Rob's Egg Noodles

Making Midwest egg noodles from scratch

These are the noodles that Rob learned to make at the knee of his Grandma Cookson that were made on holidays and often served over mashed potatoes instead of plain gravy.  He also uses them when making other dishes that call for egg noodles, such as chicken and noodles (dumplings) and beef and noodles.  Andy, our son, wanted us to make a pictorial guide to making noodles, so I figured this is as good a place to do it as any since there might be others who might like it as well.

Rob figures 1 egg per 2 people, but he always rounds up and does even numbers of eggs because he makes the noodles in 2 egg batches.  This keeps the dough to a small enough size to handle and roll out easily.  He always makes at least 2 batches of 2 eggs, because he figures that while you are making the mess, you might as well make plenty because you can always freeze what you don’t cook.

Ingredients (for 8 servings with possible leftovers):

            At least 10 cups of flour

            4 eggs

Equipment

            Medium mixing bowl

            Large sharp knife

            Rolling pin

            Newspaper, wax paper, or parchment paper

            Pastry mat (optional if you can cut lightly on your working surface)

            Cutting board (optional if you have a pastry mat or can cut on your working surface)

Other ingredients needed when cooking the noodles

            Roast turkey, chicken, or beef drippings

            4-5 cans of chicken broth, if having roast turkey or chicken

            4-5 cans of beef broth, if having roast beef

            Chicken bouillon (we prefer the paste)

            Beef bouillon (we prefer the paste) – Rob uses a little even for turkey or chicken because he thinks it makes the noodle gravy taste richer.

            Salt, pepper

All ingredients should be at room temperature, so take the eggs – and flour if you keep it there -- out of the refrigerator the night before.  It’s best to make the noodles in the morning, because it is best if they dry at least 3-4 hours before you start cooking them.

Thoroughly clean and dry a large section of counter, table, or other flat surface where you can roll out dough. 

Making the Dough

Put several cups of flour in a medium mixing bowl and make a well in the middle for the eggs.  Crack 2 eggs into the well you have made in the flour.  With a pinching action using the tips of the fingers and thumb of 1 hand, begin breaking up the egg yolks and mixing them with the whites.

After the yolks and whites are starting to blend together, widen your pinching action to start pulling in flour a little at a time.

Soon a wet pasty dough will begin to form and you will eventually need to change from a pinching action to a kneading action.

Continue kneading flour into the dough until the dough forms a soft ball that is no longer tacky.  Add more flour if needed.  Don’t over-knead your dough.  Set the dough ball aside.

Repeat the above steps for the other 2 eggs.  If you have left over flour in the bowl when you have the 2^nd dough ball at the right consistency, don’t worry that you will waste it because you will need extra flour when you are rolling out the dough.

Once you have made all of your batches of dough, it is time to start rolling!

Rolling out the Dough

Dust flour on your rolling surface and your rolling pin.  Flatten out your first dough ball by hand a bit, give both sides a good dusting of flour, and then start rolling it out with your rolling pin.

You need to push and roll with enough even pressure that the dough gradually spreads out without tearing.  Dust the dough with more flour if it starts to stick to the rolling pin.  If the dough starts to stick to the rolling surface, dust the top surface with flour, gently turn the dough over – use your knife to gently scrape the dough free if it sticks at any area – dust the new top surface with flour, and then start rolling again.

As you roll, the dough will get longer in the direction you are rolling, so you will need to either turn the dough or adjust where you are standing so that you can roll the dough in another direction.  The final shape of the rolled dough doesn’t really matter, but it is usually easier to keep the dough thickness more even if you roll the dough in different directions.  Remember to flour the dough, turn it over, and flour it again, from time to time to keep it from sticking to your rolling surface.

Continue to roll out the dough until it is fairly thin.  Generally, it is time to stop rolling when the dough is thin and stops stretching easily.

Cutting the Dough

Now it is time to cut the dough in strips.  It’s best if the rolled out dough is flat to cut, but if you don’t have a rolling mat and you can’t cut on your rolling surface without damaging it, you can fold the dough so that it will fit on a cutting board.

Cut the dough in 2-3 inch wide strips.  If you like longer noodles, cut the strips wider.  Don’t worry if each strip is a slightly different width, and likewise, don’t worry if your last strip is wider or narrower than the rest.  For most people, this variation is one of the things they like about handmade, hand-cut noodles.

