ART and STORMS

Today we went up to The Cloisters, a museum up in Fort Tryon Park, which is part of the Metro. Museum of Art. Ft Tryon Park is north of Harlem. We took the A train to West 190th Street.

Our children had given us a gift certificate for New Leaf restaurant in the park, had a very nice lunch. They had a very nice strawberry shortcake for dessert which we had to have. I had a grilled chicken sandwich, Joy had a cold cucumber soup and a Mediterranean salad plus a nice glass of wine. It was a very nice treat from our kids. This was a retirement present.

We have been watching Hurricane Earl on the NOAA website at least two times a day. Looks like we will be staying here for a complete second week rather than risk going out into the ocean with potential large waves and winds over the weekend. Our friends, Basil and Danielle on Scrimshaw, are waiting up in Albany until the weather blows over. They got caught in the Erie Canal shut down for a week.

The Cloisters was paid for by John D. Rockfeller, Jr in 1938. It was built from the ground up as a museum to hold this collection of art that the Met had purchased in 1929. We had an hour long term by one of the curators. I have included 3 pictures of the Cloisters.

Tomorrow we are meeting my cousin, Karen Stone, along with Jill and Matt for dinner. Karen is the Director of Design for Knoll, Inc. She leaves in Brooklyn, not too far from Jill.

It is very hot here in new jersey. When we got back to the boat, it was 97 degrees.
Sometimes I wish we had boat air conditioning, but it is very expensive to put in and we would have to have a generator to run it when anchored or on a mooring. Perhaps Hurricane Earl will break this heat wave.

Joe

DO YOUR OWN THING DAY

One thing that we have discovered during the course of our marriage, 40 years, is that we need to give each other space to do their own thing. Especially when living on a boat. So today was a Do Your Own Thing Day.

After breakfast I left for Manhattan to visit two museums, the Rose Space Center at the American History Museum and the Intrepid Museum. Joy spent the day with her trusty yellow kayak going around the marina and exploring Liberty State Park. I think we are going over to Liberty Park on Wednesday as we can take the ferry there for a dollar.

The Rose Space center houses the Hayden Planetarium, which has a new show called Journey to the Stars, and the IMAX theater was showing the movie, Hubble. I took the subway and walked to the Intrepid which is parked on the west side of Manhattan. It features the aircraft carrier Intrepid, a lot of planes, and a British Airways Concorde. After the Intrepid, I walked 50 minutes to get to the PATH train at 33rd and Broadway. It was a nice walk, not too hot.

A little piece of aviation history. The Concorde was built in a combined effort from British Airways and Air France. It was to compete against US aircraft companies, mainly Boeing, McDonald Douglas and Lockheed. Its claim to fame was speed, and nothing else but speed. It crossed the Atlantic in under 3 hours. It head 100 seats, 25 rows of 4 seats, sitting 2 by 2 with one aisle down the center. Crew of 9, 2 pilots, one flight engineer and six cabin people. I remember back then that US planes had a lot of leg room and the Concorde was considered very tight in terms of leg room but it had speed to offer. When I was on the plane today, I noticed that the legroom seemed large compared to planes today where they pack people in by cutting back on leg room.

They had a sign that said the average fare was over $6,000. However the two airlines and thus the governments lost millions and the Concorde was discontinued. If my memory is still working, I believe at that time both airlines were owned by their national governments.

Pictures today are of the cover that Linda Franko made for us. It helps provide shade and keeps the inside temperature from increasing. Thanks, Linda!

Joe

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Sailing in NYC Harbor

Well today was the day we took out Jill's other group of friends on the boat. We had a total of 9 adults and one 9 month baby. It went fine except one of her friends started to feel a little sick and we took him back to shore. Once we got back. 4 people also left so we had Jill, Matt and Joslyn back out for another couple of hours. Sailing was much better the second time.

Jill's friends work in a variety of businesses: one is involved with a start up, one works for a large foundation, one is a professional photographer, one manages a retail store in a museum, Jill works at Cornell's Global Labor Institute, and Matt works on AIDS research and finishing up his Ph.D. No lawyers or investment bankers.

Lot of boats out in the harbor today include a Norwegian cruise liner that we saw going south on the Hudson River.

I finally figured out why I spent more time on the computer either working on the blog or reading political commentary on the Washington Post or NY Times on their on line sites. It is because we do not have a TV!

The last TV show we saw on this trip was 15 minutes of the PBS Newshour back at the Ashtabula Yacht Club back in early July.

