Little Falls, NY

This post should have been placed in the Blog around the first of August--I posted it late because it seemed to show my temper.  It was a tough day:

Today we only had 4 locks and 25 miles with a fuel stop along the way—easy right? Oh no—one of the most grueling days of the trip. We said good-bye to Rahn-de-Vous and moved up the canal with Starlite. Before the first lock, I say to the Captain—Do I have enough time to use the bathroom? He says- Sure. All of the sudden, I realize he is pulling into the lock with no one there to catch him. I hurriedly finish my business and rush to the door and realize I have worn my 5 button shorts. I manage to get 1 button on and catch the lock rope, hold us off the wall- all the while flashing the lockmaster. The day did not get easier. Both boats stopped after 2 locks because fuel was 50cents cheaper in St. Johnsonville than anywhere along the canal. Starlite (the faster boat) went in first and took on 400 gallons –unbeknownst to us this would take a couple of hours-slow pumps. Then we took on 100 gallons—all in muggy, hot, 80 degree sun. No wind, no shade, no sunscreen. We said good-bye to Starlite after they gassed up so the last 2 locks were the first in a while that we did by ourselves. I think Fitz forgot this wasn’t my first rodeo—all the sudden he had an idea how I could do many aspects of my job better. I ended up sitting on the front of the boat after the last lock waiting on the marina. I was filthy, tired and ready for a nap and shower. Do I love this fella or what?? I could have been in Nashville today at a baby shower with my girlfriends.


I think all the geese in the world have come to New York's Erie Canal

Lots of activity in Little Falls

Skinny canal

Back to Reality and Work

I knew the first week back at work and a busy one it was. I concentrated on the Student workers for this first week and we have about half the group are new. Chris will be taking them on but for now I am doing my usual thing. I have plenty of work getting the Lecturers in English, Communications Studies, and Math setup and I like it that way. Putting together the puzzle of the Geek skill set that I need to perform my job has been an interesting exercise—passwords, Active Directory, printer setup, new on-call system. It has woken me up a couple of nights with worry but proved to be nothing beyond the pale. Saturday morning I slept until 10 am—I was pooped. Dinner at Sue’s on Wed. with Marie and Kathy’s families was wonderful—they let us babble and tell stories—it is a little surprising to me what we tell of the highlights and what they find the most surprising. Our harrowing first day on the Chesapeake when we lost our anchor (momentarily) and the day out of Atlantic City when we were met by high waves and turned around were our 2 most scary days and oft repeated. We caught up on the family news we had missed for the last 6 months too—all is well with the Fitzpatrick clan. Campus characters—girl with 3 stands of Grandma pearls with her short shorts and t-Shirt and the boy with flower hat, madras shorts, and stripe shirt if we were in NYC I would have taken their picture but I am home now. I did take pictures of the new student workers and note that the boys don’t comb their hair, the girls are beautiful. Reuniting with coworkers was OK—took them a bottle of wine but they were all overwhelmed with things left to do to start school and not interested in our escapades. AA’s on the other hand were very welcoming—our Lori, English (Janis, Margaret, and Donna), Dean’s Office (Vicki Latham and Dean Karen Campbell and Dean Jones), Prof Steve Buckles (told me about the Loop they do in the Northeast they do from NYC to Maine past his home in Connecticut) , Julia in Asian Studies, Shelley in Anthro (she wants to find a person to do this with—ex-husband bought a boat to do it and now health is keeping him from achieving this goal—poor thing). We have a new baby in the family! On Thursday (8/21/14) Lisa Debusk had baby Katherine Taylor Debusk (Kate) at Centennial 7lbs 4 oz , Fitz and I went on Friday to meet the new baby and they both are beautiful.

Baby Katherine Taylor Debusk (Kate)

Lisa, Lola and Kate at Centennial

2nd Week Back

The 2^nd week of work and the honeymoon is over. It is very hot and muggy, not many people left to babble about our trip and the same old work problems rear their ugly head. There are the student workers who realize they like the paycheck but not the work part.  Professors who want us to come across campus to plug in their computers, network ports turned off during the summer and housekeeping that keep locking the lab during the day.  Mostly this job is fun but there are problems you have every start of the school year—I had forgotten. 

