Trip to Great Falls Tavern

June 10 – It was a long day, but a good one!  We knew there would only be coverage until noon at Ferry Hill so I went to work and dropped Bill off for his ride home.  I didn’t have to pack a lunch as he had my lunch ready when I got home so we could left ASAP for Great Falls.  The other volunteer today was Joni.  We had not met but she and her husband had met Bill.  She had things about ready to go when we arrived.  Although we only had 9 visitors, the time went really fast.  She encouraged me to do 3 tours with the visitors that came in and she did the one cash register transaction and greeted.

 

The boy who lost the phone came instead of his mother and he was very appreciative that we had his phone and had gotten word to him.  I’d like to think someone would go to the trouble to get my phone back to me.

 

Talking with the visitors can be more interesting than the tour.  Joni found out that one man worked with her father in Ohio years ago.  I met a guy from Canton, OH who was familiar with where my dad is from.  Every day brings a different story to the table and if it wasn’t always hot and humid in the VC, it would really be a fun job.

 http://www.nps.gov/choh/planyourvisit/greatfallstavernvisitorcenter.htm

 

With all the geese at Great Falls

At the end of our shift Joni brought in the chairs and shut off the fans, etc while I did the end of day on the register for

Waiting for the boat ride

our one transaction.  I’d only done it once and it was all zeros.  She brought in the porch sign and I put the road sign behind the brick entry and headed home.  Bill was waiting and I ate and changed clothes and we headed to Great Falls.  It’s down near Washington and is actually in Potomac, MD.  It’s the Great Falls Tavern on the C & O Canal.  Our former Ft. Pulaski ranger, Patty, was at the entry station when we arrived about 80 minutes later.  We chatted until someone pulled in behind us and she sent us to park.  She made a reservation for us on the 3:00 mule pulled canal boat ride.  We were early enough to see the visitor center and the small museum and the huge gaggle of geese they have.  You had to be really careful where you walked!

 

Approaching Lock 20

Lucky for us but we felt bad for all the workers, but we were the only people on the boat so the interpreter sat with us and explained all about the boat, life on the canal and answered all of our questions.   The boat was half the size of a real one which was 90 feet.  The owners would have 4 mules, 2 to pull it at a time for 6 hours and then swap the

Our engines

mules out.  The resting pair lived in a small stable in the bottom of the boat at one end and the family lived in small quarters at the other end and the goods being transported, mostly coal from the north, was in the middle.  It was really interesting.  They used harnesses on the small kids and chained them to the boat in case they fell over.  The harnesses were of the same material as for the mules.  Really heavy.  The ride was into lock 20, where we watched them close the gates and let the water in to raise us to the level of the other side.  The mules were hooked up and towed us quite a way up the canal.  Two of the rangers in period clothing lead the mules.  In the day it would most likely have been the children of the boat owner.  They would walk barefooted or ride the mules for 6 hours along the canal path that was inches deep with mule poop.  There were thousands of mules a day walking the path and shoes were too expensive so barefoot was the only option.  Oh, so nasty!

Great Falls Tavern

With the boat only half the normal length they U turn it in the canal, which was pretty tricky and the mules tow it back to the lock.  This time we were on the high end, so they shut the gate behind us and opened the wickets on the now front gate to let water out of the lock to lower us.  The mules were unhooked and taken to the barn.  The gate was opened and we went down river by the power of the water and men using long poles.  They turned us around and parked us at the loading ramp for the first tour the next day.

 

I did ask a lot of questions about the mules.  One pair does 3 rides a day and is then off for 2 days.  The oldest mule is 38.  They don’t buy mules younger than 10 and they take several weeks to acclimate a new mule in with the others.  The mules respond to voice commands.  When they retire they go to various farms where they live a life of luxury!

 

Since we were not meeting Patty until 5 we walked

down the towpath where locks 17, 18 and 19 are all in a row.  It’s because at this point of the Potomac River there are a series of waterfalls.  We walked the boardwalk over to Olmstead Island to the Great Falls overlook.  It’s a series of falls and it’s really rocky.  It was a very pretty area but the falls are not the tall majestic ones you think of. 

 

We rested on a bench for a while until Patty got off and we followed her into town to Potomac Pizza.  We talked a long time before getting serious about dinner.  It was great to catch up on what brought her to Maryland and about her new job coming up.  She has been in contact with just about everyone at Ft. Pulaski so she brought us up to date on them.  We had a really nice visit.  The food was good too.

 

We followed Patty a back way up to Frederick where she dropped us at a Wal-mart and then she headed on her way further north.  The scenery was beautiful and we recalled some of the roads from our outing to Monocacy Battlefield and Monocacy Aqueduct.  We checked the bicycles there for Bill, but no luck finding an aluminum one like mine.  Grabbed a few things we needed and headed home for our 9:00 TV show!