We eventually decided against the tour (self-guided and only in the factory Monday to Thursday) - even the shop did not inspire Christine to find an addition to her wall of plates collection.
Continuing down the Trent and Mersey, progress through the locks was sometimes slow as there seemed to be a number of particularly inept boats about today! (It is the weekend) We had checked that Canal Cruising Co in Stone stocked the gas bottles but it was rather later than expected that we came alongside. It was their main changeover day for hire boats but they were still willing to help replenish our gas supplies.
Dear reader, you may wonder why such interest in Canal Cruising Company. It was from here that we first hired a canal boat forty years ago for our honeymoon. Back then, canal boats were rather more primitive by comparison with present day standards - not sure that the boatyard has changed much, however!
Unlike yesterday, it was a day without any rain and, by the afternoon it became quite warm and sunny - that is one of the reasons for including the photo of Canal Cruising - just to prove that w did have some blue skies!
Stone was also an important target - to replenish our larder! In fact we had run so low that we really did not have much for lunch, so, after cheese on rice biscuits, we headed into town. Stone is a pleasant, bustling small town with shops mostly along the short high street.
Another task was to update ourselves on wi-fi, knowing that the Post of Stone pub was a Wetherspoons. We also took the opportunity to upload a few more picture to the web album - but we have som many in the backlog that we are far from up-to-date!
Shopping over, we set off once more - the wonderful evening was too good to miss so we reheated the left-over from last night's corned beef hash for a late lunch (at 5 o'clock!) When we found a suitable mooring near Weston-on-Trent, we were quickly inspected by a sizeable herd of cows. Fortunately (as they were accompanied by rather too many flies) they soon lost interest in humans who brought them no food!