We head to Knoxville and Boomsday and the Utah State opener for the Vols.  But mostly we are excited to see Andy and Mary (and their girls) plus Elizabeth and Charley .  Rachel is 8 months pregnant and Abby is in LOVE so I can’t wait to meet their men and reconnect with the Leeton clan in Knoxville. Vanderbilt had the late game last night against Temple and lost badly--I hope this is not an omen.

  Our home for this fall is Rock Harbor Marina on our houseboat –Next Chapter.  It is slowly becoming home (however temporary) to a few Loopers—Roy and Elvy Short are still here- Roy is having shoulder replacement surgery at Vanderbilt and will need to recover before they head for Florida for the winter.  Tom and Patsy Conrad are here for the Fall and there  was a Bob Levine sighting earlier in the week so he and Anne must be here somewhere.  Yesterday  Liberty (a big Marlowe) was at the transient dock with owners Shorty and Roe.  We had met them at the Loopers Rendezvous and I had to extract Fitz from the engine room of Shorty’s boat.  They were at the Blue Moon when we went there to dinner and we reconnected.  Nice people –I hope we see more of them.    

Coming Home

There are many reasons to be excited to come home after 6 months. The Grandchildren, the children, family, friends, and work are the main ones. We are leaving with a lot more boating confidence and the knowledge that this “bucket list” item is very worthy—we will finish. Syracuse Airport is only 20 miles from Winter Harbor but we have an early flight into Nashville so we went to a Hilton the night before—it had a hot tub! We have not flown in a while and of course Fitz was segregated to be searched while they just waved me through—we were glad we went to the airport early. LaGuardia was a stopover and people watching was wonderful. At the Nashville airport we were welcomed by Katie, Leeton and Holden—the grandbabies knew us!!! Big relief. We get to spend a couple of days babysitting, getting used to shoes and air conditioning -- then we need to get Next Chapter ready to live on and go to work on Monday.

Number 1 reason to come home

Brewerton—Winter Harbor Marina

It is time to button up our floating home and head back to Nashville. Winter Harbor Marina will haul the boat out of the water and store her at 60 degree temp in a warehouse for 1 month or 1 year or 10 years. We will spend the next few days changing the oil, washing the boat and loading the dingy on the swim platform. I will search out all the winter clothes we have stashed away and any clothes we would wear to work. They have a Target about 15 minutes away and they had suitcases (you would have thought I had found Disney World—I have missed Target). We have to clean out the refrigerator, freezer, and wine rack. Winter Harbor has nice people, an herb garden and a courtesy car you can borrow for 1 hour.

Sunny Days new home

She will be in some good company

Beautiful landscape at Winter Harbor

She's ready for a long winter's nap

Oneida Lake

This lake proved to be a smooth ride (we made sure we did not have a windy day) but the water was really yucky—lots of algae. It is a shallow lake but must be where New Yorkers come to fish. We had noticed there were not many fishermen on the Hudson and the Canal but we found them on Lake Oneida. This is to be our last 30 miles before going into Brewerton to put Sunny Days up. While a calm ride Fitz and I wanted to savor the last cruise and we found ourselves reflecting on what a great 6 months this has been and looking ahead at all the work we have to put our home in storage. We have found The Frog—a great local oldies radio station that will make packing up a little easier.

Lake Oneida's yucky water

Lots of fishermen here

As we entered Brewerton we found this neat house

Sylvan Beach

The locks of the Erie Canal are over for now and we are in Sylvan Beach. This is a sandy beach community on the shore of Lake Oneida with lots of rental places, B&B’s, a camping area and a free city dock. It was the perfect place to stop for a while, recover from the locks and regroup. Fitz had solved the inverter problem (a simple reboot with a little tweaking) so he was happy to run off the generator and inverter. The nights were cool—60ish- and the natives were very friendly. We are like an attraction when we come into city docks -- people come by to ask if we are really from Alabama (our homeport on the transom for Sunny Days is Decatur, Al) and when they hear our southern accent they want details. We ate lunch at the Cinderella Restaurant—for Leeton—and walked the town in about 45 minutes. Lake Oneida is 30 miles across and on the other side is Brewerton and Syracuse. A weather window is needed when you cross Oneida because it is open water and the waves can kick up if it is windy.

