Hard to believe but blankets were needed last night.  It was super sleeping weather being on the cool side but a sheet just wasn’t enough.  But given a choice, I’ll take nights like this anytime.

Breakfast this morning was just great.  I had a chili cheese omelet and Barbara had a cheese omelet.  We also had some sausage and ham, and a couple cups of coffee.  A perfect way to start the day.

Today was a day for sightseeing.  No big rush, though, since we didn’t need to be where we were going until sometime around noon time.  So we took our time, walked Marti, got a few things done around Graybeard and then we were off.

About an hour later we arrived at our destination, The Camillus Erie Canal Park and the

Sim’s General Store and Museum. The store and museum are a replica of the original Sims’ canal store which was located on the Canal about 2 miles east of the present location.

The original store was closer to Gere Lock and Belle Isle. There it took advantage of the fact that the boats had to stop there before entering the lock and/or stopping at Belle Isle.

This is the view of the counter inside and what it would have looked liked when the store was open and in business.  No idea who that is standing behind the counter or who the little girl is.  Both, by the way are just cardboard cutouts!

This is one of the items that would have been for sale at the store, an old fashioned butter churn.

Moving outside, we first noticed this boat on exhibit.  It was called buoy tender 159.  It was 27 feet in length with a 7 feet beam and a draft of 4 feet.  It was used to serve the kerosene lanterns that were once used on the canal for night time passage.  About the two cylinders on the stern was used to hold gasoline and another kerosene.

Across from the store we notice this sign and wondered what it was all about.  We

discovered that at one time this was a feeder canal that ran up to the town of Camillus.  It served two purposes, first it supplied water to the canal; and second, it allowed water access to the town of Camillus from the main canal.

Today was also a day for yours truly to once again spoil my sweetheart.  More than once she has asked me to take her on a cruise.  Today, I reminded her that so far this year I have taken her on two, one in Bar Harbor and the other from Seneca Falls.  Today, I was taking her on her third cruise, a short ride up the canal that ran in front of the museum and store.  I aim to please!

So here is our boat for today, yes, another pontoon boat and not a packet boat.  Oh well.

And here are our guides for the day.  Mike the narrator, and Fred the driver.  Two volunteers at the park.

 

Soon enough we were all on board and off we went down the canal.  This by the way

is not the original Erie Canal, that is off to the left up in the woods.  This canal is the first enlargement of the Erie Canal before it was again enlarged and moved again and became the Barge Canal.  This part of the canal is 70 feet wide and 7 feet deep and allowed boats up to 97 feet in length passage to Albany or Buffalo.

The highlight of this canal cruise was our trip through what is known as the Nine Mile Creek Aqueduct.   The aqueduct is in essence nothing more than a wooden bridge filled with water that allows a canal boat to pass over an obstruction of some sort, in this case 9 mile creek.  This is currently the only restored and navigable aqueduct in NY State.

This aqueduct was originally constructed in 1838 and was used through the 1917 canal season.  It then fell into disrepair and eventually all that was left were the original wood pilings, the stone work and some of the original wooden bridge that was once filled with water.

A group of volunteers from the park worked to restore the aqueduct in 1993 and 1994.

This is a mural that is on display in the Museum/General Store of the original aqueduct.

After our visit to the Museum/General Store and our canal ride it was time to head home.  We had another great day, spent together, traveling along, singing our song, hand in hand.

Thanks for joining us once again.  We hope you had a great day as well.  Always remember to grab each day and make the most of it while you can.  Each day is such a precious gift given to us by God and what a pity it would be to squander even one.

So night is here, it’s getting late, we need to call it a night.  But before I go a thought for each of us to ponder:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

 

 

 

So today was another wonderful day.  At least it terms of the weather.  We awoke to beautiful sunshine, clear skies and reasonable temperatures.  With nowhere to go we weren’t in any rush to get out of bed.  That is except for Marti who when he has to go out he has to go out – no waiting around at all.

Breakfast was a treat again.  French toast, ham, juice and a couple of cups of coffee.  Yum.  Tummy filling and absolutely delicious.

Time now to attend to business around the house.  First things first, the shade on our entrance door.  It hasn’t been working for months and up until now we had been using a workaround.  Replacing it?  Well, any RV store we went to wanted at least $100 for a replacement shade.  What!  No way were we going to pay that much for a simple shade.  Home Depot to the rescue.  They had a replacement shade that was less than half what others wanted.  Ok, it wasn’t an actual RV shade but it fits, it works and it looks decent.  Can’t ask for more than that.