This is exploring Manhattan week, to visit the places we have always wanted to see but never had the time in the City to see them.

Last night we went to see Billy Elliott the Musical, had good seats from the half price ticket booth in Manhattan. Seeing another show on Friday with Mike and Sweta Wexler.

Joe

The Tourists Have Arrived!

Well we certainly fit the part today. Took the PATH train over from NJ and changed to a subway to go to South Seaport on the lower east side of Manhattan. It is a big
set of stores, restaurants and thousands of people moving around. I think there were as many people there as the entire population of our entire town, New London, NH.

We got in line to buy half price tickets to see Billy Elliott tonight. Then we paid $15/piece to go on the Peking, a steel 4 masted boat built in the early 1900s which was one of the last wind only powered cargo ships in the world. It transported nitrates from Chile back to England. Also went into the Museum which had a large display of the Normandie, a French built super luxury liner of the 1930s.

That is Joy at the wheel of the Peking. Two bridges go to Brooklyn where Jill and Matt live. The third picture is not one of the Peking, but of another boat that was tied up at the wharf.

Walked back across lower Manhattan past the World Trade Center site and took the PATH train direct to our Grove Street Station.



Joe

HAZ MAT TEAM!!!

Well today was really exciting, but we will get to that after a couple of words about our sailing around NYC harbor. Including pictures of some of the commercial boats that take people out to Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty plus a close up shot of Lady Liberty herself. We can not sail behind her as the water is only 3 feet deep, and also there is a security zone.

So this morning about 7:30 am the Jersey City Fire Department, NJ HazMat team arrived on our dock. You can see how many people were here along with a lot of equipment. Joy woke me up and said, you have got to see this.

Turns out a guy about 8 boats down the marina put his water hose into his GAS
tank and turned it on and went to do something else. The gasoline overflowed into the channel and we had a minor spill on the water. It is hard to believe that this could happen but there is not lack of stupidity sometimes early in the morning. Our tanks are clearly marked and to put in fuel you have to pull up the floor in the cockpit. They came out with their booms and wipe sheets to pull the gasoline off the water. They have left by now.

Later the NJ State Police showed up, so it is up in the air as to whether this person is in trouble. I know that on our boat policy we have oil spill liability coverage.

Tomorrow we are taking Jill, Matt, and a bunch of their friends out for a Sunday afternoon sail and possible swim. We found a spot after talking to a guy on the dock who is in the music business. He has a recording studio in Manhattan. It is about twelve miles from here and should take about 2 hours to get there.

We have been here two days and today is the first day we will be going over to Manhattan. Think we are going to the Museum of Modern Art.

Joe

NIGHT SAILING IN NYC

Tonight was an interesting sailing adventure with Jill, Matt and four of their friends. We sailed down to the Statue of Liberty after eating dinner on the boat.
There was a lot of boat traffic going in all directions, especially the ferries that run back and forth across the Hudson from New Jersey to Manhattan. Everybody brought food to share.

We sailed down past the Statue and then turned around. When we turned around, it was black and the wind was gusting to 20 knots. Fortunately the ferry boats stopped running and we were able to get back to the dock in the blackness without damaging High Spirits. I must admit that it was a little stressful but I am glad we had this night time sailing adventure.

Tonight's photos are from Jill and Matt's camera.

Joy and I worked on the boat today, cleaning the cockpit, trying to figure out the capacity of our water tank. I also took a long walk around Jersey City and was able to purchase a two step stool to help people get on. The problem we have with this dock is that is a very low dock and you have to step up over 3 feet to get on board.

They are filming a feature film down the street called "We Are the Hartmans", the story of the last rock and roll suburban night club. It is coming out summer 2011 if they can get a studio to distribute it. Talked to one of the older adult actors who was sketching the building that they were shooting.

Not sure what we are doing tomorrow except I know that Jill and Joy want to go to the Cloisters. Cloisters is a park at the upper end of Manhattan. Joy was there in 1972 when I worked here in NYC in Manhattan for Atlantic Richfield before we moved to Los Angeles. Just found out that the Cloisters visit is next weekend.

Jill and Matt are sleeping on the boat tonight.


Joe

ARRIVAL NYC

Well actually we are in New Jersey. The dockage rates are much cheaper here in Jersey City as compared with Dennis Connor's ( famous America's Cup sailor), North Cove Marina in Battery Park. He charges $6/ft per day plus electricity. We are paying $2.20/day plus $3/day for electricity.

The photos of the fire engine and Statue of Liberty were taken from our dock.

