At some point during my mis-spent youth, I learned a folk song about a mule skinner and his mule Sal working the tow path on the Erie Canal, and here I am. Haven't spotted Sal, but I'm keeping my eyes peeled. "the 363-mile Erie Canal ...was one of the greatest engineering feats of its day. By connecting the Atlantic Ocean and Great Lakes, the Erie opened the West and initiated a great surge of commerce" (New York State Canals Guide).  The canal has shifted routes numerous times,  and today a great deal of it runs along the Mohawk River, but here and there vestiges of the original canal and locks can be seen.  Sections of the old towpath are now full of pastel wildflowers -- purple, white, lavender and light blue. 

Sunday morning 20 May Jubilee entered lock #2, lifted fourteen feet and motored into history.  Schenectady, Amsterdam, Little Falls, Utica, Rome and Oneida floated by punctuated by locks #3 through #22 some with modest lifts of 8', teens, twenties, thirties and the big one #17 which lifted us forty and one half feet in one go.  This took all day Sunday, Monday and half day Tuesday.  I've posted numerous photos of the canal on FB (DavidEllis Nagle Boat) as has Roger (Roger V. Rude) so you can get a sense of what we've seen.  As we've seen very little traffic on the canal, and most of that small recreational watercraft, I asked one of the canal workers on a dredging barge this morning:  who else uses the waterway; I mean there's a lot of equipment and obviously great lengths are being gone to to keep it all operating.  What he said was that the canal is just the side show these days, as the majority of engineering structures on the Mohawk River are all about flood control -- without them the Mohawk Valley would be the Mohawk Swamp.  The canal today serves to transport the service boats and equipment needed to keep the flood control system working (and provide tremendous recreational and historical access to the rest of us). 

Tuesday afternoon, we glided out of the canal, onto Oneida Lake and 20 miles across to the town of Brewerton.  Dean took on fuel -- we've used 190 gallons of diesel since leaving Solomon's MD (traveling 665 statute miles thus far) -- had dinner and chatted both with local folks and other cruisers; an old movie and time for bed. 

I get the sense that, similar to California, where there's the LA SoCal thing and the rest of CA being two completely different experiences, here it's New York City and then the rest of NY state as two different worlds.  

Today is a big day back in Sonoma County, daughter Kate will be giving birth to grandson "DJ". I'll be standing by here in ,anxious anticipation, as will the rest of the Nagle clan, near and far.  I'd like to think my dad has signed up to be DJ's guardian angel...   Goodnight kids