By the time the Wayward Explorers woke up, the two big mega-yachts that parked in front of them were gone (sorry, no pictures). No doubt they are hustling to make it to the Hudson River before the locks close.
The Explorers took another, longer walk around Sylvan Beach. The beach was still deserted; they watched the workers at the amusement park disassembling more of the rides and moving the parts into a big warehouse for the winter.
Explored the Cove at Sylvan Beach, which is a cluster of vacation rentals owned by Turning Stone Resorts. It has its own channel, and rentals include a boat slip and a pontoon boat. It’s definitely a little pricey, but seems like it would be great for a family vacation. However, there is no beach access, and a some internet sleuthing revealed very contradictory information about whether swimming is allowed on Sylvan Beach anyway. The answer seems to go back and forth, based on whether the town has hired lifeguards and whether the water quality is acceptable.
After returning to the canal, the Explorers crossed the bridge over the canal to see if there was anything interesting on the other side. They found nothing but a campground and a few cute garden gnomes.
Back on the boat, the Explorers fixed lunch and talked about whether to cross back over Oneida Lake today or tomorrow, in order to be west of the lake before the rains arrived. They concluded that there wasn’t much left to see in this closed-down sleepy little beach town that was within walking distance; there weren’t any good bike trails and there was no shore power, so they decided to go ahead and cross the lake today and return to Brewerton once again.
Oneida Lake was a bit more crowded today. There was lots of boat traffic; it was a perfect day to be on the water, the sun was shining, the water and wind were calm, and there was no bug-cloud like the day before. Captain Mark exclaimed that this was the most boat traffic he had encountered at any time along the trip. Traffic aside, the Explorers felt they had make the right choice to cross today, even though it meant their future held a few days of being cooped up on a boat in the rain.
As they pulled into Brewerton, there were happy to see that the single power pedestal was available again. This never would have happened during the summer season. It was like hitting the lottery. They docked the boat, and once more trekked to Dollar General to get some soda. As they were walking, they became keenly aware of loud car engines revving. A quick look at Google Maps revealed that there was a race track only about a block away from where the boat was parked. Apparently, today was race day. They figured it would be “no problem” because the noise would certainly cease by 10:00, as they have seen in all the other canal-side towns. Unfortunately, they were wrong; when they returned from Dollar General, the noise was still going and would continue for hours. There would be no movies onboard tonight. At 11:30-ish, the car races finally stopped, and the Explorers were able to get some sleep.
Sidekick Sue liked these friendly garden gnomes.
Cute gnome hiding in a hole in a tree.
View of the Wayward Explorer from the campground across the canal.