On the Ashby

Away from Hawkesbury Jct. and as we cruise along the Coventry the same old sights are to be seen at

 Charity Dock. I counted at least 15 of the shop window manikins spread along the moorings and around the yard also the sunken boats one showing in the picture.

We spent a couple of days here and there just relaxing and enjoying walks. Some good Blackberry`s to be picked along the Ashby canal. Other time has been spent moving some shelving from one side of

the boat to the other in order to accommodate our new chairs. Jaq is now seeing what true live aboard boating is all about. The 3 weeks of her visit back in June was just like a holiday as we travelled from Cassio upto Napton with not much time to relax and visit places near to the canal. Now with time on our hands we are choosing how long we moor and where we cruise.
Our friends Tina & Andy out on holiday spent a couple of nights with us one on board to sample dinner ala Jaqueline. The second night was spent in the pub with a nice meal, drinks and good conversation,thanks both of you. 

The Marina Pub/Restaurant

Coventry

Spending a couple of days at Hawkesbury Jct. so I could take Jaq into Coventry on the bus. In the past I have gone into Coventry by boat but to be quite honest the trip was not very pleasant with rubbish in the canal and mostly run down buildings to view on the way in and on the return trip.

Jaq enjoyed the City as she likes history so the bombed Cathedral and the Medieval timber-framed
buildings some moved from across the city to be preserved in one area.

Also a visit to Ikea was on Jaq`s wish list and as it happened we hit the store just on lunchtime and I must say the food was good and very reasonably priced.  The shopping bag when we left was very light as Jaq has quickly become aware of space constraints on board and limited her purchases to things that Bachelors seem to do without. Well what is wrong with using a wine bottle as a rolling pin!!

Not too long after our return, and while Jaq was in the shower, Paul & Lynne on Piston Broke cruised

by heading for a quiet spot to moor for the w`end. The first fellow bloggers to pass by since our return from USA.

Just adding a photo here and there that bring back memories of my 3 months in exile.

 This is Mt. Ranier and at 14,485` is the highest mountain in Washington State. It is a dormant Volcano. Covered in snow and we were sweltering in 85F.  This is one of the many pics i took as we drove into Seattle.

Snoqualmie Falls has a drop of 280` and the memory this brings is it was the first waterfall of this size I had seen. I am not counting Niagara Falls I visited in 1980 as the width doesn`t produce a compact whole falls close up picture like this.

Blackberry cruise

The Jet lag is now a thing of the past and after a few days chilling out we have been on the move heading towards the Ashby. Mrs. Biggs, still can`t believe my luck, has wasted no time in dragging me albeit willingly along the towpath on a foraging expedition. Jaq now wants to identify the other types of berry and obtain recipes for them, suggestions gratefully received.

As i sit here typing a Blackberry & Apple pie is in the making in what was my Bachelor galley that has undergone serious reorganisation.
It has been nice back on the boat not waking up to the daily exhausting heat of the past 3 months in the States but actually seeing it rain. The winds over the weekend especially Monday had the wind genny going at crazy speeds and i saw 10amps going into the battery bank.

Ok so can anyone explain why the locks at Hillmorton have been halved ie all the offside locks are padlocked. Water saving is the reason given but we joined a 12 boat queue to go down and in doing so took 12 lock fulls of water with us just as we would if both locks had been in use. 6x2/12x1. Plus one lock in use leaked real bad with it`s adjacent padlocked twin not leaking a drip.
 The Waterscape notice reproduced below says gates locked overnight- they are locked all day.
BW  will man the double locks during day.....no BW man and these are single locks! Anyone sighted a lost looking BW man hanging around a double lock somewhere?, direct him to Hillmorton please.
Best part of the notice is the request to "double up where possible when using the locks"! (single locks)

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Restriction: North Oxford Canal Hillmorton Locks 2-7

02 Aug 2011 until further notice

Associated Regional Office: South East Waterways

In order to conserve reservoir stocks along the Oxford Canal the offside tandem locks 3, 5 and 7 will be locked during the hours of 4pm - 9am overnight.

During the day BW will continue to man the double locks.

Boaters are asked to double up where possible when using the locks.

BW apologises for any inconvenience this may cause.

(Enquiries: Steve Morgan 01908 302500)
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So glad to be back.

