Bank Holiday weekend and into June

Left to our own devices, we abandoned the boat! Alison back to North Wales for the Beaumaris Festival evensong with the Monteverdi Singers, once I was able to get through the Pride parade and access the station,
 and a bit of playtime with the grandchildren before heading back on Monday; Andrew to Cheltenham to see his brother, and then a quick trip to Stoke onTrent for a key to the marina at Etruria.. all will become clear later.

My journey home was a little more eventful than expected as some scallywags had,  apparently,  tried to pinch some cable at Wolverhampton so all the signals were in a pickle. My train was 14 minutes late into Shrewsbury, and missed my connection,  itself a bus replacement. The next bus was in two hours, so I threw a bit of a tantrum asking why they couldn't have held the bus just a bit longer, as a result of which they got me a taxi for the 40 minute ride to Nantwich.. even better, he took me straight to my car on the other side of town!

Once reunited on board  we leapt into action.  Aston lock flight being out of order, to leave Birmingham we had to go via Typhoo Basin and Garrison locks on the Grand Union, joining the Birmingham and Fazeley, and Coventry canals, before finally getting to the Trent and Mersey and our long pull north. At Stoke on Trent in the first weekend of June there was a canal festival going on, to be immediately followed by a closure of Lock 39, just below the junction with Caldon Canal.
Elderly infrastructure,  to be treated responsibly. 

So, as we wanted to visit the Caldon, that meant making sure we were at Stoke by Sunday. Also, the canal was going to be rammed with moored boats at the festival. If we went too far beyond the junction, we would likely be pointing the wrong way to get back onto the Caldon - with no winding holes. The solution was to take a temporary mooring for a couple of nights at the Festival Park marina. We planned on arriving on Sunday, but the office is closed then and you need their key to operate the lift bridge to access the marina. Hence the trip ahead of time!

So a busy three days of 8 hours each.
HS2 works mean traffic lights
Wonder what the bricklaying tutors back home would make of this?
Some very wet weather.. that was a couple of day's worth.
Progress!
 And at last after 45 locks, 56 miles, and 24 hours of driving in three days we were able to relax a bit, with a mere three hours into Stone and a meeting with friends at the pub. Saturday and another three hours to Barlaston and another pub.
So good to be back in the countryside. 
Someone made a pile in the Potteries!
And Sunday brought us into Stoke, safely through the injured lock and into our berth. Phew!

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