We had an interesting ride down the rest of the Hudson River. We waited for high tide to ride it down, and when we got to the end of the Hudson we were doing over 8 knots (speed over ground). The day started out with rain and fog and we glad that we had radar installed as it came in handy. We could see all the little boats plus barges in front of us. Our system allows you to have a split screen with the charter finder showing where you are on the left and the radar screen on the right.

Jill and Matt went back to their place to take care of the cats, get some clean clothes and take a break from Mom and Dad. They will be back tomorrow for an evening cruise with some of their friends. We are going to go out tomorrow morning and see how long it takes to sail to the Statue of Liberty and other places.

Just found out from Linda Franko that the Eastern half of the Erie Canal is closed due to high water. Looks like we just made it by about a week from being trapped in a Canal segment.

Joe

Haverstraw to Nyack, NY

Well today we had a most interesting change of scenery as we travelled only 10 miles down the Hudson River. Last night we stayed in Haverstraw, NY and tonight we are in a dock in Nyack, NY

What is the interesting change of scenery? Well it is mostly the story of two different economic and cultural areas.

This morning we went to breakfast in downtown Haverstraw which has a decidedly Latino presence. In fact all the restaurants in downtown Haverstraw are Latino.
This gave Joy and Jill a chance to work on their Spanish as our breakfast waitress spoke very little English. There were many signs written in Spanish talking about upcoming concerts, etc. The area was clean but you could see that the buildings were old and some were vacant or being converted into more Spanish businesses.

The contrast with Nyack is extreme. Nyack reminded me of the yuppie town in Massachusetts where we used to live: Andover, MA. For reference point, it became yuppie after we left. In fact it became so yuppie that instead of working your turn at the cooperative nursery school, some parents wanted to send their nanny instead.

Anyway, Nyack had no restaurants that I could see that were of Spanish origin, or Spanish language or Spanish food. Included are two photos: one where we eat lunch, a decidedly veggie place, and the other a photo of the part of town we are in, settled in 1798 I believe. It is quiet a contrast.

The picture of High Spirits is in the dock at Julius Peterson Boat Yard. We were going to stay on a mooring, but they had a cancellation so we got to use this dock at the mooring price. It was good for us as the weather outside the boat yard was very rough.

The Peterson Boat Yard build small warships for the Navy during World War II and had 300 people working at it during the War. After 1946 the old owner died, and the current owner was one of a group of four. Wally was in the Air Force during the Korean War and is the last surviving member of the 4 owners. He was a very gracious host and drove Joy and I into town, telling all about Nyack. We passed the Helen Hayes house where she lived most of her adult life while on Broadway.


Tomorrow is Jill's 34 birthday, she was born on Aug 25, 1976 in Melrose Wakefield Hospital. I remember that we took Jen to Mimi and Gabe's house (Joy's parents) and drove .5 miles to the hospital. It took a long time for Jill to be born, in fact we ended up playing cards for several hours in the afternoon. After Jill was born, the kitchen was closed and Joy and I were hungry so I had to go out to Santo's Subs and buy two steak, mushroom, and cheese subs as it was another 10 hours until breakfast. Can't remember where I slept that night.

We will be travelling down the Hudson, past Manhattan tomorrow to Jersey City, NJ to Liberty Harbor Marina where we will stay for a week.

Joe

PS Wanted to add credit to Joyce, Connie, and Mike for taking care of Jennifer during the day that Jill was born. They reminded me that they took Jennifer to the park and then joined Mimi and Gabe for dinner. Jen was two and half at the time. She went around telling everybody, " I'm a big sister".

Joy's Time Out

Hello everyone. Tonight we are in Haversraw, NY after a short 4 hour motor ride down the Hudson River. We passed West Point early on the ride, however I did not get any decent photos as we have a low end camera. Jill and Matt took better pictures.

We did some repair work here, replaced the front head shower sump pump with one that works and drains out the shower. Next project is to repair the anchor rode holder, its the one I busted when we were in Buffalo and got sideways in a narrow slip.

As to Joy's Time Out. Here she is sitting in the time out chair on Dolphin. How did she get on Dolphin? Well it turns out they have been stalking us, following us into three ports over the last two weeks. We first met them in Brewerton, then Newburgh, and now Haverstraw. Daniel and Michael invited us to take a look, a short look as the owners were coming in about an hour or so. I put some pictures of Dolphin back in the Brewerton notes, but it is hard to describe how beautiful she is unless you can run your hands over the wood work.