We landed back at Heathrow on Thursday lunchtime and made our way back to the boat. After the overnght flight the lack of sleep found us crawling into bed at 6.30pm and waking at 4am. After a cup of tea and toast we were back in bed until 8.30am.

Friday saw us up at the pub with friends Tina and Andy who kept an eye on the boat whilst we were away......thanks again you lovely pepes.

Saturday lunchtime and we set off and moored on route to Braunston and following a fantastic walk in windy cool conditions along the towpath we promptly fell asleep again for an afternoon nap.

Found a Lock

We are in Seattle for a few days before flying home aboard the boat. The drive over from Pullman took about 6hours with stops on the way at the Ginko Petrified forest in Vantage, lunch at a 1950`s diner based in an old filling station plus a stop at the Snoqualmie waterfall.

We have been out and about here in Seattle and one place we naturally wanted to visit was a LOCK. The 2 locks are Chittenden locks also called Ballard locks. They lock boats up from Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean into the ship canal and onto Lake Union and Lake Washington.
There are 2 locks, one is 30`x150` and the second is 80`x825`.

Seattle skyline as we drive in

Chittenden Locks

The rail bridge lifted as we arrived for boats to access the lock

Filling fast as i stand on the top gate

Full lock, the other boats queueing were to large for the left side spaces

One of 5 lockies on duty around the lock, all with safety harness`s



This boat even has a hot tub on the roof



Almost time to leave Pullman

At the moment we are spending a few days with a close friend of Jaq`s after emptying  and closing up the house. On Sunday we will drive the 300 miles to Seattle and spend 3 days doing the tourist bit before flying back to the UK on an overnight flight arriving Thursday.
Within a week Jaq and I will be back on the boat and i for one can`t wait. The heat is getting to me with temperatures of 69F at 7.30am and 83F at 6pm. As for during the day just cast your eyes on the

display in the picture above taken just after 4pm. a few days ago. I imagine it will take a while to get acclimatised to the English weather and i will probably shiver for a while.


The Segway personal transporter has just recently arrived in Pullman and i pictured one in use by the

 Washington State University campus police. It just happened that a friend of Jaq`s owned a Segway

and I just had to have a go. Ok you all had a good laugh, finished? The crash hat with flowers belongs to Karen and she insisted on the helmet in case i crashed. I tried to take the flowers off but only managed to remove the straw hat.  They seem a bit expensive at around £5000.
This Segway must not be confused with the cheaper scooter version.

Life in the USA

When is a Tyre not a Tire? Is it a Tyre or a Tire?
This is the local parking attendant at work. He goes around the small town of Pullman with a long chalked tip pole and he marks the tyre of the cars parked on the street or in this case one of the many FREE public car

parks. The time limit is two hours and having marked the tire (American spelling--yes ok I hear you all but I can assure you they are nice folk who just talk and spell things differently to us; remember I've married one and so to avoid accusation of cultural discrimination I best include the odd American spelling.) After two hours he comes back on his rounds using different coloured/colored chalk to mark newly parked cars.

He tickets those with his chalk mark of two hours earlier. Above is the car he just marked before I asked him to pose for a picture. To overstay the two hour limit means a $10 fine but be aware: it's $250 for parking illegaly in a disabled bay.

Thrift store is what we in the UK call a charity shop.

Outdoor relaxation is big over here with  tempratures of 85-93F; cooler than usual according to the natives. Nearly all the parks I have visited have a picnic shelter with BBQ, electricity and water. They can be

reserved for a nominal fee to host a large family get together; otherwise the facility is free for public use.

Above is a typical shelter with 4 BBQ units. Seating and tables are available with each unit. The BBQ in the picture below is a stand alone unit in a smaller park that has no shelter.

 

Also in the park I came across this strange contraption. After spotting some young folk approach and aim Frisbees at it. I just had to ask them about it. The game is called Disc Golf and it is played in  twenty countries besides the USA.

Has anyone seen it in the UK? Each player carries a bag of about twenty Frisbees, with at least three different types: putters, drivers and all purpose mid range discs a bit like a golfer with his many different clubs.

No prizes for spotting what's in this picture. Yep an allotment--the difference being this one is un-fenced, slap bang in the middle of the same park where the Disc Golf and single BBQ units were.

Do we have frozen concentrated fruit juice  in the UK? It's very popular here and comes in at least 20 flavors.