 Next, stack the strips neatly.  Start on the bottom with the longest, widest strip, but it’s best if you don’t stack the rest in order of length.  Mix them up so that your stack ends up looking fairly uniform when you are done stacking.  If you have shorter narrower strips, put them somewhere in the middle of your stack – you can even overlap them slightly if they are short enough.

Next, cut the stacked strips in thirds and then stack the thirds – if you like longer noodles, you may not want to stack your thirds, because cutting shorter stacks for the final cuts will give you more control. 

Now it is time to cut the noodles into their final shapes!  Rob likes cutting on a cutting board at this point, because you have to exert more pressure to get through the stacks.

He likes to cut the noodles as thin as possible, partly because they will dry faster, partly because that’s the way his Grandma Cookson did it so that's the way he likes them, and partly because you tend to cut them thicker as time goes on and you get a bit tired of cutting them so thin.

Don’t worry about cutting entirely across the stack each time if it just doesn’t work out that way.  Again, the varied lengths and widths are one of the things many people like about handmade noodles.

Drying the Noodles

After you finish cutting the stack into noodles, fluff your pile of noodles gently and dust them with more flour if they stick together at all. 

If you are going to use the same surface to dry the noodles, set the pile of noodles aside until you are finished rolling and cutting all of the dough.

If you are using a different surface, you can go ahead and cover the surface with newspaper, parchment paper, or wax paper.

Take the pile of noodles and sprinkle them gently onto the paper, spreading them out.  If you are using newspaper and there is a large dark section, such as a dark picture, don't put any noodles on it as the noodles may absorb some of the ink and look discolored.

Repeat the rolling and cutting process with the remaining dough balls one by one.  If you are using a different surface to dry the noodles, sprinkle them out on the paper as you go.  If you will be using the same surface, once you are done cutting all of the noodles, cover the surface with the paper and then sprinkle the noodles onto the paper.

The noodles will take 3-4 hours or so to dry, depending on the temperature and humidity in the room.  You can actually use the noodles immediately if you wish, but if you can let them dry out to the point where they are firm enough to handle without becoming tacky, Rob says they will absorb the flavors of your broth better. 

If you are planning to freeze some or all of the noodles, dry them longer – either until they are very firm and cannot be easily bent or until you run out of time and need to put them in the freezer.  Since we typically make noodles for a holiday meal, our time limit often depends on when dinner is to be served!

Cooking the Noodles

Generally if you are making noodles, you are also making roasted turkey, chicken, or beef.  Collect the drippings from the roasting process, strain them, and place them in a large pot.  Whether or not you add broth -- either chicken (if having turkey or chicken) or beef (if having beef) -- at this point depends on the amount of drippings you collect and whether or not you think the amount of drippings will be enough to cover the noodles once they are all added.  You can always add broth as you go along if you find you need more liquid to keep the noodles covered or if the noodle gravy gets thicker than desired.

Bring the liquid to a boil.  Start adding noodles little by little, “stirring” them in with a lifting motion rather than a traditional stirring motion.  If the noodles seem like they are clumping together, stop adding noodles and continue to gently lift-stir and shake the noodles until the clumping stops.  Then continue to add more noodles.  If you need to add more chicken or beef broth, stop adding noodles and add more broth until you have enough liquid to continue adding more noodles.

Once the noodles are all added, continue to gently lift-stir them periodically until they are no longer clumping.  Add more broth if the liquid becomes thicker than desired.  Add pepper to taste.  If you think the gravy has a rich enough taste, you may want to just use salt to taste; otherwise, add chicken and beef bouillon for saltiness to taste, using more chicken bouillon if having turkey or chicken, or more beef bouillon if having beef.

Once the noodles are hot enough that there is a gentle bubbling of the liquid, reduce the heat to simmer.  Continue simmering about an hour or until the noodles reach the desired taste and consistency.

Serve over mashed potatoes or as a stand-alone side.

Melbourne Harbor Marina to Halifax Harbor Marina, Daytona Beach, FL, AICW MM 830.5

January 6, 2016

Only 88 more miles to go!  We have been fortunate not to have to slow down much for no wake zones since the AICW so far has been wide enough that we don’t have to cruise close to shore.  Since we would be coming into a more populated area and the AICW would be narrower in places, we had a couple of alternative places to stop just in case we couldn’t make it to our marina before sunset.

