Sylvan Beach and Brewerton, NY

John and Joanie Anderson joined us on the boat in Little Falls. They are going as far as Rochester, NY. For having just retired Friday, he sure looks like he is working hard to drive!

We stopped in Sylvan Beach for the night. It is very much a tourist town on Oneida Lake with a great beach and quite a variety of boats.

Monday morning we headed 23 miles across the lake to Brewerton, NY on the other end of the lake. Now we are still going west on the Erie Canal for a few miles until we reach Three Rivers where we head north on the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario.

The weather has still been cool on the water but at least when we get to our destinations it has been warm, if it isn't raining.

Little Falls, NY

We are in Little Falls, NY and it is a lot like Little Falls, MN. It is a small town that used to have a lot of textile, paper and cheese manufacturing. They are trying now to promote the Arts and Antiques to bring something back to the town.

This lock is number 17 right before you come into Little Falls. It is different than all the rest because the gate goes up instead of 2 doors opening. It also is the highest on the Erie. We rose 40 feet when we were inside.

We rented a car so we could get supplies. I was at Walmart 2 times to stock up. I found one about 6 miles from here. I also got to have a Happy Meal for lunch!!!!

We are staying along a wall in Little Falls that they call Canal Harbor. We have water and power so it is very nice. It is a walking path for people so we have had several stop and comment being the back of our boat says Rhody Ray, Little Falls, MN One of the workers here asked permission to take a picture to put up on the bulletin board inside. He is the technology person at the school and they just finished their school year on June 25th. He works here as his summer job.

Bob had a Caterpillar man here to change the oil on the engines and generator before we start on the rest of our trip. Now that we are out of salt water we can clean the outside today and try to get as much salt off as we can. It took about 7-8 hours to clean the outside but it really looks nice once we got the salt off. There always seems to be something to clean.

This is the view from our boat looking west toward our path tomorrow, Saturday.

It has been very nice to be here for a few days and the people have been great but it is time to move on.

Catskill and Waterford, New York

I just have to show some pictures I took of the cats that the city of Catskill has sitting around the town. We walked downtown for supper at a great Italian restaurant and they have a celebration in the town this summer and have made all these cats. They have more cats that kids have painted but they were in a community center and it was packed.

We stayed in Catskill 2 nights because of the weather and when we left on the 23rd it was raining but we decided we had to leave. We also had to take down our radar and satellite dish so we can get under 20' bridges. That means we don't have t.v. anymore. It's a good thing Erik and Alison gave us an I-tunes gift card so I downloaded some music for us to listen to.


This is a picture of one of the locks we went through.




We stayed the night in Waterford, NY as do a lot of boaters that go either north or west. We are going west on the Erie Canal. Before we got to Waterford we had to go through a lock. These are my worst fears on the trip. Everything went fine and we made it to the dock in Waterford.


We have been spoiled during the trip by staying only in marinas with water, power and restaurants. This night we didn't have a marina so that meant we didn't have shore power and so we used the generator for power except during the night when we didn't have anything.


On our way today it reminds us so much of Minnesota. We finally saw some corn fields so that made Bob feel better. We also have seen a couple Larson boats along the way. Tomorrow we are staying in Little Falls, NY. We know people from Little Falls, MN have visited Little Falls, NY but we were wondering if anyone has been here by boat!!!



We celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary tonight by going out to eat!! I have to admit the time sure has gone fast. Now all we have to do is survive this 7 month trip together!!!!

New York City, New York

I think this will always be an impressive sight when you come into New York Harbor. I took many pictures of the same things but it is just so awesome!

We were at Liberty Landing Marina for 4 nights. We could see the Statue of Liberty from our boat. We had a very good view of all the skyscrapers of Manhattan.

This is just one of many of the pictures I took of the city.

Erik and Alison stayed with us on the boat for 2 nights. We took a boat trip around to see all the sights.

Our highlight of the day on Thursday was going to a Yankees baseball game. This is the last year for Yankee Stadium and Erik really wanted to see it. It was great.

We also walked around Wall Street, rode the subway and took in some sights.

Friday morning we left New York for Newburg, NY and stayed there 1 night.

We are in Catskill, NY right now. We had to stay another day because of the weather. The Hudson River from New York City to here is absolutely beautiful. If the sun were shining it would be even better.

Atlantic City, New Jersey

What can I say about Atlantic City? It was fun walking on the boardwalk and seeing all the casinos. The casino was fun but not very generous. We were stuck here an extra day due to fog so we got a few things done on the boat. We took a taxi to the grocery store to stock up on a few things. That is about it!!! Needless to see we didn't win!!!!

