A new wrinkle

Essays detailing the past few days are composed in my journal, but I've not taken the time away from our activities to sit with the computer and  type them.  Stay tuned for posts that pre-date this one with its late-breaking news..

Well, we learned our fate after dinner.  The water at Oswego is still above flood stage, raging over the dam, meaning that no repairs from winter damage have yet been made and none of the bouys have been installed for the season -- a three day chore once the water abates.  So, the canal will not open this week and a decision as to a target opening date won't be made until sometime next week.

With our revised, slowed-down schedule while we waited to see about Oswego we were going to have to go like the wind once we entered the Great Lakes to get to Chicago by breakfast on June 2nd.  It now looks doubtful that the boat will be in Chicago in time to begin its next scheduled trip on June 4th.  In any event we will not sail the Great Lakes on this trip.

We are, however, going to get the Eric Canal experience, cruising as far as Sylvan Beach, to quote our on-board historian, "leaving the boat (and crew) in the woods."  They and it will wait it out.  Once a vessel this size is in the canal system it's trapped, and the Grande Mariner has to get to Chicago.  We will -- it's our individual choice -- either fly home from Buffalo after seeing Niagara Falls or continue the adventure overland by coach.

The option to continue on is not unattractive and that's what we are going to do.  Several of the excursions that had had to be removed from the itinerary due to our dawdling here at the beginning have been reinstated, like time in Cleveland, Dearborn, Chicago with a visit to the Toledo Museum of Art and a Mud Hens game (think Klinger!).

I'm going to bed a little sad, but content.  People at Road Scholar, Coastal Adventures and Blount are working hard to arrange experiences between Buffalo and Chicago that will continue our historic waterway theme and Tal and I are together.  I cannot ask for or hope for anything better than that.  In fact, there isnt't anything better than that.