Captain Rob, the grizzled old salt

It was yet another cloudy, blustery day though not as windy starting out as the previous day.  There was scattered rain around us, but since it usually cleared up before we got to it, we saw quite a few rainbows.

Rainbows remind us that good things can be at the end of storms

Seagulls following in our wake to see what we would churn up

We saw quite a few dolphins again, and since there wasn’t as much spray as yesterday, we took turns going out to watch them play in our bow wave.

The NASA building on Merritt Island, near Cape Canaveral was visible for several hours as we passed by it on the Indian River portion of the AICW.   Hopefully we will have a chance to drive down by car and take some tours of the facilities.  Rob has been to the Kennedy Space Center before and says it is great.

Just think how huge this building would be close up!

As we got closer to Daytona, the waterway began to narrow and the banks seemed more populated since we were closer to them.  We had to slow down a bit for some No Wake zones, but since we were able to cruise at 8.5-9 mph for the most part, we reached the first of our alternative stopping points with plenty of daylight left to continue on.

Looks like a nice place to live, but you'd have to be tough to weather the bigger storms

Lots of people out fishing in this fairly narrow spot and some were anchored in the channel itself

More boats headed south

We saw lots of dolphins in the narrow channel as well

The boat traffic got a little heavier as we neared Daytona, but most of it was small work boats with the helm pedestals all the way at the bows.  Some were checking crab pots, some using cast nets, and others seemed to be headed to shore to end their workdays.

Ponce De Leon lighthouse at the Ponce Inlet

Work boat headed in

Work boats either crabbing or fishing, we thought

We had enjoyed a couple of hours of sunshine and light wind while we went through the more narrow portions earlier, but too soon the skies became cloudy and the wind kicked up again.  When we pulled into the marina, we went to the fuel dock to check in and top off our tanks.  Even though there was some protection, it was still a bit tricky getting docked, so we decided to stay on the T at the end of our dock for the night.  Hopefully it would be less windy in the morning, and we would be able to off-load our scooter before going into our slip.  Still, it was a good feeling to have our traveling done and to be at our new “home” for the next few months.

Pendarvis Cove to Melbourne Harbor Marina, AICW MM 918.5

January 5, 2016

We awoke to another windy morning, but it wasn’t supposed to be stormy, so we hoped to go almost 80 miles today.  We had been averaging almost 8 mph the last two days, so if we could maintain this speed, we could make it to Daytona in 4 days instead of 5.

Having the dinghy on the back really makes it easy to deploy for trips to shore, especially on windy days.  The cove offered some protection from the NE wind, so the water was only lightly choppy for our morning trip to shore for Sasha.  Once we got back, Rob got the dinghy secured on the lift again while I started the engines and got the electronics going.  After we weighed anchor and got underway, Rob had to spend some time cleaning the mud off of the anchor and about 5 ft of rode.  It’s a small price to pay though for good holding and a good night’s sleep.

Right past Sunset Bay Marina is the Old Roosevelt Bascule Bridge, which, at 14 ft, of clearance, was the last bridge for which we would have to request an opening.  After that, it was just a short while and then we were on the Atlantic ICW (AICW), headed north for Daytona Beach!

Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway north of the St Lucie inlet

I hadn’t realized how wide the AICW is for quite a ways past the St Lucie inlet.  The wind didn’t have as long a fetch as it did on Lake Okeechobee, but with gusts up to 25-30 mph, the water was pretty choppy.  It was a NE to ENE wind, so we had to steer more toward starboard to keep Lorelei IV in the channel.  We saw rain ahead from time to time, but it was moving away from us and we never caught up to any of it.

We saw lots of dolphins which came to play in our bow wake, but since there was a lot of spray coming over the bow, we didn’t go out to watch them much.

Rob had 3 marinas picked out, depending on how fast we were able to cruise and which one would have a spot for us to dock for the night.  When we were getting close to the 2^nd choice, we called the 3^rd one, Melbourne Harbor Marina, to make sure it had room for us since we had time to reach it before sunset.  It did have room for us and was actually our top choice because it offered the best wind protection from almost any direction.

Cool ship anchored near some small islands off of the channel

The wind had improved somewhat by the time we reached the approach to the marina, and since we had to turn west, it was also on our stern.  There was a dredge between the marina approach markers, but it left us enough room to squeeze by.  Once we got into the marina’s basin, the wind dropped off dramatically as we had hoped, and we got docked without any trouble.