Daniel spends the first two months of the Spring/Summer working on the boat for a two month cruise by the owners. Michael is on Dolphin for three months of the year. Daniel sings professionally in Quebec, and Michael lives in Vancouver, BC for most of the year.

We are now in the tidal flow part of the Hudson and learning about tide charts. For example, we will not leave Haverstraw until 11 am or so. This way we will head south with the tide flowing out at 2 knots rather than fighting a 2 knot head on current.

Tomorrow we are going to Nyack, NY and then on to NYC on Jill's 34th birthday. It is really nice to have her and Matt with us for a couple of days. They are adapting to the boating life.

Joe

WET AND WILD

We are Newburgh, NY and slowly drying out. Last night was pretty wild and rocky. We are tied up on an outer wall, the only space long enough at the Riverfront Marina. It is a nice place, has four restaurants, laundry, and clean bathrooms.

We arrived here with Jill and Matt from Hyde Park. After we tied up, we took a cab over to Beacon, NY, across the river from Newburgh. Jill and Matt took us to a very nice restaurant that they had visited before. After lunch, the three of them went shopping and I found the Newburgh library. Got to read the latest copies of USA today, Wall Street Journal, and the last two copies of Business Week.

It is raining today so we are delaying our trip to Haverstraw by one day. Several boaters here decided to return to Haverstraw in the pouring rain, mostly because
THEY HAVE TO GO TO THEIR JOB TOMORROW!!!

The greatest aspect of being retired as far as I feel, is the ability not to be driven by a schedule. So Joy and I are relaxing today and going to a movie this afternoon, wash some clothes when we get back and play some games with Jill and Matt. They left on their own to go over to the Art Museum in Newburgh.

Here are some pictures that Jill and Matt took on the ride down to Newburgh.


Joe

PS I have included a picture of Erin and Adam, Jen and Mark's children. Picture credit goes to Joyce Stonebraker

Jill, Matt and the CIA

So what do Jill, Matt, and the CIA have in common? Bet you can't figure it out.

Well the answer is that as of right now, all three are sitting in Hyde Park, NY.

No not that CIA, but the Culinary Institute of America is just two mils down the road from the Marina that we are all sitting in.

Jill and Matt made it to Poughkeepsie after work on Friday evening. We motored down from Saugerties in the morning and arrived at the Hyde Park Marina in the early afternoon.

This gave us enough time to go to Franklin D Roosevelt's home in Hyde Park. Luckily we had our bikes so it was only a short trip, except most of it was up hill. We had a very knowledgeable guide and gave us a history of the Roosevelt family. Their earliest ancestor came from Holland in 1646, and settled in Manhattan. It was not until the 4th generation that the family moved to the Hudson River Valley.

Here are two websites that may be of interest:

Home of Franklin D. Roosevelt National Historic Site:

www.nps.gov/hofr

Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum

www.fdrlibrary.marist.edu

One interesting fact: This is the first Presidential library and the only Presidential library built for a sitting President. FDR was planning on only two terms and had already started the process to turn over the property to the US Government. When WW II started and he ran for a second term, he used the house at Hyde Park as a working library.

Tomorrow we are off south visiting Newburgh and possibly Beacon, NY

Joe

BROKEN BOLT

Today is Friday Aug 20 but this story is about Thursday, August 19 and the BROKEN BOLT that landed us in Saugerties, NY. A place that we had not planned on stopping at.

We left Hop O Nose marina in Catskill, NY after getting the mast put on. On the way south, we both noticed a different sound coming from the engine. Upon inspection, I noticed that the alternator belt seemed to be moving up and down while rotating a bit more than normal. Soon we discovered that the engine was starting to run hotter than normal and not charging the batteries.

We were on 10 miles into the days trip and so we pulled into Saugerties Marina and met KC and Chris. KC's father was the previous owner, so it is definitely a family run marina. I checked the water strainer, remembering how with the Frankos last year they had engine overheating due to a blocked strainer on the Erie Canal. No significant amount of stuff was in the strainer.

After examination of the engine compartment, we found that one of the bolts holding the alternator to the engine had broken and was the cause of our problems. We decided to stay the night and the problem was corrected. One of the joys in owning a 26 year old boat is that you know that eventually you will replace everything that moves, rotates or just sits there with a replacement part. The only questions are when, where, how long, and what's it going to cost.

Chris drove us down to the movie theater after dinner. They have a 3 screen theater right in downtown Saugerties. Joy went to see Eat, Pray and Love, I went to see The Other Guys. Both of us were glad that we went to see the movie we picked.

