Anniversary #42--Still Paddling Together

Thursday, August 29, 2013

We have had a really wonderful and memorable anniversary today! We woke up to haze and wondered whether it would really be kayaking weather, but it was all burned off by mid-morning. We went directly to Locks 2&3 of the Seneca-Cayuga Canal. We were the only ones there besides the lockmaster. We pumped up our kayak and dropped it into Van Cleef Lake right in front of the locks. We paddled a little bit, then called up the Lockmaster on my cell phone and said, “Drop us down, please!” There is a 49-foot difference between the height of the lake and the canal below.

Our view of the lock gates--Samantha is in the background

Soon enough, the doors of the lock slowly opened and we paddled into Lock #3. We used a bungee cord to tie the kayak against the wall so we wouldn’t drift around inside the lock while the water level went down. It took about 10 minutes or so—we watched the walls go higher and higher above us. It is a much different feeling in a kayak than it was in the boat in Lockport—we are really just sitting on the surface of the water. It was very cool!

Joe taking the bungee off the rope after we dropped down

We head toward the open doors--another boat is waiting to take our place in the opposite direction

When the lock opened, we saw that there was a boat in Lock #2. He very slowly moved in next to us as we paddled past him, and we switched places. Then we tied up again, and were lowered down to the level of the canal. The doors opened again and out we paddled, past yet another boat and some folks fishing on the side of the canal just past the lock. More paddling, and we were completely alone on the canal—there was just nature on either side. One more boat did pass us going toward the locks, and we moved out of its way and waited for it to go by. Then we kept going downstream. We found a stream flowing into the lock and went in to explore it a little bit, and we saw a huge bird (I think it was a heron) which flew over the water and landed in a tree, posing for me so I could take its photo. It was SO QUIET out there, and we spent a lot of time just floating there drinking in the solitude. Totally lovely!

We finally went back to the lock, and had to wait a bit before the doors opened—when we called, the Lockmaster told us he had a boat coming toward him on the other side, and he was going to drop that boat down to meet us. Sure enough, the gates finally opened, we paddled in (such a cool feeling to paddle into the lock!) and when we got up to the next level, there was a largish boat coming toward us. Again we passed each other carefully before we finished our rise back up to the lake level. Then we paddled back to the dock and pulled ourselves and our kayak up onto it. Wow! What an experience!!

We were hungry after that (it was 1:30 pm) and also Joe had to make a few phone calls. So it wasn’t until around 3pm that we started driving. We really had no idea where we were headed exactly, only “east” was pretty much it! So we got back on Route 20, the road which had taken us through the northern end of the long Finger Lakes. I looked for a campground that was about halfway to Caroga Lake, where we have reservations for Friday and Saturday night. On the way we stopped in Skaneateles, a charming town right on the northern tip if the lake of the same name, and enjoyed the waterfront a little bit. 

We drove on from there, now heading to Oneida Lake State Park. On the way we passed right by Chittenango State Park. I knew there was a nice waterfall there, so we pulled in. Sure enough, the waterfall was GORGEOUS. The park overlook was at the top, so we (including Roxy) hiked the quarter-mile down a steep path to see it from the bottom as well. It was really beautiful.

From there it was only 20 miles to Oneida Lake. There are only 48 campsites here, but we were so lucky—we got one just off the shore of the lake.  It was already after 7:00, and we sat on a bench at the lakeside watching the sun set. There was a lovely breeze and we just enjoyed the view and the sailboats in the distance until the sun completely disappeared. It was the perfect end to a very special and memorable anniversary day.

 

Our campsite. The lake is right beyond the trees.

It's a Wonderful Life, Especially Now that Women Can Vote

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

We started today by setting the GPS toward the Seneca Falls Visitor Center. There we picked up some  brochures to help us find the important landmarks in the town, and perused the very interesting Museum of Waterways and Industry. This gave us an understanding of the way the town developed along the rivers and then the Erie Canal, which is directly north of the city, and some of the major industries which made the town flourish.  