The protected entry to the marina is in the background (and the dredge)

Lorelei IV on a T dock

We got a $5 coupon for the dockside restaurant, so it was all the encouragement we needed to decide to go there for supper instead of cooking.

Cute placement and a glass of Merlot

After supper, we took Sasha for another walk up to a nearby gas station to buy a Powerball ticket.  Like most other people in America, we can think of plenty of ways to use the money if we win!

Moore Haven, FL to Pendarvis Cove, near Stuart, FL

January 4, 2016

Sometimes when we are cruising, I feel like we are rushed in the morning, with getting Sasha exercised a bit so that we can leave at first light.  Rob gets antsy until we cast off, but so often we have truly gotten more worms by being the early bird, and this morning was no exception.

There is a railroad bridge in close proximity to Moore Haven Lock that is generally left in the open position unless a train needs to cross.  We got through the bridge, radioed the lock, and were told that the lock would be ready as soon as the boat that was tied to the approach wall moved off of it.  You can get permission to tie off to lock approach walls or nearby dolphins, which are clusters of pilings, but if you tie off to an approach wall, you are expected to be moved off it by the time the lock operation hours start.   

Dolphin pilings

The lockmaster hailed the offending boat for about 5 minutes but got no response, so he finally had to walk down the side he was on, across the closed lock gate, and still further down the approach wall to talk to the boat’s captain in person.  I don’t know if the people on the boat had been still asleep, but it took them some time to get going.  Before they even appeared on deck, the horn sounded warning that the railroad bridge would be closing.  The lockmaster radioed them that they needed to hurry if they didn’t want to be trapped between the lock and the bridge.   

When they finally cast off their lines and pulled away from the wall, the bridge was closed and the train was just starting across.  As they passed us, the captain seemed very exasperated by the whole affair and called out to us that the bridge had been closed all night, which is why they had tied to the wall.  Although that seemed unlikely to us, I have to believe that they would have rather been docked at the City Dock with power if they had had a choice, so who knows?

We got through the Moore Haven Lock without further ado and were soon on our way to Lake Okeechobee.  The canal between the lock and the lake is fairly narrow, bordered on one side by marsh grass and the other side by a levee.

Okeechobee Waterway canal between Moore Haven Lock and Clewistown

Snowy egrets in the marsh grass

Clewiston, FL, is where you make the choice to take the sharp left to go across the lake or to go straight to take the rim route.  Since the lake level was up at 14.5 ft, and going across is a shorter distance, we had already decided to forgo the rim route.  If we had had a smaller boat, however, we probably would have taken the more protected rim route, because the winds were forecasted to be 15-20 mph out of the NE, and wave heights were predicted to be 5-6 ft.

Marsh grass starts to thin out as you get out onto Lake Okeechobee proper

As soon as you make the turn at Clewiston to take the route across the lake, the channel has marsh on both sides, which gradually thins out as you get closer to the lake.  We could see that there were white-capped waves on the lake, but it didn’t seem too rough, so we decided to see how things went, knowing that we could always turn around and take the rim route if we thought it would be too rough.  Although the waves were 3-5 ft, they were mostly on our forward port beam, with a relatively short interval, so we didn’t rock and roll as much as we did on our Gulf crossing.  Since the wind was fairly stiff, however, we had frequent sprays on water over the bow and even on our windows from time to time.  We met a couple of  westbound sailboats as we crossed, but we didn’t see any other power boats except for a smaller, faster one that came out of Clewiston and was gone from sight before we even got to the lake.

Seagulls followed in our wake, occasionally swooping down on things in the water

Since it was a little rougher of a ride, Rob did most of the driving across the lake since it helps him to not feel seasick.  Although it was a cloudy day overall, the sun did come out during our lake crossing, so it didn’t seem as rough as it might have if it had been cold and rainy.  Isn’t it funny how such a small thing can make a difference in your perspective?!

When we got to Port Mayaca Lock at the east side of the lake, the chamber was open and ready for us.  We were glad of that, because we weren’t looking forward to having to idle around and wait since the lake conditions were a bit rough.  There was some protection from the wind as we got closer to shore, so the waves gradually became smaller the closer we got to the lock, but there were probably 1 ft waves up until we got between the approach fender walls.  I came into the lock at 7-7.5 mph, which is 2-3 mph faster than I normally would have in calm conditions, but I was concerned about possible current and wind shifts at the lock doors, so I wanted to have enough speed to maintain good steerage.  Once I got inside the lock chamber, I quickly slowed down, and we grabbed lines on the starboard side with no problem at all.  When the lock doors opened to the St Lucie Canal, it was so calm and smooth that it was hard to believe how different the conditions were on the other side of the lake-side doors!

