What a nice cool day it was. We sat on the bow this morning having our coffee with our jogging suits on. We left Clyde and ended up in Newark New York. It was really a nice day to motor up the canal. As we arrived, we were greeted by several men who helped us docked up. It was fun just to stand around and shoot the breeze with them. This is yet another free place to dock up to with electricity, water and pump-out. Arriving here at Newark, I found out some of it’s history. Did you knot that Newark was once the “Rose  Capital” for the flower industry?  Now I will tell you a little bit about our adventure here.

 

Modern day Erie Canal River boat.  You can rent these boats.

 

No steering wheel in this boat.  It’s a tiller!!  These types of boats are very popular in England because the century old locks are so narrow there.

 

I think this is funny. Bryce loves to jump in the water with a rope (Tarzan).  On the TVA lakes down south, Bryce would watch for these ropes or cliffs to jump from.  If he had the opportunity to stop here, no doubt he would have swung from this one.

 

This is the oddest thing. I am not sure if some homeless lives here or if some kids are playing here. Can you see the potbelly burner?

 

So my bet is it is a local hang out. But when we took a walk into town, a guy hung his head out the window and told us to watch out for the aliens.

 

This was the view the aliens have. Just passed there homestead. We are thinking it was once a bridge.

 

This is a multi-track bridge with a train passing over.  We just missed going under the bridge while the train was passing.

 

Lock E-27 (Lyons) had dockage on both sides of their canal. There are nearby shops, and restaurants, and the fire department above the North wall offers complimentary, clean showers, and rest rooms.  Apparently there is free WIFI.  The floating dock has no services, but the wall does. It was quite full as we passed due to the “Peppermint Festival”.  Fireworks were to be this night.

 

After going up in the Lock at E-27 Lyons-  Bryce and the lock operator started gabbing. He was a nice guy.  He mentioned that this town was once the peppermint capital of the world.

 

I kept looking to see if we had enough clearance to get under this bridge. We did not hit, but not to much extra. LOL

 

It looks like it would be a nice area to stop at.

 

 

As we cruised up the river, we noticed two sunken barges on our starboard side on the Erie Canal.

 

As we came around the corner, we could see Lock E-28 A.  It is an area full of tugboats that perhaps need repair.  This has a huge dry dock area to work on the boats.  This is a quite big tug boat!

 

Here you can see a small tug boat out of water near the building.  It seems apparent why the canal needs to be quite deep.  This small tug probably drafts 8 feet.

 

This is a picture of the entrance to the lock.  The lock master is watching us from the left.  I generally gab to these guys as we come through.

 

This picture shows a huge dry dock area next to the lock.  It is quite amazing that the state of New York manages their own dry dock and fleet of boats, barges and dredgers!  The boat here looks like a 100 some odd footer that is apparently being refurbished.  There are also a few other tugs being repaired at the same time.

 

A crane or dredger is apparently being worked on also.

 

Here are the gates that control the water in the dry dock.  This would be a fascinating area to explore.

 

Here is a tug that perhaps is going to go in for refurbishing.  Although hard to tell, this boat is probably 70-80 feet long.  It appears that all the tugs in the New York fleet are quite old.  Some perhaps nearly one hundred years old.  Amazing they keep these boats in working order.

 

OM! this railroad bridge has 4 train tracks and cannot even imagine 4 trains at one time…

 

This area is really pretty too.  As you can tell this once was a bridge.

 

Coming up to lock E-28 B Newark.  The lock master is monitoring our progress.

 

Once we passed through the Newark lock, about a 1/2 mile up river was the town.  As we docked up, we could see the murals on the concrete walls. This one is so cool.

 

They also have a vine growing mural going up the stairs.

 

This is a mural of a canal boat. It is painted on the wall under the Bridge in Newark, New York.

 

This mural on the wall reads:  “Jesse Hawley (flour Merchant) While in prison for debts,because he could find an economical way to ship his goods, he published four-teen essay from the Hudson River to Lake Erie. Hawley’s essay were to prove immensely influential on the development of the canal”.

 

I am not sure if you can read what the mural on the wall says so I typed it out.

“The Erie Canal The 363 mile long canal took 8 years and over 7 million dollars to build. From the beginning, the Erie Canal was an Unbridled success as raw materials and agricultural product from the new settlements moved eastward, finished goods and newcomers moved westward. By 1855 cross-state travel went from six weeks to six days, and freight cost fell from $100 to $5 per ton”.   Compare this original $7 million dollars to the current operating budget of $55 million today.  Not a cheap project to operate.  And the budget is continuing to be cut!  No wonder they have 100 year old tugs!

 

This guy is moving supplies stored in barrels and bushels.

 

And for every worker, there is a manager.. LOL

 

This is Don & Kathy Olszowka. Their vessel is called the “Last Rambler”. Don was one of the nice people who came over and helped us dock. Thank You Don.  It was a pleasure visiting with you both.

 

This is Captain Cantankerous also known as Dick.  He also came and assisted in helping us dock. He showed us the inside of his boat.

 

This is one of Captain Cantankerous trawlers.  His other boat 40 foot trawler is down south.

 

This is Scott & Rhonda Joiner. They are from their 38 Lagoon Catamaran.  We gabbed with them for a few hours. The two of them will be passing through our home state in Michigan on their way to Chicago.    Have a great time.

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