Locked in, and locked out!

Looking back over a few of our Narrowboat cruises I came accross this that happened to us, It may brighten your day in these awkward times.

While on holiday on our canal Narrowboat Chrissie a couple of years ago we revisited the Black Country Living Museum in Dudley on the Grand Union Canal. 
We moored up next to the museum in the boaters secure visitor mooring, where outside pedestrian access is restricted by a gate which is permanently locked, and only a Canal and River Trust (CRT) key will open the gate to get in, which all boaters including us have. 
Direct access to the museum for boaters from these moorings is through an open gate in the tall brick wall right by the canal. 
What we didn’t realise is that it’s padlocked some time before closing time of the museum. 
We were so engrossed in the acres and acres of the museum that we lost track of time. And when we tried to get back to our boat the gate was well and truly locked. 
The normal entrance is miles away on the other side of the museum, but we walked up and thankfully caught the attention of staff that let us out. 
But, we now had to walk all the way round the area on the busy road back to the canal, but now we’re locked out of the secure mooring, and I hadn’t taken the CRT key with us!!
On the same site is the Dudley Canal Tunnel, itself a visitor attraction, this also leads down to the canal, and we hoped we could get to our boat through here, but it too was now shut for the day and we could only walk round the outside down to the canal but on the wrong side of the canal with no way across because the swing bridge over the canal had been locked open.
All the time we could see our boat but couldn’t get to it. 
Earlier, on arrival, we got talking to another boater and exchanged names, thankfully they were still there. 
All we could do was shout as loud as possible over the road traffic noise to the couple, (who were inside their closed up boat), for them to let us back into the secure mooring with their key. 
After several attempts they heard Jill shouting and they let us in with their CRT key and we finally got back to our boat .
Thank goodness they (Jo and Keith) were there to help. 

We’ve kept in touch since. 

Some pictures at the musem are in my Google photos here