Next stop Slough?

The main thing about living on the boat is not to have a schedule as we have had a schedule for the last four or five years. Notwithstanding this we need a sort of outline plan so we are going to head to Slough over the next couple of days to see my daughter Lauren who works for Amazon there.

So we set out this morning for Uxbridge as we needed to get a few odds and ends from the shops.  On the way we passed one of the several sites where the planned HS2 will cross a canal.  At this point it will go straight through this marina so no idea what will happen to it.  Although it already looks run down so they are probably expecting the worst.

Just below Denham Deep lock we passed a floating dry dock.  Narrow boats are floated into the larger boat and then the aft doors are shut and water pumped out so the narrow boat can be worked on.  The only one we have ever seen but it seems a really good idea.  Karen and Buddy walked the three miles to Uxbridge and are the other side of the floating dock in this picture.

After the floating dry dock we went under the A40 just before it becomes the M40.

Just before we got to Uxbridge lock we passed this unusual narrow boat.  I have no idea whether the water wheel is for effect or it is used for propulsion.
 

We arrived at Uxbridge in the late afternoon and popped to the shops and then went for a walk with Buddy.  We spent the evening on the boat listening to the non-stop fireworks.  Considering how nervous Buddy is of new things he does not flinch at the sound of fireworks.

Definitely colder today than it has been of late but still plenty of boats out on the move. It's lovely passing boats at this time of year smelling the wood and coal smoke from their stoves.