There were a number of these "water corrals".  We wondered if the fencing was a breakwater.

Standing guard

It was about 25 miles to our last lock, the St Lucie Lock.  When we arrived, there was a westbound work barge preparing to lock through, so we had to wait about an hour total until we could lock through ourselves.  Another boat arrived as we were waiting, and since it traveled faster than us, it went into the lock first when the time came.  Once we were through the lock, we began going over the options that Rob had written out as to where to stay for the night.

The only large alligator we saw was in a residential area on a backyard boat ramp!

Since it was later in the afternoon when we locked through St Lucie Lock, we didn’t think we could make it to the AICW in time to get to an anchorage and get to shore before sunset.  We decided to anchor at Pendarvis Cove, which was right across from the Sunset Bay Marina where we had docked Tamure back in November.  There was a boat ramp and fishing pier nearby for easy access to shore for Sasha, so it worked out great.  There were a lot of other boats already in the anchorage since the cove has a large area of deeper water off of the channel.  We turned off of the channel just before green DM 25 and had 8-10 ft of water the whole way in.

Pendarvis Cove anchorage

We had passed a number of 8 person crew boats with coaches following along in small power boats a couple of miles before, and when we took Sasha to shore at the boat ramp, we noticed a number of people standing around talking in the parking lot.  Since they were obviously not fishing or boating and it wasn’t an especially good day for picnicking, I wondered why they were hanging around so long.  Shortly after we got back to the boat, right at sunset, the crew boats started coming in, headed for the boat ramp.  Since the kids on the boats looked fairly young – we have a hard time distinguishing between high school and college age kids since they all look so young to us now – the people milling around the parking lot were probably some parents.

Crew boats approaching the ramp

Our solar panels had fully charged our battery banks since we had about 3 hrs of full sun coming across the lake, so we didn’t need to use our generators at all.  We aren’t big energy users, but we really like that we don’t have to worry about our refrigerator and using a reasonable amount of lights and TV while at anchor.

Lights on the St Lucie River at night

And we're off to Daytona Beach

January 3, 2016

We are headed to Daytona Beach where I will take a travel nursing job at Halifax Memorial Hospital, starting January 11.  The trip will take about 5 days, depending on how fast we can cruise once we get to the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (AICW).  The trip across the Okeechobee Waterway should take 2 days as long as we don’t run into long delays at any of the 5 locks.  We are a little concerned about getting through Ortona Lock, our 2^nd lock for today, because there is supposed to be some construction work going on.  The lock is supposed to be closed from 7:30-11:30 a.m. and 12:30-4:30 p.m. M-F until June 2016.  Normal operating hours are 7 a.m. – 5 p.m., so that only leaves 3 short windows for locking through.  Since we are going through the lock on Sunday, we hope that it will be running on demand.

We left Ft Myers Yacht Basin at first light as we like to do when going on an extended cruise – after a short walk and Frisbee session for Sasha, of course.  Fortunately, the area around the Yacht Basin is very well lit.  Rob, Reggie and Maya saw us off, with Rob helping us cast off our last lines, Reggie telling Sasha how much he’d like to go cruising too, and Maya just taking it all in as usual.  We enjoyed our time at the Yacht Basin so we were a little sad to be leaving, but we were also happy to be off again, cruising to the next adventure!

Rob, Reggie, and Maya seeing us off (Maya is in her chair on the left)

The day was overcast and a bit cool since temperatures were in the high 60’s/low 70’s with a fairly stiff wind of 15 mph with gusts up to 22 mph.  Scattered showers were forecasted with steady rain more likely by evening.  I was ok wearing capris and a long sleeved shirt, but Rob hates to be cold so he had on long pants, a long sleeved shirt and a sweatshirt starting out.

Since Ft Myers is about 15 miles up the Caloosahatchee River, it didn’t take long to reach the point where we were in the fairly narrow portion of the Okeechobee Waterway.