Just peel off the lid, squeeze the frozen contents in a jug, and add three containers of water. The only thing I can think of in the UK that's even close is the Frozen Jubbly in a Pyramid shaped carton we got as kids. Hold the front page! I've just been Googling and it seems they have been ressurected from the grave of my childhood memories HERE.

This three wheeler car is a Zap Xebra Electric and has 4 seats. Built by the Chinese, it has a top speed of forty MPH and a range of twenty five miles between charges. The price is $12,000--about £8,000 pounds UK.

 The bodies used to be fiberglass but are now manufactured from metal.They also make a Truck version that has a solar panel on the roof.


What vehicle in the U.S. other than police, fire or ambulance can stop traffic? Yep it`s the good old American school bus. It`s bright Yellow Orange or Orange Yellow; it depends what book you read from. These buses are a famous sight here as is the black cab in London. 

 Almost half a Million buses carry  26 million students to school EACH DAY.

When dropping off or picking up students, the red flashing lights front and rear--together with the stop sign that folds out on the left side--all mean no passing the bus from either direction.

I have now got an official Washington ID card! The reason being, I wanted an American bank account and

without a social security number this was the only route I could take to get an account.

As the Geese fly over the back porch and the sun sets, I'm thinking in just twelve days we will be on the plane from Seattle heading home. We will leave Pullman a few days before the flight and spend time in Seattle as Jaq has obtained some huge hotel discount via a friend. At least Seattle weather should be cooler. I cannot wait to get back and enjoy the UK climate and stand in the rain. The past three months have seen just a tiny amount of rain over here. The heat stops me doing much during the day as I feel exhausted. It was 101F a few days back.

We have packed up the things Jaq wants for our life on the boat and they have been delivered to the shipper today and will appear in the UK in about 2 months (Look out for a boat laying low in the water after the boxes arrive!)

Life here over the past three months has been one long list of dinner, lunch, and breakfast invites with Jaq`s friends each wanting to say their goodbyes. They are all without exception a lovely group of people and I thank them all for accepting me as a friend.

Outside this part of the world

 Sitting here in the garden a regular visitor is the Black-Chinned  Hummingbird. Much to fast for me to catch on camera so the pic is from the Web. They usually hover in front of the flower beds just feet away from where we are sitting.

Click on the link and scroll down to the 3rd video of the super slow motion of the little birds wings. They can fly up, down, backwards and forwards as well as hover while they get the Nectar from plants using their long beak and tongue. A truly fascinating experience to watch them live in your garden.

The Coyote makes an appearance near the house occasionally albeit at a distance across fields, this one again

taken from the Web is full grown and we have seen many like him as we drive around including youngsters dead by the roadside having been hit by cars.


Another visitor in great numbers to the garden is this Dragonfly known as a 12 spotted skimmer. This picture

is mine. It has a 3" wingspan and is about 2.5 inches long.

Skunks are something we don`t have in the UK and boy do they stink. We passed one making its way along the side of the road and slowed to get a pic but Skunky was none to pleased and emitted a terrible smell  i quickly wound up the car window.

A week or so back as i went out of the back door i startled an Owl that had been i assume because of the shortage of  trees perched on the roof. It flew down low over me and settled some 50yds away on the edge of a field of Wheat. I watched it with binoculars for some 20 mins and can only assume it was digesting a meal when i disturbed it. With out doubt after watching it up close  it was easy to identify by the ear like feathers upon it`s head as a Great Horned Owl.
Reading about it on several sites firstly it`s `ears` gave it away also the fact that they do feed on the ground in fields for mice but i think the best thing was the apparent wingspan they can have. Believe me when Owly swooped down over me that wingspan was huge.
Sadly just last night Jaq and I discovered an Owl(dead)  in the middle of the road probably hit by a car. Jaq moved it to the side of the road but as to weather it was a Great Horned I have not yet gone to have a look in daylight. Certainly by the size it could have been.....shame.

Big lock on a big river

Jaq and I had a trip out recently to the Lower Granite Dam on the Lower Snake River. The dam is 2,655 feet wide and stands 254ft high. It has 6 generators that produce 810MW of power. There are 4 dams on the
Lower Snake River all generating power and a further 4 when it joins the Columbia on its way to Portland and the Pacific. Behind the Granite dam lies a lake of water stretching 39 miles.

