We have spent a very enjoyable weekend in Stone with Mum and Dave and Tony and Trish.
Friday 6th August.
Friday was Ken’s 60th birthday, he is now officially a grey haired old git and has been playing up ever since! We all had dinner at La Dolce Vita in the evening. We have been there before and again it was excellent, especially my profiteroles!
Saturday 7th August
In the morning, as we had to move off the 48 hour moorings, we went for a walk up to the top of the locks to suss out the mooring situation further up. This took about an hour with our aged dog! On the way back we stopped at the floating cafe for breakfast. Some of us ordered the Barger’s Breakfast (egg, bacon and sausage) and some toast. When the Barger’s Breakfast came it was egg, bacon and sausage all togther in a huge bap! They were a bit difficult to eat and George was really impressed with the bits of sausage which kept falling out of my roll! We didn’t really need the toast as well but we managed!
After breakfast we moved the boat up through the locks to the next lot of 48 hour moorings near the 5 day ones at the top. It was quite busy and took a little while. My locking crew assisted me ably in a dry run for the trip to Barlaston on Sunday.
A visit to the pub was in order by this time and we walked back down to the bottom lock and went to The Star. George was not going to be left behind so this also took some time! The return journey was somewhat problematic as everyone went off in the opposite direction (M and D, T and T went back to the hotel and Ken went into town for a paper) to George and me and he was convinced I was going the wrong way. I had to drag him most of the (very long) way back to the boat, much to the amusement of several passers by! In the end I had to phone Ken, who had gone straight back to the boat from the town and get him to come and meet us so George would realise that I did in fact know where I was going! As soon as Ken appeared George started going like Hell!
That evening we had a meal at The Crown Hotel which was very good value for money and delicious too.
Sunday 8th August
After his exertions on Saturday there was no way I could get George to walk even the length of the boat to do his business today! Bless.
Today’s planned trip was to Barlaston and the Wedgewood Museum. We were hoping for good weather as every time Mum and Dave have visited us before it has rained, especially when we have taken them for a trip! We left just after 9am and did the trip of 3 miles and 4 locks in about 2 hours which was very good. Must be something to do with the highly trained crew! M and D, T and T went off to the Wedgewood Museum and I got the lunch ready while Ken read the Sunday paper – hmmm. We had a nice picnic and relaxed on the bank for a couple of hours then we had to get back to Stone to make sure we could get a mooring.
We had a good trip back and did 3 of the Stone locks as well so we could moor in the town to be nearer to the hotel. At one of the locks we met a single hander who said it wasn’t fair that I had so many crew when he was on his own. I offered him some of mine but they wouldn’t go in case they missed the tea and cakes! The return trip also took 2 hours, even though it was a bit longer with 3 more locks, because there was a boat just leaving nearly every lock as we got to it – marvellous. We spent the rest of the afternoon and evening sitting outside as it was lovely and warm, eating, drinking and talking.
All in all it was a really good weekend.
