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my vacation in England

B

Buddy Palumbo

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As some of you may remember , a couple years ago , the wife & I went overseas with my dad , s-mom & little brother . We spent our time living on & navagating a narrowboat across the midlands of England (starting in Nottingham) , most of it on the Trent/Mersey canal . Our boat was 7ft. wide & 60ft. long , we went around 90 miles & worked 44 locks (gotta do it all yourself) , and drank copius amounts of beer & ciders :crazy: .The best vacation of my life ...

You can watch a short video on YouTube of us working a couple locks :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIFmln26e7Y

And yes , I saw loads of Mondeos & took tons of pictures - it made my family nuts :crazy: .
 
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that is one strange looking boat ya got there lol. but i guess to fit through those canals. working those locks sure looked like lots of fun but i got kinda bored after watching you guys cranking it for five minutes and it was still barely open :shrug: :laugh: imagine doing all that by yourself :help:
 
Some of the boats on the canals are even longer - some 75ft. or so :shocked: . Some people even live on them , to escape a bit of the outrageous housing costs . Narrowboats were originally working boats , hauling coal & such . First they were pulled along by horses/mules/manpower , then they were adapted for engine power , starting with steam . The coal would be hauled in the front 3/4 of the boat , the engine was behind that , and the entire family would live in the rear 12ft. of boat . Sometimes they'd haul a barge behind the boat with even more coal (or whatever) - they'd have to pull those barges through the locks by hand :( . We had a really nice , long talk with an older lady who spent the first bit of her life on a working boat . Now her & her husband live on one , and were nice enough to give us a tour of their "house" , told us stories , and showed off their vintage goodies they've ammased through the years .

All the cranking isn't opening the lock doors , it's opening/closing sliding plates at the bottom of the doors , releasing water out of the lock (below the waterline in the lock) and therefore equalizing the pressure on the doors , allowing the lock doors to be opened . Once most of the pressure is off the doors , you can swing them open by pushing on them . Working locks is not something you can do in a hurry , which was the whole purpose of this particular trip . It was a very relaxing time , seeing England at 4mph. & stopping wherever you like for lunch (the big meal) and drinks (of course ;) ) , then continuing till you wanna stop to sleep . All traffic on the canals ceases when it gets dark , BTW - very peaceful . We also went under some pretty tight bridges , and over an aqueduct :cool: .

I really thought it'd be really boring ... but it was really a stellar vacation . Kudos to my dad for coming up with the idea . There's been some talk about doing it again ... maybe in France if he has his way . I'd like to see more of England , myself . Spending all that quality time with my dad was priceless , that's for sure .
 
sounds nice :cool:


kinda reminds me of my dad's story of when he was in the army in Germany and he and his buddys took a raft down the entire Rhine River, camping on the sides.

definitely sounds like a once in a lifetime experience thats much different than the typical tourist vacation.
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btw, did you make sure to whip out a can of spray paint and put your mark up at every stop? America FTMFW!
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