Happy Anniversary to my love! I’m so happy that we’re still doing fun things after 31 years. Let’s keep it up!

Today was a beautiful day! The sun was shining and felt so good as we traveled along. There were a lot of boats on the canal today. I think the good weather has brought them all out.

Yesterday I had John man the 9 locks while I drove the boat, and today we switched it up. We had 3 sets of locks, with 10 in total. Some of them were close enough together that I walked between them instead of hopping on and off the boat for each one. The boat travels at about the same speed as walking, and it’s a good way to stretch your legs during the day. Plus, it was a great day for a walk. The final set of 6 were in rapid succession, with 3 individual locks and a staircase of 3 locks. We had a little backup of boats going up those, which we hadn’t had yet in our trip. This set had a few volunteer lock-keepers, so the kept things in order and made sure we made efficient use of the locks. During the busy season there can be a 4-5 hour wait to traverse these locks! That’s why we’re on the canal now.

For the past few days we’ve been trying to buy eggs, but none of the local shops have had any. As John was waiting for one of our locks, there was a canalside egg cabinet – 6 eggs for 1 pound 50 (about $1.85), and we happened to have some change, so… eggs for lunch!

Once we were done with the locks (the last for this trip), we found a quiet mooring spot for the night and walked into the town of Whitchurch. Usually when we walked into a town, we had to contend with small country roads, no sidewalks, cars driving on the wrong side of the road… In Whitchurch, there is a nice wooded path from the canal into the center of town (about a 20 minute walk). Whitchurch has the claim of being the oldest continuously inhabited town in Shropshire, since the Romans settled here. It’s a cute town with lots of shops and pubs, and was pretty busy on a Tuesday afternoon.

We stopped in at the local Heritage Center and learned about the Cheshire cheese that was a big industry here, and about some of Whitchurch’s famous residents. Victorian illustrator Randolph Caldecott lived here – if you’ve read children’s books, you’ve seen the Caldecott Medal on some of those.

We also toured another neat church – St. Alkmund’s.

One more night on the boat. We’ve had such a fun time on this trip. We saw beautiful landscapes, pretty towns, amazing architecture, and crossed paths with many friendly people. There’s so much more to see, and we definitely want to return.