Places To Explore

Boot Key Harbor, Marathon, Florida

We seem to be stuck in a rut.  A rut we like for sure, but a rut nevertheless.  Our rut takes us south to Florida/Bahamas in the winter and Vermont/Maine in the summer.   That doesn't mean that we don't dream of exploring other places.   The more I see and the more I read, I think that the places most appealing to us lie along the world's rivers and canals, more so than the seven seas.

Below is a picture of a marvelous example.  It is the Falkirk Wheel a rotating boat lift in Scotland, connecting the Forth and Clyde Canal with the Union Canal.  In other words it is a lock.  Boy it sure doesn't look like the locks on the Erie Canal.  What fun it would be to sail Tarwathie through this wheel. She would even feel at home because she is named after Tarwathie, a place in Scotland not far from this wheel.

Falkirk Wheel

What about in this country?   My mind keeps returning to the day when we met a man on the Erie Canal who had an aluminum canoe with an outboard motor.   He carried all his camping gear and supplies.  He could cruise all day long at 15 knots.   It was a vessel and a life style superbly well suited to cruising along all the inland waters of North and South America.  My oh my wouldn't that be fun?

Libby and I recently had a taste of life living in a tent.  It wasn't so bad at all. Given the speed of a canoe, we could easily follow the climate to avoid winter cold or summer heat.  Given the size and weight of a canoe, we could have it trucked around portages long and short.


Might we be crazy enough to leave Tarwathie behind and cruise by canoe for a year?  Certainly not.  Well, probably not.  Well, maybe not.  Well ... one never knows.