No Smoking

We skipped our walk to be sure to leave ourselves plenty of time to get through the eight locks on our way to Albany.  We cruised the river, went through a few locks, then docked for lunch at a coffee house in St. Johnsville, NY with three choices on the menu.

On the way back to the boat, we stopped in at the Redneck Yacht Club. As we approached, we saw a giant sign reading ‘This is a Tobacco Free Zone, NO SMOKING.’ We opened the door and stepped into the little room  - and there were two old guys sitting behind their desks smoking! It was so full of smoke I had to get out right away. 

The locks were so easy with Captain John’s expertise at holding the boat in position that at lock 17, as it was raining, the lockmaster told us I didn’t need to be on deck guiding the lines through a cleat making sure the boat doesn’t go rogue and bounce against the walls as we had been taught to do last summer. So the next couple locks, after setting up the fenders, I sat in the salon commenting to John that he no longer needed me. But wrong - I am needed! After gliding in to lock 13, I retired to the salon, and suddenly there was a hullaballoo with the lock master telling us we needed someone on the lines. I hopped up, slid on my gloves and shoes, grabbed the hook, hooked a line, and slid it around the cleat. Before the boat began to descend, the L.M. was on the dock next to me so I felt I had to explain myself to the Lock Master. I told him that we weren’t criminals trying to get away with laziness, but we had been told it wasn’t necessary by a previous L.M., which had made me feel silly for being so diligent on my lock duty these last few days. And he laughed and said it was no problem, we just need to be safe.

Late that afternoon we docked in Amsterdam, New York. The first Europeans to settle here were Dutch immigrants in about 1710. The completion of the Erie Canal in 1825 was an economic boom to the city, which became an important manufacturing center. It was known for its carpets. 

John Sr. and I went for a walk to peruse the town and look for the restaurants that were suggested to us. Unaware of the town’s history, we noticed an odd combination of beautiful old empty mansions, churches, and quaint 1920’s style main street shops surrounded by dilapidated sidewalks, cracked pavement, and crack houses. We also began to notice the gangbanger types driving by giving us strange looks. It seems the town suffered from a dramatic decline in population over the last century and economic downturn in the last decade. We couldn’t find the restaurants we were looking for so we headed back to the boat. When almost back, I noticed a store front attached to a warehouse-like church with  “Friend’s of Jesus Church and Off-track Betting” painted on the front. The attached store had a giant half lit neon sign indicating it was a Chinese Restaurant. Half kidding, I pointed it out to John, who immediately took control, marched in and ordered some Chow Mein (I threw in an order for broccoli in garlic sauce) from the non-english speaking skinny and old Chinese couple behind the counter.  We brought it to the boat and had a decent dinner on a beautiful evening on the aft deck listening to trains chug by blowing their whistles every twenty minutes.