Underway - May 29

We rolled out of bet Saturday morning, had a couple cups of coffee and decided we'd get going. There are always a thousand reasons not to go but we felt now was the time. We had only planned a short day for the first one; we wanted to make sure everything was in order so we'd only be traveling about 2 1/2 hours. Of course there was a problem at the first lock we approached. The locks in this area are all automated; a garage door opener-type device triggers the sequence and there are lights to let boaters know what's happening. One red light means do not enter, a red and green means the lock is getting ready for you (either emptying or filling, depending on whether you're going up or down) and green means enter. The doors were open but the light was red. A trip to the call box at the lock and about 10 minutes the helpful VNF (Voies Navigables de France) technician arrived, pushed some buttons, and off we went. We found a nice bankside mooring about 16 kilometers later and the 2009 voyage was underway!

Our first night mooring.

The lawnmowers at the mooring.