Thursday 24th September, 2015 in Aston Marina.
Stone is a lovely place to moor up and is one of our favourite spots.
Stone is justifiably proud to call itself a "Canal Town" and is one of several towns that claim to be the origin of the Trent & Mersey Canal.
We've seen some original and amusing boat names in our travels, but this has to be one of the best - given the vast quantities of Brasso consumed by boaters polishing their brasswork.
Before we set off, we paid another visit to the town, which has a delightful pedestrianised main street and "real" shops with only a few miniature versions of the big chain stores.
Beside the last lock in Stone is the Star Inn. It has an excellent reputation for good food and is also proud of its entry in the Guiness Book of Records as being the only public house with every one of its rooms being on different levels.
At Aston Lock, we ran into the rush hour - with three boats queuing to get down and a similar number queuing to get up. Unheard of!! However, the slight delay caused no problems and meant that there were plenty of hands to help to do the locks.
Just below Aston Lock, we turned into Aston Marina. It felt just like coming Home!
Finally, R backed MM into our mooring slot - A22. It was clear that no other boat had used the mooring during the summer as the electricity meter reading hadn't changed.
It was marvellous to be back. We were warmly welcomed in the Bistro and at 6:30pm, we got dressed up (Hooray! says M) and walked up for this month's Master Class. The theme this month was seafood and, as ever, the food was delicious and included demonstrations on how to make Gravadlax (the starter) and a trio of wet fish (the main course). We sat with our friends Bridgett and Peter, who live in nearby Weston, and had a brilliant evening.
A bright moon, a few days off full, guided us back to MM.
Today: 2 miles, 2 locks and 1.5 hours.
For this first part of our Summer Cruise through Market Drayton, Middlewich, Runcorn, Wigan, Barnoldswick, Skipton, Leeds, Wakefield, Huddersfield, Kidsgrove and Stoke-on-Trent, the totals were:
Trip: 360 miles, 291 locks and 278.2 hours in 3 months, 11 days.
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