06-23 You Say Goodbye, I Say Hello

Karen's turn to blog about the end of our Canal Boat adventure and our first day in Liverpool, home of The Beatles.

We are up at 7am today. We get breakfast and organized. It's not raining as we leave at 9am. No locks, no swing bridges today. As for me, I stay inside for the half hour cruise and bag up anything not done last night.

We pull into the dock at 9:30. By 9:50 we had the car loaded and called the owners. After chatting with them about the boat and the weather we hit the road to Liverpool at 10:15. Right on schedule.

We arrived in Liverpool at 11:15 and grabbed a sandwich at Subway.

We arrive at the Premier Inn at noon but the room is not ready yet and they do not have any discounts to the Beatles Story. After parking our car at the Eco Arena parking garage we went into the Beatles Story.

They had a good audio to go with all the exhibits. They told the story of how John and Paul met and then how and when they met George and Ringo. Then you entered different mockups of Mathews Street, The Cavern, the Yellow Submarine, and the white room with a piano.

They did a very good job of telling the stories including their original drummer, Peter Best, and their manager, Brian Epstein. At the end they had four circular areas, one for each of them that told about their life after the Beatles. It included family, career, and things they had done for the community. It was a great introduction to everything we would be doing tonight and tomorrow.

Next, we checked into our motel. It was in the same building as the Beatles Story. We had to go get the car at the garage to bring in our stuff then we drove down to the extra exhibit, Elvis and the Beatles.

We started with a photo exhibit. Cool candid shots of the Beatles that were just found two years ago. Then into a 4-D not-so-great motion movie where the boy needs to get to the show to play guitar. Beatle songs help get him there.

The exhibit tells about Elvis' influence on the individual Beatles and about their meeting in 1965 in Bel Air. We left when it closed at 7pm.

We had dinner at Pizza Express right by the parking garage. They had WiFi so we checked email. We hadn't had Internet for a week. This is when we found out that Pat's car was missing (it has since been recovered). We were able to get an email off to dad with the info he needed and to do a quick check with Mike and Brian to make sure they didn't have it.

Now its off to the (new) Cavern Club. Wow, the Beatles started in a place like this? They played 292 shows here. (The original Cavern Club was filled in during construction work in 1973). The new one used about 50% of the original site and recreated the room that the Beatles and others played in.

Off in a different room, off to the right of the room where the Beatles played, we heard a very good Beatles cover band. They did the early years including She Loves You Yah Yah Yah and Penny Lane. They took a 35 minute break and come back and did the later years. They played from 9:30 - midnight.

"George Harrison" & "John Lennon"

"Paul McCartney" & "George Harrison"

The band was great with really good harmony. The singers made their voices sound like each of the Beatles. The room was small, the chairs were just hassocks; four around a short table. It wasn't the area where the Beatles played, like they implied. The band did an encore that everyone wanted to hear: Twist and Shout.

When they finished we went in the recreated Cavern Club room and that band was singing Twist and Shout on the very stage that the Beatles played on.

This band wasn't as good as the band we had just heard but they were singing Beatles songs on the stage where the Beatles sang 292 times.

Names of bands that played in the Cavern Club are written on the wall behind the band.

It was a great ending to our day. We were there till just after midnight then walked home in the rain. What a fantastic evening.

06-22 RAIN RAIN RAIN

Some days it just makes more sense to write your blog during the day that life is happening because THIS is a memorable day.

This axiom comes to mind as I sit in our warm boat after 2 hours of pouring rain and very windy conditions on the canal standing on the stern of our boat piloting us along at 3 MPH.

It HAS been raining all day. Oh, it may have stopped for 5 minutes but I think I'm safe to say it rained all day today AND HARD. Not your whimpy Seattle drizzle-all-day rain but an England rain that only a farmer could love.

We started off this morning with 6 locks in a row all within a 1 mile stretch. We love doing the locks but they lose their romantic appeal the wetter things get. It was so wet and we were so wet that I think we were ready for a divorce from the locks despite the cheery looking wave from me.

With 4 locks done and both of us soaking wet (Karen's 10 year old coat is no longer waterproof like my new one she bought me for Christmas) we docked for awhile to dry out and eat lunch.

The locks can hold two boats at the same time. Sometimes you lock through with another boat and sometimes there are no other boats going your way. As we were getting ready to get wet again another boat was coming up through the lock below us. We quickly got ready again and joined them in our next lock.

The other captain and I joyfully commisurated about what a lovely day we were having as the locking duties were masterfully handled by our first mates.

We locked through the two remaining locks together sharing the load and making the difficult task in the rain half as hard. They stopped in a couple of miles for lunch at a Pub they asked us about and we motored on without locks or swing bridges for the 4 miles to the bottom of the Greenberfield trio of locks.