There is another canal, the Seneca-Cayuga Canal, which runs through Seneca Falls along what was originally the riverbed of the Seneca River, and connects the northern tips of those two big finger lakes to the Erie Canal.  The Seneca canal is right behind the visitor center, and after browsing through the exhibit and through the store next door (called “WomanMade Products”, full of great gifts), we moved Samantha down to a visitors parking lot right beside the canal. There we got to see a number of boats which are really counterparts of our RV—they were “camped” at the tie-ups in Seneca Falls, and their owners were clearly enjoying a few relaxing hours beside the water.

 After moving the RV to this new spot, we walked back up to Fall Street, which is the main street in town. There we went to Women’s Rights National Historical Park. Seneca Falls was a center of the women’s rights movement, and the location of the convention 165 years ago which produced the Declaration of Sentiments, a document which used the wording of the Declaration of Independence to articulate the inequities toward women during the 19^th century. Declaration Park is right between the Wesleyan Church where the convention was held in 1848, and the National Park Visitor Center. Its striking feature is a “waterwall” which has the words of the Declaration, and the names of the signers, engraved under a curtain of flowing water.

Inside the Visitor Center are a number of excellent exhibits (a whole small museum, really) focusing on the issues of women’s rights and equality in general in America. There were displays discussing every aspect of life and the different ways the sexes interacted with those things, from exercise to education to fashion. There were interactive displays dealing with significant court cases—such as whether a woman could properly be tried for murder of her husband (the alleged cause was “temporary insanity” due to her suspicion of his infidelity) by an all-male jury; or whether it was a violation of men’s rights that women were not subject to the draft equally with men. There were videos with clips of the depiction of women in film and tv, fashion, beauty ads, etc. All in all, we spent about an hour there and really found it interesting.

From there we walked down the street and since it was already 12:30 or so, decided to eat “in town” rather than go back to the RV. So we stopped at a Chinese restaurant for some lunch. Then we went to the Seneca Falls It’s  A Wonderful Life Museum. We hadn’t realized that Seneca Falls was probably the inspiration for Frank Capra’s Bedford Falls. 

The incident where George leaps into the river to “save” Clarence the angel from drowning was based on a real incident in Seneca Falls. In 1917, a young Italian-American man jumped into the canal to save a woman who had jumped in trying to commit suicide. He was able to save her, but just as she was pulled from his arms, he was swept away and he himself drowned.  The town, which was not fond of Italians nor of immigrants, nevertheless was so moved by this act that the church was filled to overflowing at his funeral, and the citizens subsequently collected money to put a plaque on the bridge with his name, and the phrase “He honored our community; our community honors him.” Frank Capra, who came to the town before the finalization of the script of the movie, saw the bridge and the later scripts were changed to include the episode. The museum itself was very cute, with lots of Beautiful Life memorabilia. Every December, they have a festival in the town, and a number of businesses have names which link them to the movie.

By this time it was about 3pm, and we decided to do a little research on the idea of kayaking on one of the canals. We went to a local kayak rental place and I had a good talk with the guy who ran it. He was most helpful. We decided that we really didn’t want to rush it in the afternoon, so instead we headed back to Cayuga Lake State Park with the intention of relaxing and getting up early tomorrow.  On the way, we explored some more and found our way to Locks 2 and 3 on the Seneca-Cayuga Canal. I spoke to the lockmaster about coming tomorrow morning, and he was very encouraging. Now we know where to go and where to park!  But it was hot and muggy back at the park, so before going back to our campsite, we parked and walked down to the beach on Lake Cayuga. There Joey and I went swimming—we were the only ones there, leading us to conclude that we were the only people swimming in the entire lake! The lake water was very clear and the bottom is sandy, so it was really lovely and not very cold.  It’s a nice little park area, with picnic facilities, playground, and a large bath house.

After about 30 minutes, we were relaxed and no longer hot and sticky, so we came back up to the campsite and sat outside with our books and some cold drinks until it was time for dinner. We are getting ready to go to sleep (Joey just finished his book—the third one on this trip!) and get up early tomorrow. We are going to go back to the canal and go kayaking through the locks before heading east again.