An all-around bloody good day

We were up pretty early this morning. John slept poorly, and I slept fine, but had weird dreams. Don't remember, but at least I slept! We didn't shower last night, so because we hadn't run the engine, we only had cool water to shower in. Good thing we had coffee!

John ran into town to get a USA today from the newsagent, and I topped off the boats water and made the bed, washed the dishes, etc.

I drove out of the basin, through Llangollen and the narrow parts. then John took over, since he hadn't had much practice. He did great, and felt his manhood was restored.


When we got to the aqueduct, I pulled us over to wait to get across. Out pops the man from the tourist information center, gave me a -3 for parking, and couldn't wait to see how we were going to handle the return trip over the aqueduct. (We had visited with him on Saturday, and I had expressed my reluctance, and refusal, to return the same way we had come.) I jumped off, and John took off. Walking across was GREAT! There is such a high railing on the tow path, I had no problems at all. I yelled to John to see how he was doing, and he yelled, "SHUT UP! DON'T TALK TO ME!". So I didn't. I took some pics, and when we got to the other side, John was almost as bad as I had been 2 days before. At least he understood now.








Just after the aqueduct is a really cool lift bridge. We had to wait while another boat came through, then we sailed right on through. The day only got better from there.


The canal runs through some deep woods, and open fields. There is always something interesting to watch. It was very peaceful today, too, as the weekend crowds had gone. Nothing but old foggies like us--at least that's all we saw.

We stopped at Chirk after the tunnel, and went into town. We visited a nice church for a bit, then walked both sides of the Main Street. Cute shops, flower merchant, green grocers, etc.



















We went to The Tea Rooms to eat, and we both felt our selections were the best things we have eaten so far. I had egg and cress sandwich, with slaw and potato salad. John had potato-leek soup and a toasted cheese and onion sandwich. We were chatted up by several people, and thoroughly enjoyed our stop there.






Onward, we passed the Chirk aqueduct, beautiful, and not a bit scary. Then lovely scenery as we approached our two locks. Luckily, this went much smoother and faster than our last episode, and someone with much more experience was right behind us and helped.












We just passed the place where we moored the first night, and have moored just past Jack Mytton Inn where we had a very nice dinner. There is a long line of narrowboats here; I think everyone had the same idea. The bartender gave John a bunch of trouble for wearing his Cardinals 2011 World Series tee. He wanted to know what world, since we were the only country to play baseball. When we were leaving, he said it was nice to meet John and his daughter. HA! He was probably looking for a big tip.

We are back on the boat now, 8:50, and almost bedtime. Tomorrow, first thing we will stop at "our" marina, drive back into Oswestry, get groceries (since there isn't supposed to be many stopping places ahead of us), perhaps do a little laundry and head on out again for a few more days.

Tomorrow MAY be the day we get to see the famous Dan Brown and Tilly. Hope so. Eat your heart out, Eric.



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