Next project, back splash or restring the broken shade in the living room.  I figured we needed a working shade especially at night time so the broken shade won.  Should have gone with the back splash.  First, getting it down was an interesting experience, to say the least.  Hidden screws and center brackets.  In time it was off.  Now, how hard could it be to restring it.  Three hours later and only with Barbara’s help it was done.  Oh darn, the strings are too short.  Guess what we’re going with wooden blinds!  We’ve been toying with this idea for some time and this episode with restringing the shade tipped the scales.  Stay tuned, we’ll let you know in time what color they will be.

Once again we’ve lost our view of the pond.  The two that were next us to left yesterday.  New neighbors moved in today.  Suffice to say it seems like Robin Williams has brought his RV into the spot next to ours!  They have more odds and ends on the front dash then we have in total in Graybeard.  Family is also moving in within a day.  Some are already here in other campsites.  One across from us.  Another around the corner.  And the kids are due to arrive tomorrow morning.  This is going to be a fun week!  It is what it is.

Well, that was our day.  Not much of anything going on.  It was really frustrating not being able to fix the living room shade.  On top of it, taking a whole day and getting not much accomplished was a bummer.  Ah well, someone once said there would be days like this on the road of retirement.  Just have to take what you get and make the best of it.

Thanks for joining us today.  We hope your day was a bit more productive than ours. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we’re going back on the road to do some more sight seeing.  For now I’ll say goodnight and leave you with this thought to ponder:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

Wait a minute, not again, rain?  Sure enough more rain throughout the night.  Thankfully by dawn’s early light it had exited the area leaving the sun shining bright.  Yea!

Well, we had things to do, places to go, and packages to pick up so it was up and at it this morning.  No real rush but we had to keep moving.  At breakfast, I got to try my new treat Jalapeno Strawberry Jelly.  If you like things spicy – like I do – you’ll absolutely love this jelly.  On an English Muffin it was great.  I also had a wonderful plate of scrambled eggs, juice and coffee.  I need to keep my strength up, for what I don’t know but it sounds darn good!

Hey, I also got my view of the pond back.  The two RV’s directly next to us left this morning.  Remember the one that got stuck?  Came close to doing the same thing today.  This time I got a good look at what happens with this RV.  It has a tag axle, in essence another set of wheels behind the rear drive wheels.  When and if the tag axle gets up on even a little bit of a rise it ends up lifting the rear of the RV to the point that the drive wheels can’t get any traction.  So they just sit there and spin and spin and spin and the RV goes nowhere.  Poor design if you ask me.  Better idea, and I know from reading, that you can do this with some RVs, you need a way to raise the tag axle for a brief time.

So today we’re going back to Seneca Falls and we want to share with you our boat ride on the present day barge canal that connects Seneca Lake with Seneca Falls.  Our ride today would take us down through Waterloo and Lock 4 and then we would turn around and return back to the dock.

Our boat for the trip was a simple pontoon boat – was hoping for an actual packet boat – that was stable and comfortable.

Our captain for the ride was Captain Bob, here shoving us off and getting the ride started.  Captain Bob is quite the entrepreneur, he provides these daily boat rides for the museum, he also offers evening cruises with supper, and special on the water packages for weddings and other special occasions.

Once out on the water, we motored down to Van Cleef Lake.    Over time the

original Seneca Canal had become antiquated.  A decision was made by NY State to upgrade the canal system of water transportation.  In order to do so, at Seneca Falls, they replaced the five small existing locks with a large two lock combination featuring a 49-foot lift.  These new, larger locks required a great pool of water for their operation.  But where to get the water?  Flood the Flats

The Flats was a low-lying area of Seneca Falls with numerous homes and many businesses.  Flooding the flats, of course, spelled the demise of this early residential and industrial area of Seneca Falls.  Before the flats were flooded, however, a good number of the homes were picked up and moved to higher ground.

The only problem was that many of their owners could not afford to buy a new lot to place them on.  So, they basically just sat in a long row with nowhere to go.  Ultimately many of them ended up being destroyed. As for the businesses in the The Flats, many relocated to higher ground, such as Goulds Pumps, but others left Seneca Falls for good.

Oh, as for the name of the lake, though many made suggestions, Mr. Van Cleef donated $1500 to local government officials and guess what?  The name chosen for the lake was of course Van Cleef Lake!

This is the original road that once led down to The Flats.  Follow it down and it is said

that you will still find foundations and such of homes and businesses that were originally located here in The Flats.

Leaving Van Cleef Lake, we began motoring toward Waterloo and Lock 4.  The next item of interest that we passed was the Seneca Knitting Mills.

This mill was constructed in 1844 and has served as a spinning mill and a mill producing woolen yarns.  During 1862 it made 8,000 pair of socks a day under contract to the U.S. Government for the Union Army. In 1943, the mill saw steady growth and expansion of the hosiery, yarn and cloth business.  In 1974, the mill switched to manufacturing socks which included the famous Red Top Sox known to generations of sportsmen and outdoor enthusiasts.  Finally, faced with stiff competition from overseas imports the mill closed its doors in April of 1999.  The building is now being refurbished and will become the future home of The National Women’s Hall of Fame.

