Sylvan Beach, Lake Oneida
                                                       End of the Erie Canal, NY

23 locks and 4 days after beginning the Erie Canal we have arrived at Sylvan Beach, the end of the Erie Canal for us.

We averaged 8 locks a day, with a day of rest at the town of Little Falls.

It is awesone scenerery a long the way here, but not much in the way of towns. Little Falls was great though.

We hear that the next part of the Erie, if you continue onto Buffalo, has alot more cutsy towns than here.  There are a couple of bridge too low for us on that part.

We are here at Sylvan Beach on Memorial Day weekend - biggest weekend of the year - we didn't plan this timing.  This is THE PLACE to be around here for this weekend - party central!
People raft up several boats wide right where we are in the canal.

Lake Oneida is huge - 25 miles long - and fairly shallow.  It is the biggest lake by far in New York.

Sylan jBeach Wall

 Music is blasting from boat speakers.  It actually looks like Young State Beach, Boyne City Mi.

Yep, I'm driving!

Bill is really busy  preparing the boat for storage (and strressing about  getting it done) which will be at our next stop.  I have done all I can do for boat storage so I am bike riding,  hanging out at the beach and staying out of his way.

Sylvan Beach is a tiny ( population 900), old town at the end of Lake Oneida.  They have an original amusement park and arcade  still working (Memorial Day - Aug.)  They must have a dozen ice cream shops, and only about 6 restaurants. 

I had an ice cream every day here.  My rules: has to be a small and only one a day.

Hey, no more calories than Bill's beer!!

Old time arcade - I won 8 tickets, enough for an eraser ....

We were here at Sylvan Beach for 4 days.  We met some great local people tied up on the wall near us (they put their boats here on Wed. to save a spot for the weekend).  Somene even gave Bill a ride back  and forth to the West Marine in the next town. 

6:00 in the evening we are sitting with a bunch of people on the sidewalk,  eating and drinking , and a crop duster  plane comes overhead down low and sprays mosquito spray right over us.  The plane makes 6 passes overhead spraying the town.

Unbelievable!!!!  The people there actually like it. They said they need it bad and it has to be at that time of day when the mosquitos are in the air.  

The local sheriff gave Bill his personal card if Bill should need anything.  Is that like a Monopoly game  -  "Get Out of Jail Free card"?

Have I mentioned that every town, no matter how small,  has a Dunkin Donuts and a  Dollar store?

Zebra mussels on all the walls of the locks around here.

We are watching the weather closely for a travel day as this is supposed to be a bad lake to be on (long, lots of fetch and shallow) in bad weather.