The Erie Canal turns out to be just as beautiful, just as lazy and the towns along it, just as friendly as we had been told. We hope that our posted photos will give some idea of what it looks like. We move down the canal quietly, keeping an average speed of five knots. We see lots of herons; and also saw a kingfisher. Each of the towns we have stopped at has its own individual charms. Holley had a little park with a magnificent, and surprisingly large waterfall. Wiley was able to walk a mere 2 1/2 miles to a wine shop, where he picked up four bottles of wine (2 French, 1 Italian and then walked back 21/2 miles with his treasure! We knew that Hurricane Irene was coming, so we traveled only five miles from Holley to Brockport, where we would wait the storm out.

Brockport is a 'college' town and our favorite thus far. We tied up along the wall. The town has a fabulous bookstore-, and was full of college kids. We had our first New York style pizza which (although it cannot compare to our noble Chicago - deep dish) was very tasty. The winds reached 30 mph during the day, but the 50 mph gusts which had been predicted but not occur where we were. They had bikes we could use for free and we rode down to the sports store and around town. We had breakfast at Corrines and she gives you a card with her rules on it, which include no use of the "f" word, no talking on cell phones etc. before she gives you a menu. Wiley told her the only improvement to the place, that he could suggest would be hanging posters of Walter Payton, "Da Coach" and Dick Butkus!

At our next port, Fairport, the friendly dockmaster came down to our boat and greeted us. Fairport is the first place since Wardell's where we had to pay anything to stay, but it was only $7.00 a night and the facilities were beautiful. Unfortunately, after a run Merry was stung once again. We went over to the Irish pub for dinner as Merry whined about her sting!
We learned that because of the severe flooding Lock 19 and all of the locks east of there had been closed, but we decided that since it would take us four days to get to lock 19 we would leave Fairport in the morning.