From owner-canals@blacksheep.org Tue Jul 1 19:46:23 1997 id AA01565; Tue, 1 Jul 97 19:46:10 EDT by dfw-ix4.ix.netcom.com (8.8.4/8.8.4) id SAA06100 for ; Tue, 1 Jul 1997 18:42:13 -0500 (CDT) Date: Tue, 1 Jul 1997 18:42:13 -0500 (CDT) id sma006041; Tue Jul 1 18:41:44 1997 To: canals@blacksheep.org From: Marcia Halvorsen Subject: Impressions and now Memories Hello to all on the canals newsgroup. I am Marcia Halvorsen from near Chicago, Illinois. I am writing this messages representing myself and my sister and brother-in-law from Grand Rapids, Michigan. We are the "Illinois-Michigan" contingent who have been lurking on the canal list for over a year now and have just returned from our first canal trip. First I wanted to say thank you to all the participants on this group. We have learned so much by just "listening". And thanks, too, for answering our dumb questions -- what is a weir, weed hatch, etc. For our first trip, we chose Great Haywood to Trevor and the Llangollen canal. This was after a lot of study, but also upon advice of several participants in the newgroup. Thank you. It was a great trip! Now that we've experienced it first hand, I thought you might be interested in our impressions. I know many of you have been on the canals for years. Perhaps you have forgotten the excitement and joy from your first trip! We were so happy to experience the friendliness and helpfulness of everyone on the canals, especially our first day when everything was strange to us! My sister and I were so scared at the first lock we did ourselves. Later we were able to help others! We were surprised at how no one seemed to look down on us because we were on a hire boat. This was a very pleasant surprise! My brother-in-law, John, was surprised at the maneuverability of the boat. He was an excellent skipper but was surprised at the effect of the wind! We were all pleasantly surprised at how quiet the engine was. We were thrilled at how restful and relaxing the trip was. This in spite of some bad weather! We had a great time. The adventure of constantly changing vistas and the challenge of different locks and meandering canal paths through the countryside! I hope no one of you takes your beautiful countryside for granted. The joy of a beautiful, sunny day through the deep cuttings on the Shropshire Union Canal was really a thrill! The clear (and shallow) waters of the Llangollen Canal were just beautiful... The one thing about the locks that surprised us and pleased us too was that we felt if locks and a system like this were in the U.S., it would be spoiled by safety warnings of all kinds. The lawsuit-happy public would have to be protected. There would be fences and warnings of all kinds. Instead we were able to enjoy the lock experiences unencumbered by warnings, etc. We really enjoyed it! We loved the sound of the ratcheting while winding the gate paddles, the feel of the windlass in hand..... We had posted the cut web symbol in our windows but were only able to meet two participants of the newsgroup, Reico and Ono Van Gelder of the Netherlands. We met at Audlem and had a delightful lunch at the Shroppie Fly. It was so fun to meet another member of the newsgroup! So, we actually did achieve a mini-gig. Perhaps Reico has written in about this already. This is just a note to thank you all and to say that we will definitely take another canal holiday. Now if there were just enough time (and money!).... Regards to all, Marcia Halvorsen Willowbrook, Illinois