Fitz and Sunny Days at the Sylvan City Dock

The Crazy Clam at Sylvan Beach

Lots of Queen Anne's Lace

Cinderella Restaurant

The Erie Canal

We have gone through ½ of the Erie Canal - 22 locks and 130 miles and we are still speaking –barely. These locks are tricky things in that sometimes you need the fenders port, sometimes starboard, in some you caught a rope and hung on, others you caught a pipe and wrapped your rope around and loosely cleated it so you could fed it out as you went up or down. You got filthy—hair, clothes, gloves, fenders and boat. If the Captain has an opinion on how the first mate should adjust her job—it is not always well received. But this is an interesting part of the adventure. We were in bed early every night and slept like the dead but the winding river had pretty scenery and the weather was good for the most part. Along the Canal there are very few places to anchor but there are seawalls and low cost marinas to stay the night. I can tell that I have been north of the Mason Dixon Line for a while—I pronounced starboard –star-burred instead of star-bored today. Tonight we watch the Giants and the Bills play the Hall of Fame Game—football is back—life is good.

The geese have all come to New York

We loved Little Falls--a beautiful town and we had a great dinner at Canal Street Inn

A solar paneled boat

State fair going on beside the canal

Canajoharie (Can-a-joe-har-y)

This little burg on the Erie Canal was the home of Beech-Nut Industries. It was owned by the proud native of Canajoharie—Bartlett Arkell (1860-1940) donated his extensive art collection to the Arkell Museum here. We were back in the mood for a little culture so we hit the gallery. He had an extensive collection of Winslow Homer’s art (1836-1910) and most of his work appeared in newspapers, Harper’s Bazaar, and other publications). Arkell also commissioned artists to reproduce for him some of the great works in other collections—Geo. Washington’s portrait that is on the dollar is an example. In addition, the history of Beech-Nut and its connection to the community is showcased. We enjoyed this lot and it took no more time than our attention span would allow—2 hours. Beech-Nut still is manufactured about 18 miles out of the city and owned by some major company but as long as Arkell was alive he remained loyal to the livelihood of Canajoharie. The town itself is unique and the dock is free and with power—who could ask for anything better?

We figure St. Marks merged with St. Johns and they could not agree which name to stick with

Arkell Museum

Town sign

Notice the street light in the intersection

Our buddies Rahn-de-Vous and Starlite docked with Sunny Days

School on the Hill

Start the Erie Canal

We left Waterford at 9am traveling with Rahn-de-Vous to start our trek on the Erie Canal. We had rain in the forecast but the radar showed we might miss them. We went through 10 locks in 40 miles and they provided an athletic event. You had to set up fenders on the starboard for the first few and then on the port for the rest. There were some that required you to run a rope around a cable midship and let it slide up as the water rose. Some later ones required you to hold onto the ropes at the bow and stern that ran down from the top of the lock. Holding the boat to the side of the lock was a challenge and for all but the last lock our 2 boats were the only ones in the lock and that was a good thing. Riverlink Marina at Amsterdam NY, is where we pulled in around 5pm. We avoided the rain and have ended up with a really nice evening. I declared that new rule for our boating—no more than 10 locks in a day—I am exhausted, dirty and in need of happy hour.


First Lock of the Day



Traveling Partner

6 knee boarders on the Erie--shades of our kids 25 yrs. ago

Sunny Days sitting at Waterford Welcome Center

We were able to get the bikes out at Waterford

Heading to the Erie Canal

After Catskill, we came to Houghtaling Creek (about 25 miles from Albany) and ran into a storm worse than we had on the whole trip. So we stopped early,anchored and rode it out with no problems. It was a good night to read and watch a movie. There are trains and a highway on shore but the trains-about every ½ hour- don’t blow their horn so they just added to the scenery. We watched Downton Abbey season 4 (the first hour) that we picked up in Catskill. The weather turned perfect after the storm –75/56 degrees—since it is summer we revised the policy that 60 degrees was too low. We went to bed with all the windows opened—it was just like the great nights out on Center Hill. Another run at the inverter problem and a fuel filter replacement delayed our departure until after noon but we made our way through Albany, Troy Federal Lock (our first since the Virginia Cut) to Waterford, NY. Waterford has the Welcoming Center for the Erie Canal and we will take a couple of days to get the boat in order and learn how to traverse the Canal. We have caught up with our friends Craig and Karen Rahn (aboard Rahn-de-Vous) that we met in Solomons and shopped with in Cape May. They have done New Jersey and New York State differently and we look forward to comparing notes at dinner tonight.

