People are amazing!

We had a lovely day on the Erie Canal on Sunday. At our chilly 1st lock, we met a local photographer who was taking photos of Elysium as we locked through. He is quite a knowledgeable historian regarding the canal system and gave us some interesting information. Amazingly, he drove ahead of us for several miles at the most picturesque locations and took numerous photos of our journey, which he later shared. Big thanks to Bob Stopper! We don't often get photos of the journey from an outside the boat perspective.

We had a long day on the canal as we were going through an area without many stopping points. As we pulled into Baldwinsville, our final destination for the night, we were excited to see that some friends we'd met previously were also there! They are Canadian, and naturally, Euchre players, so the night ended with use trying to learn the game. We totally suck, but hopefully they enjoyed schooling us.

Shortly after getting settled at the dock, we saw a couple walk up. It was a woman and her husband. I'd connected with her on an Erie Canal group a few days prior. They are in the area on their boat, saw that we'd arrived and came by to meet us and find out if we needed a ride to the store. We ended up having a great conversation and found out they've been cruising together for 26 years, and know the Canals, the east coast, the Caribbean and the Bahamas like it's their back yard. We shared some stories and they gave us a ton of info about the upcoming legs of our journey. We really hope to meet up with them again over the coming year.

We have spent so many days in solitude thus far and it was reinvigorating to meet some kindred souls to pass the time with. The experience we share with others are the highlights of life.