Visit to Williamsport

July 21 – My shoulder and neck still ache from the decal removal.  Guess I should not have done the rest in one day.  Of course I mainly use my left hand so it affects my left shoulder which has not been right for several years now.  Bummer!  Anyway I drove Bill to Ferry Hill so I could run to the store for a paper and ham and then stop on the way back and pick a few berries.  Without recent rain the berries are drying up.  I did manage to get some blackberries as well as some raspberries but not as many as our last 2 outings.

After I took a break I went over to start cleaning sites.  I did 9 – 20.  Not all had been used and one was still occupied so I cleaned 3 grills, 3 fire pits and picked up trash here and there.  Stopped and talked to a lady that lives in “The Village”, which she said they call The Hamlet.  She was walking 2 small greyhounds.

Williamsport Visitor Center on the Cushwa Basin

Got my shower so my hair would dry before I left to pick up Bill.  Had a huge salad for lunch and then did a bit of email and computering until it was time to leave for Bill.  He took a shirt to change into so we could head straight to Williamsport which is another visitor center and stop on the C & O Canal.  We were scheduled to go on a ranger tour and boat ride on a section of the canal.  We were in time to check out their visitor center which is in and old warehouse dating back to the 1700’s.  It was in the same family until the

Captain Ben on our boat

1980’s.  It was primarily a coal warehouse and the coal was brought down on the canal from Cumberland, MD.  Ranger Melissa, who we had met at Ferry Hill, gave the tour but Ranger Ben was the boat captain.  They trade off.  We road a passenger boat to the lock and lockhouse and toured the house which is in the process of being renovated.  Luckily the youngest daughter of the last lockkeeper is 100 and lives in Williamsport and she has been able to give all the detail of what furniture and colors of paint were in the house so when the park has money to continue they can make it authentic.  When the canal shut down the lockkeeper paid $1 per year rent to stay in the house and maintain the lock while taking a job in town at the leather tanning factory.  The lock itself has one set of gates off as it’s being repaired also so they can eventually take the boat further down.

Geese dining on duck seed

There were lots of families out fishing in the canal and enjoying the cooler day.  There are lots of geese there also who eat the duck seed off the water.  It looks like algae growing but it’s not.  It is a tiny seed that floats on the water since the water does not flow.  It’s more like a pond at this point. 

So we had a nice stop there and I got 4 more stamps for my NPS book.  Luckily we had plenty of leftovers for dinner so there wasn’t a lot to cooking tonight.  I did dishes while Bill went and did the other 8 sites and we watched a bit of TV and planned our day in DC tomorrow.  Well, we made some plans but who knows how it will all work out!