San Luis Obispo, CA
I have been home two weeks now and the past season in France is fading into pleasant memories. Here are the stats:
Engine Hours: 142
Kilometres Travelled: 434
Number of Locks: 366
I enjoyed the solo season more than I thought I would. There were times when I missed having Terry to share special moments but as I was covering ground we had done before there were no new sights. I met many new people, both Boaters and French and my language skills improved I think. I was not lonely and, of course, I had a secret weapon for meeting people. Here she is looking sad about leaving.
Having excellent visitors broke up the solo time and was a lot of fun. The locks were not an obstacle but they were all relatively low, about 2.5m, and manned. I can imagine more difficulties in some of the deeper, automated locks on other canals.
There is talk of closing the Canal de Bourgogne due to the high labor needs and the low amounts of traffic. This would be a great loss for boating as it remains my favorite of all the canals we have cruised with great scenery, lovely villages and many interesting towns and restaurants. I am glad I got to get to know it even better.
We have discussed going later in the season next year, say mid August to the end of October to avoid the heat. We will see. In the mean time Armida is nicely tucked up in her cover at the corner of the yard by a streetlight. We hope she rests well until we see her again.