This morning we will do 20 miles to Hyde Park Marina in Poughkeepsie and hope to do some sightseeing before Jill and Matt arrive this evening. They will be with us for a couple of days and also parts of the next two weeks. The plan is to be in NYC until Labor Day.

Notice how large the galley is. It is definitely a one person work area.

Joe

SAILS ARE ON!!

Well today was a work day like no other. We worked from about 9 am to 5 pm getting the mast, boom, boom vang, dinghy in the right spot plus putting on the two sails.
I was thinking all the time about how nice a trawler is, no sails, just mechanical and electrical things to break.

I ended up in the swimming pool afterwards, while Joy read her latest book.

Not too much else to talk about, except we just found out we can not go to Kingston, NY as now we have our mast on and we have to be aware of bridge heights. There is a 56 foot bridge at Kingston, we need 65 feet to be safe. All the bridges on the ICW are at at least 65 feet.

Only one picture today.

Joe

Catskill, NY

We left Troy, NY for a lovely cruise down the Hudson River. Joy took most of the pictures as we sailed past both industrial/shipping areas and well as wildlife areas.
I especially liked the pictures of the U Haul truck on top of its building, the junked cars that are headed to be melted down into steel, and the light house in the middle of the River.

This morning I met Ron. Ron and his wife own a 58 foot Hatteras Long Range Cruiser and spent 7 yes 7 years travelling around the entire world. This yacht has an 18 foot beam, draws 5 feet of water, two 175 horsepower engines, 3 state room, 4 heads, and cruises at 7 knots. After their 7 year cruse, they spent the next 4 years cruising Bahamas and the Caribbean Islands. He retired at 51. Owned an auto parts repair and mail order business.

Joe, the dock master, showed me a picture of a mega yacht that stopped at Troy. The fuel tanks hold 25,000 gallons, that's rights, 25,000, of fuel. They stopped once for 5,000 gallons. Joe had to have a tanker truck show up which pumped into Joe's tank while he was pumping out to the ship.

Arrived in Catskill, NY about 3 pm and checked in at the marina where tomorrow we will put the mast back up on High Spirits. It will be a long day but we have been looking forward to it.

One of Catskill's claim to fame is where "Uncle Sam" came into being, named after a real person, Sam Wilson. Mr. Wilson lived in a house just down the street from the marina from 1817 to 1823. Also the house was built in 1797 and hosted Martin Van Buren's wedding in 1807. So more for upstate NY history.

For New London people, you know how we have gnus in New London, well here they
have all kind of Cats for Catskill, like Cirque de Cat.

Joe

Rainy Ride to Troy, NY

Well we waited until 11 am, and then decided to go. About 20 minutes into the ride, we got caught in a big time downpour. However the wind was not too bad, and High Spirits just kept moving straight ahead. We arrived at Gate #2 and after a short wait we entered the Flight of Five. That is five locks in a row with no stopping allowed.

However, we did find out if there is an electrical storm in the immediate area of the lock, they shut down the lock until it is over. That means that you could be stuck in the bottom of the lock, 35 feet below the ground until they start the lock back up. Did not happen to us. We got through, a little wet.

At Waterford however, we could not get a spot along the dock as everybody there was not moving because of the weather. We ended going to Troy City Dock, which will cut off about 25 minutes of our trip tomorrow to Catskills, NY. Troy Dock is nice, however it is in not so nice of a neighborhood. We did go for a short walk after dinner. The place is very run down. Found a Cafe for breakfast tomorrow.

Todays history lesson: In 1827 the detachable shirt collar was invented in Troy, NY and Troy became know as the Collar City. At one time, Troy had 90% of the shirt collar business. Troy is also the home of RPI and Russell Sage College.

No pictures today, camera troubles.

Joe

Waiting for the Rain to Pass - Monday Aug 16

Well we are waiting for the rain & thunderstorms to pass so we can continue down the Canal through the Flight of Five down to Waterford, NY the eastern end of the Erie Canal.

Here is THE WEEKEND UPDATE

We spent a lovely time with Ann and Dave Pierce. Ann is Don Hromy's sister, Don is married to Joe's sister Gayle. They live on Ballston Lake, about 20 minutes from the Schenectady Yacht Club where we docked the boat for the weekend. Included is a picture of them outside their local farm stand.

The weekend first started off with Alan and Jennie Anderson, their company moved our mast from Buffalo to Catskill, NY. Manny Lugo, Sally's husband, worked for Alan 20 years ago selling boats. They have remained friends and when the Anderson's were visiting New London about 6 weeks ago that offered to transport our mast as a very reasonable price. Had a nice lunch with them, then Ann and Dave picked us up for Sat night through Sunday evening.

