Back to the Boat

Our quick trip home is coming to an end and I discovered a few things. I’m healthy, my teeth are still good, and my friends still remember me.

The house is still standing, but the pear tree in the front yard is dying and will have to go. We lost a pine earlier this year. So far, the rest of the plants have survived the California drought.

The boat is in a marina bordering the Erie Canal just west of Lake Oneida. Weather there has been stormy and the locks we need to traverse have been closed. But they’re open now and we should enter the Oswego Canal and be into Lake Ontario by the end of the week. We cross the lake in a day and enter Canada.

Before then we’ll have to check our food locker, making sure prohibited items are consumed before we leave. One cannot take poultry or eggs into Canada and meats and fruits and vegetables have to be declared. Only a very small amount of alcohol is allowed…wine included. Darn. Guess I can’t stuff any bottles in my suitcase on the trip back.

From Kingston we’ll head to the Trent-Severn Waterway, a series of locks and canals that takes about ten days. One of the locks is quite unusual. Instead of lifting or dropping water, it lifts boats out of the water and drops them into the next canal. Can’t wait for that one. Squeal time.

Most of August will be spent in the Georgian Islands of Lake Huron and then we head for Lake Michigan and the canal in Chicago that takes us to the rivers of Middle America. The second half of the trip is about 2300 miles, mostly in protected waters.

During the past two weeks friends have called our trip “an adventure of a lifetime.” Despite earlier trepidation, I’m starting to agree with them. Parts of this trip have been a real challenge for me. But now, I’m actually looking forward to the rest of it.