Catskill Dock-Mike and Fitz discussing puzzling inverter



Rip Van Winkle Bridge- a lot here is named for the 200 year old Washington Irving story set in Catskill



USS Slater in downrown Albany--narrowly escaped--it was a WWII gun boat with turrets- the only attraction to Albany waterfront as far as we could tell

Directions to the Canals

Troy Lock --on top

Entering Troy Lock

Catskill, NY

Two weeks to go before we put Sunny Days on the hard and we find ourselves in Catskill, NY. The inverter is refusing to support the refrigerator so Fitz found a place here that is reputed to have a good service department. We have come to rely on the inverter because we want to anchor out with the calm water and the beautiful creeks. In Catskill we have found our favorite—eagles—they must live right across the creek and they swoop to catch fish for dinner. The town is very picturesque but has fallen on hard times-chats with the locals blame the economy and Walmart moving in. Neat cat statues are all over town and weeping willows line the waterfront. Verizon signal has not been this bad since the Tombigbee but we won’t be bored. The inverter has decided to work fine (now that we have the experts to look at it) so the Captain is frustrated –he is polishing the rails. I am trying real hard to enjoy this time on the Hudson and not think of all we need to do to put her up. We may never be this way again by water so we do not want to take this for granted.

Cat Statues dot Catskill like Nashville's fish

Love the weeping willows

Catskill

This Islandd is right down from our marina--windy day

Kingston –Saugerties/Catskill--Leeton’s First Day of School

Kingston is a small waterfront town with many restaurants and hair salons It is very pretty and in one of the stores they sold blue jeans for $185-quaint! We rode the city bus to the uptown district which is called the Stockade district—great lunch and interesting buildings—particularly the Dutch Reformed Church.  In the cemetery the headstones dated back to the 1600’s and Woodstock, NY is only a short drive away. Even though Woodstock was a significant event of our youth, we decided not to visit (we would have to rent a car to see a field). The radio station is out of Woodstock and they play a lot of oldies like Joe Cocker, Van Morrison and Bob Marley—we sigh. Upstream we anchored in Saugerties Creek where the inverter had some issues so Saturday will be in the city of Catskill at the base of the Catskill Mountains to get some bla bla so we will have power when we anchor out. Thursday was a red letter day in our family—it is Leeton Norris’s first day of school. Her Grandpa Bitz and Grandma Lolo are feeling a little old (seems she was a baby yesterday) but she had a blast and we are proud.

This church was the 1600's era Dutch Reform



Rondout Lighthouse at Kingston

New York's first Senate Bldg

Leeton's first day at Northeast Elementary

She is so grownup!

Katie reports a very successful first day!

Going up the Hudson

West Point was just 20 miles from our anchorage and we were pretty disappointed it is not open for transient boaters. We took lots of pictures from the water and it is a gorgeous campus from our view. The terrain has turned mountainous, many trains run along the coastline and there is very little river traffic. First stop is Poughkeepsie, NY—didn’t you always want to stay there (or at least say you stayed at Poughkeepsie)? There is a restaurant –Mariners- that has a great reputation for food and a rickety dock you can tie up to for the night. After a great dinner and a restless night with a train coming by honking about every 3 hours, we head only 20 miles to Kingston, NY –the first capital of NY (for about 6 mo. in 1777 before the British burned it to the ground). We will plug in and enjoy this historic little town and wait out an afternoon storm.

West Point

Typical terrain--looks like the Tennessee River doesn't it

Great House above Poughkeepsie--Vanderbilt has a historic mansion maybe this is it

Poughkeepsie

Esopus Lighthouse going into Kingston

Fitz surveying the ricketty dock at Mariners