a whole 4 inches to spare! Thank you Lord! 

We were glad that there was not much junk in the water to avoid with all the dredging. So we could take time enjoying the pretty scenery including mountains coming into view along the canal.  

Lovely Scenery around our Traveling Friends aboard Blewgrass just ahead of us

I took one picture of some of the dredging equipment as Walter said it looked all specially made for this project.  Wow!  GE is paying for all of this as they are the company that for years dumped chemicals in to the Hudson River.... I think before the bad effects were really known.... 

We finished climbing at lock #7 and then started descending at lock #8. It was fairly easy except two of the locks near where the dredging is going on had no wall lines to hang on to... you had to grab a rod (thick wire) with the boat hook but the wire isn't flexible like the lines so I had to pull hard leaning back with all my weigh to get the boat over to the wall so I could put one of our lines around the rod. 34,000 lbs doesn't move too easy!  Miss gg is a lot to handle with just two people!  YES!  I am AGAIN fishing for crew.. don't you want to join us? :-)

I guess I was slightly envious of the boat ahead of us today... our dock mates from last night in Ft. Edward.. the Blewgrass crew of 2 couples on a small Mainship... we are sure one person must be sleeping on the salon sofa. Now you might think this is fine for a short trip but these folks will complete the loop on the Midwest Rivers in October. They have been together since KY!  We waved good-bye to them as we both came out of Lock 12... they were going on as we turned into our marina here at Whitehall, NY.

Three great dock hands caught our lines when we pulled in here at 2p. This marina also runs a RV campground next door where we can take our laundry and do it for free.  Wi-fi is free and there are a few restaurants. There is a castle here that we photographed from the canal but hope to see it inside tomorrow.

The town seems somewhat depressed with so many old wonderful buildings looking like they may fall down any minute. We took a long walk up the hill and crossed the canal by bridge to what they told us was where we would find groceries but it was only a convenience store. This was fine as all we really needed, other than a good walk, was a loaf of bread.  What good the long walk did I don't know cause wouldn't you know this little place was crowded with folks getting ice cream cones. Yes, of course we each had one... maple walnut and mint chocolate chip... yummmy! We shared a booth with two young boys. Their parents were at the next booth with other children. They were so cute and fun to talk to telling us that yesterday was the last day of school... one little fella said he should be going into 6^th grade but is staying back. He didn't seem upset and I just told him repeating was a good thing... he would enjoy it more and get more out of it and remember more than the other kids.  He said the 6^th graders had to go to the High School.. no middle school here.  I then figure he was glad to be staying back with the younger kids.  Also, I bet he gets to play another year with the champion football team... so good that the "Superbowl" was cancelled because they are just that much better than any other team far & wide!  He was a "running back" but one team member, a 10 yr old boy is 120 lbs!  Whoa!  Yeah, I'd cancel playing against them, too!

On our walk back we took a short side trip to the what looked like a fortress... an amazing building built in 1899 and is the National Guard Armory. It continues to be used for the armory and now several other civic clubs.

It was an amazing day seeing parts of God's creation we have never seen before. When the mountains came into view I wanted to pinch myself again.... what a grand priviledge!