July 4th – American Independence Day – Wednesday
By plan, the 3 Monks remained at Ilion Marina because the WX forecast called for bad storms with a weak frontal passage and also because we figured that the holiday would bring out many small boat fishermen on the canal. The severe weather never materialized but the day was overcast and threatened rain all morning and finally did give way to drizzle in the PM. When we learned that the dock master had a folding shopping cart tp loan us, Gregg (Renaissance’s captain) and I – RCB, walked to a nearby Eckerd Drug store to take advantage of their holiday beer sale. We maxed out the cart with some local brands – Utica Club and Genesee then made the 6 block trek back to the boat. Along the way we had several offers to join our “party” by college age guys and gals and one group even had some band instruments they were loading into a car.
The high point of the day was the dinner we all were treated to aboard “Safe Return” Gayle had spent a fair amount of time fixing her famous pulled pork BBQ, um um um, along with homemade baked beans and cole slaw. DELISHIOUS!
Full of good food, pleasant company and a full day of doing nothing in particular, we rested well that night.