Once we got there in the pouring rain and very windy conditions it was time for me to dry off again. Karen had been rotating the wet clothes in the cabin but I was soaked to the skin once again.

About an hour later our new-found friends came by in their boat intending to head up the 3 locks and we quickly got ready to join in the party.

Karen got out of the boat and headed up to help the lady with the locking duties in the 1st of the locks and I got the boat ready to leave in the continously pouring and windy rain.

We locked through in tandem through all 3 locks in just 1 hour. We pulled over 100 yards past the top of the last lock to spend the night in the wind and the rain. Tomorrow we shall travel the last mile to our boat's home in Barnoldswick.

Our lock total for today is 9 locks and so much rain and wind that our 4 hours and 15 mintues seemed like twice that.

06-21 Canal Boat - Wet on Top and Bottom

It started to rain late last night before we went to bed. This was expected. 7 days in a row in England without anymore rain would be too much to expect.

Last night and then some this morning we were figuring out again how far we needed to go today and Friday so that we would have an easy day on Saturday when we had to turn the boat in.

We decided to get all of our remaining locks done in these two days. Everything's neat and pretty. On with the show.

BUT FIRST, we went on a shopping trip to the competitor. About a 10 minute walk back down the canal was Snaygill Narrow Boats and they had a gift shop. Let's see what we can find.

I come away empty handed but Karen finds a bookmark and a notepad with the Bingley Five on them to remember this cruise by. As you can see I still have my raincoat on and it is still raining outside.

Skipton (the town with the Skipton Castle) is only 20 minutes away and we find a mooring spot close to a bridge in town.

There is a side canal called Springs Canal that the hourly tourist cruisers take people up and back along. We walked back on the path for about 1/2 mile until we were around to the back of the Castle.

It was an interesting place because there used to be a mill back in this area and three ribbons of water used to run side by side - Springs Canal, the River Aire, and a mill race to turn the mill waterwheel.

We shopped in the covered area called Craven Court to escape the rain for awhile.

Lunch for today was at Hemingway's in the Court and it was delicious. Karen had a large baked potato cut length wise onto six wedges then topped with tomatoes, onions (like a home made salsa) and cheddar.

Despite trying to give the rain enough time to stop while we were in town it would not.

Since Karen couldn't sit OUT in the rain she made herself someplace that she could watch the canal on the front easy chair.

After swinging a bridge for us to pass through she'd come in and take off her coat and shoes and dry them on the heated-water register.

Here comes the boat under a bridge and entering a lock.

It actually stopped raining for awhile and when the sun came out for 30 minutes I was down to just a T-shirt.

Lock #30 is the lock where the Grace got her carpet all wet 3 weeks ago so we are very cautious as we enter. Karen gradually fills the lock with water from the side fillers first and when the boat rises high enough she lets in water from the gate paddles in front of the bow. We are patient and it pays off and the boat is only getting wet from the rain today.

We stop and have dinner (Karen gets leftovers from her wonderful lunch) after a few more locks. After another locking through we stop for the night. Today's lock and bridge total - 5 swing bridges and 6 locks in 5 1/2 hours of boating - all alone.

06-20 Second Verse Same as the First

As Karen will tell you, if possible, I like to take a different road home when we're on trips. On the Canal that's just not possible. So our first destination this morning is...the Bingley Three Rise locks followed by the Bingley Five Rise locks.

As we round the corner to view the locks we see TWO boats (our friends are first in line) waiting to go up and THAT'S not a good thing when the lock can only hold two boats.

So, we indeed DO have to wait about 100 minutes before we get to start up. We try and put a good spin on it by playing lock master. I don't get to do the locks that often so we went up and helped the two boats lock through the three locks.

By the time our turn came to go up another boat had come up and they wanted to go through also. Great, because it is easier with two boats.

Our NEW locking buddies were bringing their boat up from another canal and they were now going to continue remodeling it closer to their home.

With sunshine and 3MPH this never gets tiring.

There are more people around this time when we arrive at the Bingley Five.

Sometimes the lock gates or the paddles don't close all the way and a stream of water will cascade into your bow. If the water enters faster than the scuppers can drain it then you get wet carpet in your living room. NEVER a good thing. The lock master was an expert at knowing his lock and how to open the water gates to keep the boat bows from filling with water.

We locked up without incident and pulled off to the side at the Cafe (beyond the STOP sign) to fill our water tanks up and use the free Wi-Fi to send off some updates from Karen. Our friends from Australia were still at the top waiting for us! After all this time? That's their boat on the left.

The cool thing about two boats going together is you can play hopscotch with the Swing Bridges. One crew opens the swing bridge for both of you. You keep motoring along and by the time you get to the next swing bridge and open it they have caught up with you and THEY sail through. It cuts your swing bridge delays in half.