The dam has a single lock, the bottom gates can be seen in the pic above, that measures 674ft by 86ft wide with a 100` drop. Now i`m not sure if they class that as a double or single lock but taking a Narrow Boat of 60ft my guess is you can get 132 boats in facing forward with room at one end for perhaps 2 across the lock.

Above is the inside of the lock, 46 million galls and 10mins to empty/fill. Besides pleasure craft barges use the lock and typical cargoes would be Wheat, Barley, Petroleum, Machinery.

This is a typical tug and 4 barge set up.It is the equivalent to 280 rail truck or 1,076 USsemi / UKartic loads.


The fish are guided into fish ladders that are like the exhibit in the visitor centre below. Fish make their way along an uphill channel with laybys that give them a refuge to rest before swimming on and upwards.

Watching fish use the ladder from inside the visitor centre.

I would love to have gone on the guided tour of the dam that included the power house but the whole site is run by the US Army Corps of Engineers and US citizenship with photo id is a condition of a place on the tour. Jaq and I even had to show photo id just to drive the road across the dam, luckily they accepted my UK drivers licence but warned us not to stop till we reached security on the other side. I stood up with my head through the sun roof  to get the lock picture.

So a rare chance to walk along by the river and past the Marina but the warning signs tended to make me not stray to far off the tarmac.

Return flights are booked

My original return date was Aug. 16th a date plucked out of the air to keep the USA immigration happy. Perhaps in hindsight it might have been better to have made the return date nearer my visa expiration of Sept. 9th but at the time I thought August would be fine. So 230 squids lighter and i have a B. Airways flight Seattle-London direct. We then booked Jaq on the same flight and sorted the seats near the rear in the 2 abreast section, getting boaty , breasting up!.

Hands up anyone who thinks air fares are as confusing as train fares. First let`s just explain that we have different tickets in that my ticket ends in the UK but Jaq`s is for a return to the U S  in April 2012. This came about because Jaq returned with me in May for 3 weeks so we both have returns starting each side of the pond.

Now the price we paid for Jaq`s return has gone up 50 pounds since we booked it 7 days ago which i can understand, supply and demand, more people wanting fewer seats. What i don`t understand is why can`t we get Jaq a single ticket at a reasonable price then we both land in the UK equal,  i.e. no return part of our tickets.

I tried Brit. Airways (US) and the extra cost for  single against return was $320. Also tried a UK  based Internet site( E Bookers.com) and the difference was 194 pounds sterling so we now have Jaq with a ticket for April and i`ll need to get on the same flight so we can return to see her kids both little and grown up and this ticket fiasco will continue unless we pay to change it.....why should we.

Fishing amongst wildlife

Last week i had the good fortune to be invited on a fishing trip along the Snake River from Lewiston aboard a 23`Aluminium jet boat.  From Lewiston known as the gateway to Hell`s Canyon we would be heading  as far as Grand Ronde about 30 miles up river.
The Snake River is 13th in the list of Americas longest rivers at 1038 miles. It meets the Clearwater River in Lewiston and then joins the Columbia River that flows 465 miles  all the way to the Pacific Ocean.

 

So the boat goes in but today that lady on the jetty is from the Sheriffs dept. and is doing a spot check on all boats being launched. The check covers boat registration documents that must be carried, fire extinguishers, life jackets, mufflers (exhaust), flame arresters( stops flame spreading), sound devices(horn), ventilation system(removes fumes from engine space) Anything not to her liking the boat comes out.

Basalt gives some great pictures.

Roger, captain and boat owner.

Petroglyphs at Buffalo Eddy on the Snake River.

The US Mail run up the snake is a tourist attraction.

Wild Turkeys along the shoreline.

Wild Big horn mountain sheep watch the boats go by.

Small mouth Bass, yes it`s small and yes i only caught one. But the environment it was caught in beats fishing by the canal anytime but i would swop it  all  for NB Valerie.

Osprey nest along the Snake River and this one came down several times to fish but sadly to far for my camera to capture. Just drifting and watching this amazing bird was a wonderful experience.Click the link,the pictures are superb.

A little bit of video of the boat trip. Watch you don`t get sick as the boat enters the rapids and the camera shakes violently, i was filming standing up looking over the roof.