Oswego to Pheonix to Baldwinsville, July 14th

At Phoenix you will find the Bridge House Brats. They are a group of kids that for community service welcome boaters to their town, run the museum in the tall white building, and offer drinks to boaters stopping by. They have menus for the local restaurants and will take and pickup orders for you as well as get supplies. It's a great stop for lunch, but with all the service, I didn't get to walk around and see the town.

There is a peninsula or island containing a park and Amphitheater between the lock and the river. The Amphitheater contains the nearest public rest rooms from the town dock and you must walk around over the bridge to get to them. A bit of a hike for restrooms.

The lock master was not too busy that evening and he explained some of the workings of the lock and electrical systems. The locks operate on several hundred volts DC. There is an motor that drives a generator to produce the DC. It is turned on when the locks are operated and you can sometimes hear it kick on in a nearby building. The electrical panel contained relays or contactors that switched the power to the motors that would operate the cables for the valves or gears for the lock doors. There are three lights the tell the position of the valves. One light is 1/3 open, two lights are 2/3s open, and three lights are full open i.e. an express ride. The lock can be closed and emptied to the lower level. Then, a few days of additional pumping will pump the lock dry for maintenance.