Next we came to what the locals call The Wonderful Life Bridge.

In the movie, It’s A Wonderful Life, George Bailey is deeply troubled. Prayers for his well-being from friends and family reach Heaven. Clarence Odbody, Angel Second Class, is assigned to visit Earth to save George.  Convinced he “worth more dead than alive” because of a life insurance policy George contemplates suicide from a steel trestle bridge. Before he can leap, Clarence jumps in first and pretends to be drowning. After George rescues him, Clarence reveals himself to be George’s guardian angel.  Clarence shows George what the town would have been like without him.  Now, while the producer of the film never acknowledged that Seneca Falls was the real Bedford Falls, the similarities throughout the film are hard to deny.

But wait there was a real-life hero that is actually associated with this bridge.

This is the story.  On April 12, 1917, Antonio Varacalli drowned while successfully rescuing a young woman from the Seneca-Cayuga Branch of the Barge Canal, a young woman who was apparently trying to commit suicide. Antonio, who was a Barge Canal worker, was walking in the vicinity of the bridge when he heard someone scream. He ran to the canal bank and saw a young woman struggling in the water. Without hesitation, he jumped into the canal to save the young woman, although he could not swim. He managed to get the girl to the canal bank before he sank into the water, and drowned.

We continued to motor down the canal and began noticing sculptures like these along the bank of the canal.

What was this?  We learned from Captain Bob that this is the Ludovico Sculpture Trail.

 

The Frank J. Ludovico Sculpture Trail is a trail that parallels the south shore of the Erie Canal in Seneca Falls. It will eventually be part of the Erie Canal Way Trail that reaches across New York State. This trail is special in that it’s a sculpture garden as well as a trail.

Continuing on we came to the town of Waterloo.  Remember what this town is known for?

 

On May 15, 1866 the village of Waterloo held the first formal, village wide, annual observance of a day dedicated to honoring the Civil war dead. On March 7, 1966, the State of New York recognized Waterloo by a proclamation signed by Governor Nelson A. Rockefeller. This was followed by recognition from Congress of the United States when the House of Representatives and the Senate unanimously passed House Concurrent Resolution 587 on May 17th and May 19th, 1966 respectively. This reads in part as follows:  Resolved that the Congress of the United States, in recognition of the patriotic tradition set in motion one hundred years ago in the Village of Waterloo, NY, does hereby officially recognize Waterloo, New York as the birthplace of Memorial Day…

We were now at the terminus of our trip, Lock #4.  We would be going through the lock to the canal upstream and then immediately returning back through the lock and then heading back to Seneca Falls.  The lift at this lock is 14.5 feet.  After this, Seneca Lake.

Here we are approaching the lock.

The water in the lock has been released and we’ve been given the green light to proceed

Here are the lower lock doors beginning to open.

Now it is our turn to enter the lock.

We are now in the lock waiting to rise to the level of the canal outside the upper lock door.  See the waterline on the wall?  That is how much water we have to wait to be brought in to the lock.

When all lights are lit the lock will be full and the upper lock door will begin to open.

In due course the lock filled, the upper door was opened, we motored out then back into the lock and prepared now to be lowered to the level of the lower canal so that we could begin our trip back to Seneca Falls.

Captain Bob informed us that the current day lock keepers face an uncertain future.  Many are pushing to automate the locks and do away with an actual lock keeper.  In Canada, for instance, you can install an app on your phone and control your passage through their canal system with that app.   Only time will tell what will happen.

Soon enough we were back at the dock in Seneca Falls.  It had been a great day on the water.  Captain Bob was the perfect host and a fount of local knowledge regarding the town of Seneca Falls and the Canal itself.  We could not have asked for anyone better for a tour guide.

Our day was not finished though.  We had one more stop to make, Muranda Cheese Company. 

This is the outside view of the barn where cheese tasting is held

This is the inside of the barn itself.

The cheese tasting menu.

Here are the cheeses ready for tasting.

A perfect ending to a perfect day.  Yes, we came away with a couple of different cheeses and this is where I found my new favorite, Jalapeno Strawberry Jelly.  It is delicious!

So that brings our travels to an end for another day.  We absolutely enjoyed our canal cruise and the time spent time tasting one cheese after another.   Even more important we did it together, traveling along, side by side, singing our song.   Thanks for joining us and we hope you enjoyed your time with us.  Till tomorrow when we’ll join you again, I leave you with this thought:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before

 

Wait, just one minute.  Could it be.  Nah, not possible.  But let me take another look.  Oh yea, that’s the sun in all it’s glory pouring through the dining room window.  Remarkable.  No complaints, though, after all the rain we’ve had.

