Day 19 Herkimer NY to Rome (NY that is) Thursday June 7, 2018

It was again cool last night - 50 degrees- just right  for sleeping.  Far more sun all day.  The day warmed up quickly so we were able to start and stay in short sleeves and shorts.

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Well I have to say that this stiff neck is a pain in the ------ wait for it --------------- neck. Couldn't resist. Got to get some joy out this. It still was with me all day and hopefully with taper off tomorrow.

Let's see, we need to catch up on yesterday.

The canal has become just that for some distance. Instead of being in the winding river a lot there is much larger straight dug canal sections. The nice part is that it is all tree lined. You feel that you are in the wilderness - even though you can still hear highway and trains in the distance.

But as you can see the ride is really wonderful. I know that when it was a working canal that it was not meant to be scenic - but the result today certainly is just that.

 The next three shots are in the area of Little Falls. If you look closely you will see that there is a wall holding in the canal water. The Town of Little Falls is down over the wall - a big fall if we had the wall fail.

 At the end of the wall there was this sailboat perched on the canal wall - not sure how or why it got there but I guess someone wanted to be ready in case Noah is brought back for an encore.

 This lock is really interesting as the active rail line passes over the lock approach - interesting to think about how the railroad affected the canal business. And for today's economic question, can you think of something that later really impacted the viability of the railroads? Think Eisenhower

 A long section of the dug canal. The autopilot that steers the boat on the heading I set, is a real
 blessing in stretches like this.

 And here is today's Blues Clues.
What is this picture of?  Can you get it before reading the clues below?

Clue I The white lights are on a road
Clue 2 The red and green lights are for boaters
Clue 3 It is a very calm night.

I really enjoy this photo. As I am sure that you have deduced that the lights are on a bridge and they are being reflected in the still water. This is from our stop in Herkimer - yes there is such a name and he is quite famous. No there is no link - you need to look up this one.

The photos below are from our stop today in Rome.

 The location is now a park, but the building below is a freight house from the canal days that has been restored for other uses.

 This map I found very well done. We will be going out the Oswego Canal to Lake Ontario.
One thing to note is at each lock there is a arrow depicting whether the lock is raising or lowering. We start going back down tomorrow.

 And to close out the day some more fun. The mallard ducks of the canal are really magnificent to see and watch.

 And for today's "I Spy", how many mallards can you count?
 And the final question, what is this???  If you think hard enough you will get it. To give you plenty of time to think about it, I will say,

 Good Night and May God Bless

PS  The answers are 11 and a Kayak launching ramp. Sssssh!!