Bear, Delaware and Cape May, New Jersey

This is what we look like every morning when we leave a port. It is hard to believe it is about 75 degrees outside! Of course we have sweatpants on also.

We traveled from Baltimore through the CD Canal (Chesapeake/Delaware) to Bear. It was a little marina along the way. We met a couple here who had a boat tied up next to us in Jacksonville, Florida and we hadn't seen them since. They are still on their way to Vermont.

Our next stop was Cape May. It is a tourist town at the southern tip of New Jersey. Our entertainment for the evening was watching about 30-40 fishing boats come in to this small marina, fuel up and park so they could leave early in the morning. These weren't small fishing boats either.

We did get a new computer screen so that computer now works. We didn't think the auto-pilot worked but that seemed to come out of whatever problem it had the previous day! We got a little more instruction from a local person who is with the company we purchased all of our electronics. He answered a lot of questions we had now that we have had time to use all of this.

This morning we took our time to go the 43nm to Atlantic City! Do you think we can win some money to pay for some of this trip? Any bets? We are staying in the Trump Marina and the hotel/casino is right here. I will keep you posted if we hit it big!!

Baltimore, MD

We had the perfect day to go from Annapolis to Baltimore. The weather was warm, seas were calm and we went slow because we didn't have far to go and we didn't want to get here too soon.

Of course there is always a hitch. When I tried to get all the computer screens going one didn't want to turn on. It is in the lower station and the one that has the navigation on it. Thank goodness Bob likes to drive from the flybridge and that screen is still working. We hope to get it fixed on Friday when we get to Cape May. We'll see!! If the weather is as predicted this coming week, with rain, we will need to drive from below and need that screen. I hope they can get it fixed without too much trouble.

We are staying in Baltimore at Inner Harbor Marina. What a fantastic place. We can sit on the flybridge and see all the lights of Baltimore and hear all the entertainment. It is so easy to get around here with the water taxis. They have many stops so you don't have to walk very far.

This is the view from our boat at night.

We are waiting for the water taxi.

Bob is trying to stand in the shade.

We toured Fort McHenry.

I have to admit I didn't remember the background to origin to The Star-Spangled Banner. The 15 minute film we saw could bring tears to anyone when they play the song at the end with the huge flag blowing in the background.

Tomorrow we move on to the CD Canal.

Solomons and Annapolis, MD

The first thing I must do is wish my nephew Keith a Happy Birthday on the 7th. I also have to wish Reggie and Angie, from the lake, a Happy Birthday. They share the same birthday I do and it was always fun to share this day with them.

We have been in Annapolis for 3 nights. It was nice to stay put for awhile. We got some things done like wash the boat and Bob fixed the refrigerator on the bridge. I did a little shopping today although it was about 90 degrees and even too warm for me to walk around much.

We toured the Naval Academy on Saturday and we were very impressed with their facilities.

It is amazing what young men and women do to serve in the military.

While we have been in port in Annapolis, we have been next to two other Marlow boats. One is our size and the other one was quite a bit bigger with a crew on it. We are one of the smaller boats along our side of the marina. We see a lot of sail boats of all sizes and all ages in them.

Tomorrow we have a short trip to Baltimore

Norfolk, VA

We have been in Norfolk for 3 nights due to the weather. We were headed out today but the weather in the Chesapeake didn't sound good for today.

The marina we are in is close to town. I walked around taking pictures of all the mermaids scattered around they city. I couldn't find out exactly how many there are but it is over 100.

We went through our first lock on Monday and it was tense for me. Neither one of us knew what to expect. We were in there with 3 other boats and it only lowered about 1 1/2 feet but it is an

experience! I can't imagine going through all the rest of them on this trip.

Bob and I went to view the USS Wisconsin battleship.

Tomorrow we head up the Chesapeake Bay.

Beaufort,Belhaven & Coinjock, North Carolina

This is a pontoon bridge that opens on the hour only. We had to time our trip today because we had 4 bridges that opened either on the hour or on the half hour.

We have had to decide in the mornings these few days whether or not to leave for the next place due to the weather. We have left between 6:00 and 7:00 to be at our destination before the winds get too strong in the afternoon.


The marina we stayed at in Belhaven was in the country so they let us use their car to go into town to get supplies. We made 2 stops: Ace hardware and the grocery store. It was the only grocery store within 30 miles.


Sunrise this morning when we left Belhaven.



I want to wish a Happy Birthday to my sister Kay, and 2 friends, Bob Wittenberg and Chris Anderson.

We are off to Norfolk, VA tomorrow and we have to go through our first lock!