In fact, this is the perfect day for what we have in mind which is a boat ride along the Seneca-Cayuga Canal.  It’s something we’ve been looking forward to but we just had to find the right day and that day is today.  So we were up and out in a reasonable time frame and headed back to Seneca Falls.

Before we get to the boat ride, however, we’re going back to the Seneca Falls Visitor Center.  We want to share with your some more interesting facts that we learned about the town.

Beginning with, the falls themselves.  There was a time, indeed, when Seneca Falls actually had a set of falls.  Rather high ones at that.

Lawrence Van Cleef, the first permanent white settler in the area opened a portage business to assist travelers in getting around the falls.

Then the falls were dammed in order to provide a ready source of power for a number of mills and factories.  In the early 1800’s, nine mills along the Seneca Falls produced 2,000 barrels of flour every day from the 9,000 bushels of wheat brought in from farms along the Finger Lakes and the canal.  Every few days another fleet of well-loaded boats left for the markets in Albany.

So where are the falls today?   They were leveled during the building of the present-day Barge Canal and so are no more.

We also learned that Seneca Falls was once known as the Pump Capital of the Americas.

Thomas Paine and Noah Caldwell perceived a need for pumps in all the prosperous farms in the region.  Rather than sit idly, while pumps were brought in by canal boat, they decided to manufacture them in the midst of the developing region.  Paine and Caldwell built and held a patent in 1835 for a wooden cylindrical pump, outfitted with a few wooden parts

In 1839, Paine and Caldwell opened a factory in Seneca Falls and their first pump was manufactured at this location, an event that would have worldwide repercussions.

Following in their footsteps, Abel Downs opened a factory in 1840 which made wooden pumps with iron bases.  The company struggled for many

years until 1851 when Seabury Gould joined the firm.  Eventually the company was reorganized and incorporated as Gould Pumps.  Today they are still located in Seneca Falls and it is the largest company exclusively dedicated to the manufacture of pumps.

It has been said that almost 25% of the pumps still used around the world were made in Seneca Falls.  By the middle of the 19^th century Seneca Falls was the center of a thriving industry that brought water into homes, emptied flooded mines and operated waterworks throughout America and around the world.

We also discovered that Seneca Falls was also once known as The Fire Engine Capital of the United States.

The first steam-operated fire engine was built in 1856 by the Sitsby Manufacturing Company of Seneca Falls.  It was widely successful and sold worldwide.

Today, the company is known as the LaFrance Fire Engine Company and is located now at Elmira, New York.

All the pump manufactures of Seneca Falls made equipment used in fire fighting across the United States.  Some machines were quite basic, such as the hand pumper shown below that was made by the Goulds Manufacturing Company around 1870.

Other companies in Seneca Falls also produced firefighting necessities such as hoses, axes, fire bells and fire buckets. Below is a picture of a restored Gleason and Bailey hose cart from the mid 1800’s

Here are the all-important fire bells with Barbara testing several types of them!

Perhaps though the most notable item of historical note that Seneca Falls is known for is that it was where the Women’s Rights Movement began.

In July 1848, Elizabeth Cady Stanton (middle) and several other women organized the

first convention in America to look at the social, civil and religious condition and rights of women.  Over 300 people attended the two-day event in Seneca Falls.  Sixty-eight women and thirty-two men signed the Declaration of Sentiments which boldly proclaimed all men and women are created equal.

Now, for the best part of our time in Seneca Falls, a ride along the canal and a trip through a lock.  What a day for such a trip.  Bright sunshine, temperatures in the mid 80’s but with a nice breeze on the water.  Rather, though, then try and cram it in tonight, I’ll share it with you in tomorrow’s blog.  Suffice to say it was awesome and so much fun.

One more thing, remember yesterday was furniture construction day?  Here are the two new chairs

And here are the table and chairs in their new space

Here is the new cover for our couch.

 

We picked up a couple of new throw rugs today for the kitchen and hallway, and new place mats for the table.  We’re still waiting on the new cabinets, possibly Monday.

So that brings us to the end of our day.  Thanks for sharing it with us.  We hope you, like us, learned something new.  We always enjoy discovering new things and unearthing new discoveries about a town or region that we are in.  So for now I’ll say goodnight and leave you with another thought to ponder:

As always,  if you are coming to the end of your day with concerns and worries, let me suggest that you turn them over to God.  After all, He is going to be up all night so why not let him handle them for you.

Time now for our evening prayers and eventually some shut-eye.  Till tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Graybeard and it’s occupants, four paws and two humans.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have not been before