Got to sleep in a real bed on the land in an air conditioned house. What a treat.

Sunday afternoon we drove through Saratoga National Park and learned about the Battle of Saratoga, the turning point in the Revolutionary War. Did not know much about it but it was very critical as it kept the British from dividing the colonies in half by controlling the entire length of the Hudson River. This battle was in Sept/Oct 1777. The monument is to Thaddeus Kosciuszko, who developed the American defensive earthworks that stopped the British march to NYC down the Hudson,

So today is Monday morning, thunderstorms are expected early this morning. We will leave soon for the final 16 miles to the Hudson River. Then down to Catskill, NY to have the mast put back on.

Jill and Matt are joining us next weekend. We will be in the NYC area for almost the next two weeks.

Joe

Amsterdam, NY

Tonight we are in Amsterdam, NY, an old mill town in upstate NY that has seen
much better days. More about this later

We started off early out of St. Johnsville, NY and did five locks today. No problem except in one of the locks, we kind of almost got sideways in the lock. We came into the starboard side of the dock, and I left the wheel too much over to the left and the wind just blew the bow of the boat into the middle of the dock. Solution: let go of the stern line and let the wind blow us across to the port side of the dock. No damage, no problem. It just happened. High Spirits has a mind of her own and she was going where she wanted to go.

We got to Amsterdam about 3 pm. I wanted to go to the Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame which is about 3 blocks from the marina. So I set off for a walk, while Joy stayed behind to read her book.

Of course, the place was closed, only open on the weekends. While walking around town and through the mall next to the marina, I noticed how empty this town is. The mall has about a 10% occupancy rate in terms of stores/offices. In fact there was a total of 8 people in the Off Track Betting office.

Amsterdam used to be a big carpet mill town, Mohawk Carpets was a big name. Now everything is off shore and what is left behind are empty buildings, empty factories, high unemployment, people living on social security, and kids leaving town as soon as they can.

On a much more positive note, we met two brothers, ages 69 and 63 who are bring up a boat from Delaware, and will do the Great Loop with it and take it down to Central America. Chris and Steve are from the northern part of England and had great things to say about our Westerly. Mainly that High Spirits was built for the weather conditions in the North Seas which are extremely difficult and that she can handle anything we get into much better than the two souls sailing her. This is a comforting feeling, it does not mean that we will do stupid stuff, but that we have a strong sturdy boat under our sea legs.

Todays pictures were taken while travelling through the Mohawk River Valley. The valley has three transportation components all running parallel to each other:
the train tracks, the river/canal, and I90. Tried to capture pictures of a train and some cars. Tonight I counted a 150 car train pulled by two locomotives travelling though Amsterdam. The main line tracks are about 100 feet from our dock.

The other picture is a cute little boat house along the River. We liked the color scheme.

It is a good thing that we are meeting other boaters, they share a lot, we learn a lot and share a little back in return. Everybody is looking out for each other.
I guess that is the way life should be, we are all connected to each other and if we do not look out for each other, then we are not complete.

Joe

St. Johnsville, NY

We are in the small village of St. Johnsville, NY at mile marker 70 on the Erie Canal. Back on schedule to get to Schenectady on Saturday afternoon. Joy went up to the ice cream store after dinner as they have mint chocolate chip, one her favorites. When we arrived here about 4 pm, we went for a walk. It is sad to see a very nice small town look so run down. Many empty buildings. The marina manager was one of the best service oriented people we have dealt with on this trip. They got our boat parked where they wanted it, and told us we could use his office after hours if we wanted to.

The big highlight of today actually was two things. First in the morning after a one hour drive, we visited the Remington Arms Company in Illon, NY. Home of the Remington Rifle, Muskets, and side arms. Company started in 1816 by Eliphalet Remington. The Canal is credit for the successful development of his company as he was able to get raw materials shipped in to him at low costs.

In case you do not know, Joy's father, Robert Gabriel or Gabe for short, collected Remington Rifles during his life and had quite a collection back in the 60s and 70s hidden in the basement behind a fake wall. This was at the Meadowview Road house in Melrose. He eventually sold off his collection, but my memory recalls that he had around 40 old antiques.

The other big event was going through Lock 17 which has a door that moves vertically on the eastern end of the lock rather than two doors that swing in and out. The drop in this lock is 40.5 feet. Pictures do not do it justice.

Joe