10/20/15 Tuesday

Found my gloves and dug out my long johns this morning and another neck warmer and more socks. Yes, uber chilly = cold, but only until the sun starts to warm the earth on our side. And warm up it did. Early morning chat on the fore deck w/Amelia and my friend, Judy, started my day perfectly. And it just continued that way. Coffee and boat chores until the dock cleared around 9:30 AM. Chat with other friend, Judy.

We moved Grace to the town dock so we didn't have to take the dinghy down. We'll do that tomorrow I expect. So today we chatted with Liz and Paul who admired grace. Enjoyed them so much that we invited them to lunch w/us in the sweet town of Chesapeake City. They knew the area so we went where they were heading, a couple blocks from the wharf. Blah, blah, blah, chat, chat chat...theater (he taught and directed at a PA h.s.), sailing (they've down-sized to 20' sailboat after much larger power boat and have "done the ICW" several times), writing (he's written a book about their journeys/negotiations for couples, etc). We exchanged stories about all the above and will try to find them when we arrive in FL. They will trailer their boat and drive down, I think was their plan. Shared some great information about places to moor, do work on your boat. I'm loving this sharing of info and stories that happens wherever we are so far.

This was apparently a thriving town when the canal had a controlling lock. Then the canal was straightened and widened so less commerce here. Then a bridge was put over the water so even less reason for people and boats to stop. "The town the progress left behind," is a quote in the museum.

Chesapeake City from town dock and our boat

Art photo #1: band shell top matches the C&D Canal Bridge
sorry about the no parking sign. This is just to the left of the above photo

Then I sat on the porch picnic table at Town Hall and used the public wifi (but not for banking!!!) and did email while David went to the C&D Canal Museum. We reconnected and took a little walk about town, the historic part, had a drink at the pub (on the lawn looking over the canal and we were warm, of course I still have my longjohns on), back to the boat for soup dinner, clean up, prepare the boat for her journey tomorrow.

Drinks on the Pub lawn w/Canal bridge in background.

We watched a lone sail boat come down the canal. Broad waterway, gently flowing and trees along the edges turning toward fall. I'm reminded of Mark Twain's descriptions of the Mississippi. And I've always been attracted to that transition area from land to water. All "transitions" are intriguing, some more complicated than others but all filled with the stirring of life and living, nothing static, always moving/changing.

From the Pub lawn, last early evening arrival to port

Gracious. Goodness. Grateful.        

A totally delicious day!