Low bridge, everybody down! Low bridge, we must be near a town! ♪ We have been blasting the iconic Erie Canal song over the last week as we’ve traversed the historic canal. We covered 130 miles and locked through 21 locks in the last seven days which truthfully was more than we thought possible in a week (at least for us)!

It seems silly to say but we were giddy with excitement entering lock E-2 Monday morning. We weren’t the only ones because our first lock along the canal was a full one! When departing Waterford, New York, you must go through the first five locks in one go because of their proximity to each other. You could feel the energy of the other loopers in locks E-2 through E-6, especially because the canal is celebrating 200 years this year!

Immediately after completing the “flight of five,” we pulled over to a free wall to work the rest of the day. Come 4:00pm, we pushed off and made it through one more lock to end our day at the Schenectady Yacht Club. We soon realized this would be our routine for the week — grab the first opening of a couple locks, pull over to work, then grab the last opening of one or two more locks. We’ve been pleasantly surprised by how peaceful the free lock walls have been and they’ve been a welcome respite to our wallets. Aside from the Schenectady Yacht Club, we solely moored on the free walls the rest of the week.

The camaraderie along the canal is different from what we’ve experienced in the last 1,500 miles. Coming up the East coast you do a lot of leap-frogging…you meet a looper or two in one stop, then might not see them for another month or two. In the canal you pretty much stick with the same group of boaters for the most part. It’s been fun creating new relationships and bonding over common mishaps or struggles.

One of the most special moments on the loop thus far was welcoming my grandparents on the boat to lock through E-15 with us. They soaked in the scenery and were eager to help hold lines and push off when necessary. When we first told our family we would be taking on America’s Great Loop, my grandpa was the first person to reserve his spot on the boat. After two years of talking about it, we finally saw it through!

With no work on Saturday, we made a big push to get through lock E-22 which brought us to Sylvan Beach. We had no idea how beneficial this would be as a large storm came through Saturday night, closing locks E-16 through E-22 due to high water, power outages and too much debris in the water. As of now, those locks are expected to be closed for two to three days minimum in order to allow for the water levels to get back down to a safe height. Sunday morning we counted our blessings and crossed Oneida Lake with wonderful conditions, putting us in Brewerton, New York.

This upcoming week will be another special one as my dad and step-mom are joining us for a couple days! We’ll head north again up the Oswego Canal before crossing Lake Ontario into Canada. We’ve been looking forward to Canada since we began this journey, but now it’s really happening! Cheers to continuing the adventure!