When we arrived at Franklin Lock, there was a westbound boat locking through, so we only had a short wait until we could lock through eastbound.  I had forgotten that locks on the Okeechobee monitor VHS channel 13, so I hailed the lock on channel 16 as I was accustomed to doing.  After my second hail, someone kindly reminded me of the proper channel and also that bridges monitor channel 9.

Turkey buzzards standing guard near the locks

The Okeechobee locks don’t have floating bollards, but they do have lines hanging down at regular intervals along both walls.  Since the wind was out of the north, we went to the south wall to pick up lines so that the wind would be pushing us against the wall rather than away from it.  Sometimes the lockmasters throw lines to you, but most of the time you have to pick up the lines yourself.  After I maneuvered the boat close enough, Rob grabbed a line at the bow, and then I would step out of the helm station to take it from him so that he could grab a stern line.  Most of the time the drop or lift is small enough that you just have the hold the line rather than wrapping it around a cleat to let friction help you to hold it.  If the drop or lift is big enough, you have to either let out line or take it in from time to time to keep the boat close to the lock chamber wall.

Limpkin

The lift at Franklin Lock was small, so we were on our way again within 30 minutes.  We passed a few westbound boats and a few fishing boats, but for the most part we had the waterway to ourselves.  We did see a lot of birds but no alligators.

Alligators were around but we didn't see any

The entry canal to River Forest Yacht Center where we stayed when we brought Jim's boat, Tamure, over from Ft Lauderdale

There are a number of bridges along the Okeechobee Waterway, but most of them have plenty of clearance.  Railroad bridges are generally left in the open position unless there is a train going across them.  The only bridge we had to have opened for us was the Ft Denaud swing bridge which has a vertical clearance of just 9 ft.  You have to be sure to radio the bridge operator early, because she has to walk out on the bridge to operate it.

Bridge operator walking to the center to open the bridge

Ft Denaud swing bridge opening

Fortunately, the Ortona Lock was running on demand as usual, and the lockmaster told us that the approach wall construction had not started yet and he wasn’t sure when it would start.  We locked through with 2 other boats, so 2 of us went to the south wall and the other boat went to the north wall.  The boat behind us only had her captain aboard, but he had an easier time with his lines than the boat on the north wall which had 4 men.  Maybe they were having more trouble keeping the boat fairly close to the wall due to the wind, but they seemed like they were pulling at their lines a lot and even used their thrusters from time to time.  We have learned that if you try to hold your own line too tight to the wall, you make it harder for the other person because this causes the opposite end of the boat to swing out more.  We did notice that since the upper lock doors were opened slightly to let water in for the lift, there was a current that ran along the north wall and then back up the south wall that tended to push us out and forward.

Cormorant on a "dolphin"

When it was time to exit the lock chamber, the boat on the north wall went out first since she was cruising slightly faster than us and the other boat.  The other boat was only going 4 miles, so he was in no hurry.  We soon lost sight of the faster boat for the most part, only catching brief glimpses on long straight sections of the Waterway.  As we were approaching Moore Haven City Dock, we saw the boat again and at first thought that they were trying to either dock or anchor the boat – it was hard to tell while we were still some distance away from them.  As we got close, it became apparent that they were waiting for either the Moore Haven Lock to be ready for them or for the railroad bridge to open, because they were idling back and forth.  The bridge and lock are in close proximity to each other and the City Dock, but you can’t see the bridge or lock well until you round the curve to approach them.  We weren’t going that far so we couldn’t see exactly what was holding the boat up, but they were on their way again shortly before we reached the City Dock at around 3 p.m.

Radar screen just as we were getting docked

The Moore Haven City Dock is a nice 289 ft long wall right on the Waterway, so it is very easy to pull up to.  It is first come, first served and has 4 power pedestals, so it can accommodate up to 4 large boats.  Lorelei IV’s deck is about 8 ft off of the water and it was level with the dock, so the dock would not be as nice for smaller boats.  Rain was threatening, but we were able to get tied off, hooked up to power, and get Sasha pottied and exercised a bit before the rain started.  City Hall was right across the street, so when the rain let up, we walked over to see if we could find a self-pay envelope since it was a weekend day, but we only saw a drop slot.  The front was all glass, so we could see that people had dropped other things off, such as a check for a utilities payment.  We had read that someone might come around to collect the $1/ft dockage fee, so we decided to wait, and shortly before dark a young man from the city did show up to collect the fee and give us a receipt.

It's nice to be inside when it's raining