Wednesday, June 14th -- wow! it's been over a month ago???
We left Cross Lake @ 6:45 am, went through Locks 25-29, and finally docking in Palmyra @ ~ 2:30 pm >> 50+ Miles
Palmyra is the home of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church. At a nearby hill, in the early 1820s, Smith was prompted by an angel to dig up golden plates on which the Book of Mormon was written. I guess every July, tens of thousands (over eight days) of spectators come to this tiny town for the Church’s annual celebration, and hillside performance, in Smith’s honor.
In June 2017, I found Palmyra very sad –
Though they did have a great little Chinese restaurant. You know the food will be good when you can see the “chefs” chopping the fresh vegetables, and when the only person that speaks English is the 10-year-old boy taking orders by the cash register. –
Besides the few restaurants, the shops in Palmyra were either used-bookstores or antique/flea-market shops.
Towns along the Canal:
Although some of the towns along the Erie Canal are quaint, with a few restaurants (some with outdoor/waterfront seating), ice cream parlors, a coffee shop, and the basics bank/post-office/drugstore, I found most of the towns very sad and quiet.
As we stopped/traveled along the Canal, we saw so many once-beautiful big old buildings, wooden docks in disrepair, and warehouses with weeds growing up in their parking lots. It was easy to imagine life here 150 years ago, when the Canal was the main means of industry and commerce in these towns. I could almost saw the barges being unloaded onto train-cars or trucks along the waterfront. I’m sure the streets were busy, and the shops filled with families, carrying on their every-day lives. The towns were alive and vibrant!
Today, some of the buildings are still maintained, but most are boarded up/rundown/For- Sale. The people that I met living here now seem content, yet complacent and indifferent. They are just trying to survive. There are so few jobs here any more, and it doesn’t seem like there are any more coming in the near future.
Palmyra is the home of Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon Church. At a nearby hill, in the early 1820s, Smith was prompted by an angel to dig up golden plates on which the Book of Mormon was written. I guess every July, tens of thousands (over eight days) of spectators come to this tiny town for the Church’s annual celebration, and hillside performance, in Smith’s honor.
In June 2017, I found Palmyra very sad –
Though they did have a great little Chinese restaurant. You know the food will be good when you can see the “chefs” chopping the fresh vegetables, and when the only person that speaks English is the 10-year-old boy taking orders by the cash register. –
Besides the few restaurants, the shops in Palmyra were either used-bookstores or antique/flea-market shops.
Towns along the Canal:
Although some of the towns along the Erie Canal are quaint, with a few restaurants (some with outdoor/waterfront seating), ice cream parlors, a coffee shop, and the basics bank/post-office/drugstore, I found most of the towns very sad and quiet.
As we stopped/traveled along the Canal, we saw so many once-beautiful big old buildings, wooden docks in disrepair, and warehouses with weeds growing up in their parking lots. It was easy to imagine life here 150 years ago, when the Canal was the main means of industry and commerce in these towns. I could almost saw the barges being unloaded onto train-cars or trucks along the waterfront. I’m sure the streets were busy, and the shops filled with families, carrying on their every-day lives. The towns were alive and vibrant!
Today, some of the buildings are still maintained, but most are boarded up/rundown/For- Sale. The people that I met living here now seem content, yet complacent and indifferent. They are just trying to survive. There are so few jobs here any more, and it doesn’t seem like there are any more coming in the near future.
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