Karen has opened the bridge and they are moving on to the next one.

After awhile we catch up to the boat that was ahead of us at the Bingley Three and they have a bridge open and BOTH of us sail through. Karen and I decide to visit a city so we leave the two of them to continue on up the canal without us.

Typical scenery along the way. There's a bridge up around the bend.

Just a motorin' along...

At the town of Silsden we walk into town and don't find much to do. We buy some more supplies (food) and then head back to the boat.

We find good fortune in the next few hours of boating in that two more bridges are open for us by other boaters before we stop for the night. It was a great day to be out on the water.

06-19 Eight Locks Over Easy

Last night we tied up close to the famous Bingley Five Rise locks so that we could start the process of going through 5 connected locks early in the morning. Little did we know the pleasant surprise that awaited us.

We were getting ready at our own pace when we heard a knock on the hull. There was a lady asking if we would be going through the Bingley soon. The upshot was that the lockmaster likes to put through two boats at a time for this series of locks. If another boat gets ahead of us we may have to wait an hour to lock through. In a matter of 5 minutes we cast off and headed the 1/4 mile to the locks and found our locking buddies.

The Bingley Five are five locks sharing lock gates. The downstream lock gates of lock #1 is the upstream lock gate of lock #2 and so on down through the 5 locks. This view is from the top. The bottom of each lock is the long black wooden handle which is the downstream lock gate (including the white one that Karen's picture is taken from).

Here is the view from below the locks that is much more beautiful. Each of the white gate-like structures is the bottom of a lock.

So our two boats entered the upper lock and the lockmaster proceeds to do Karen's work! The other boat we are with has 5 people on board and one of the men, Robert, does the work on the other side of the lock. I talk to the other captain and Karen talks to the other non-working ladies on their boat. What a peaceful way to do locks.

Between the Five-Rise and the next set of similar locks called the Bingley Three Rise is a 1/4 mile walk so Karen just walks it while I motor down to it.

Our new friends have done several canal waterways vacations. (Holidays, actually they're British). They are a nice couple from Australia traveling with his sister, her husband and daughter. The threesome is from England, east of London. The Australians have both worked in Australia for ten years for the same company and that earned them 3 months off. They had been in Italy and most of the same places we've been. She teaches school, he is an engineer.

We fly through the last 3 locks with help from another lock master and Robert and we have finished all 8 locks in 70 minutes!

Three locks to get us down to the level of those two boats in the distance that are waiting to go up.

We've all collected our crews and we're off down the canal.

We all decide that our destination today is the town of Saltaire as we lock through another two locks together and finally go our separate ways when we get to town. Locking is hard work for the captains.

The old mill on the left and the new mill on the right as we enter the town of Saltaire.

Karen and I have lunch and then go off to explore. The town's name comes from the founder, Titus Salt, and the river that runs through it, Aire. Mr. Salt and Walt Disney have something in common. They both wanted to create a city where people could work, live, and play.

Salt, however, accomplished his goal by building stone houses for his workers in 1851...

...and a hospital, library, concert hall, schools, and a recreation park.

...and a huge steam-powered textile manufacturing facility.

The reason for all of this? The living conditions for his workers were killing them. Thus, the stone houses he built for them were larger, had running water and proper sanitation areas. Ah, the good life.

His old mill is gradually being turned into a shopping/eating/gallery area for tourists.

Our boat needed to be returned from where we picked it up so this required that we determine how far away we could go and then make it back to Barnoldswick by Saturday morning at 10am. THIS was our turnaround point.

There are designated turnaround spots on the canal. The guide books list them so it isn't a mystery. In some places the canal is only 4 boats wide (about 25') so you can't turn a 60' boat around just anywhere.

We boated out of town another 1/2 mile to one of these spots and without incident we made a wonderful 3 point turn and headed back the way we had come.

As we approached a lock there were two boys playing around. They wanted to help us lock through. They were fun to talk to and they WERE helpful.

Our destination this evening was a Pub. Yep, Karen and Pat going to a Pub. It was recommended by one of the lock masters this morning and we owed it to him to check it out.

A few hours later we tied up the boat and headed up to The Fisherman's Pub (recently redecorated and renamed The Fisherman at Bingley) for food. Out on a limb we each ordered Sausages and Mash (mashed potatoes). We had a nice chat with the waitress who was surprised that we hadn't tasted this English dish and she assured us we would get the best Sausages and Mash that we'd ever eaten tonight. Huh?

We both really enjoyed it but left the vegetables for the compost pile out back.

Today's locking buddies showed up while we were eating and they were going to eat dinner and watch the English soccer team on TV. Despite the chance to engage in the English culture, we passed and headed back to our boat.