Monday June 27: Back in Cleveland

What a rainy few days in New York! We finally woke to the sun shining this morning so due to the rain there was a little outside work accomplished over the last few days but most was inside jobs. The walkaround deck is prepped to paint, the heat exchanger has been off, cleaned and reinstalled, cabin floor has been reinforced from underneath, antifreeze in the engine changed, the alternator is off and will be checked here in Cleveland - and the boat is on the hard with Pirates Cove taking care of repainting the bottom! It's no wonder we're happy to be just hanging around Julie and Jim's place! Anyway, it will be a quick week as we hope to see a number of friends and relatives while we are around - and a wedding in Cincinnati is this weekend. Early next week, back to the boat and off to the Rideau Canal, Ottawa, Montreal and eventually through Lake Champlain and back to the Hudson River and points south. Will continue blog next week!

Wednesday June 22: Pirate's Cove, Clay NY

We left our rickety dock in Rome Monday morning and made our way 20 miles to Sylvan Beach. This is the place that has the amusement park that looks like it's from when we were kids. It was closed since it was a Monday but we enjoyed it nonetheless. Bonus that we arrived in time for lunch out - Steve just had to take a picture of his eggplant parmesan sandwich (which I had to admit was pretty good).

Yesterday we headed across the largest lake on the NY canal system: Lake Oneida, 20 miles long. Pleasant enough day with our arrival here at Pirate's Cove early in the day. This will be where we stay for a while. It'll be nice to be able to get some work done that we have put off - including hauling the boat and checking to see how the bottom paint is doing. I'm sure we left some of it on the intercoastal in NJ on the way up :-) We helped Joysea get underway this morning as they are continuing on their way to the Trent-Severn and the remainder of the Loop. There are lots of Loopers around in the area so I'm sure they will connect with others in their travels. We'll see them in January back in Banana Bay marina in Marathon which is where they will complete their Loop. It was nice traveling with them again.

Project for the day (mostly Steve's project) was to work on hooking all of the outlets up to the inverter so we didn't have to run extension cords around the cabin. Partially successful but work remains to be done. I never did understand electric circuits much so this job definitely has Steve's name on it.

No traveling going on for a while so I'll update the blog occasionally with pics of what we are doing to the boat.

Sunday June 19: The Celebration of a Journey .....

...and what a journey it has been :-) Since July of 2009, we have traveled 6943 miles through many rivers, the great lakes of Erie, Ontario, Huron and Michigan, the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean. We were in 18 states and one province of Canada (Ontario is really big :-)) and have had the opportunity to meet many, many kindred spirits.

Yesterday's Dream "crossed her wake" at Rome, NY on Friday 6/17 at 5:30 pm. Yet it's only the beginning!!

We weren't really planning a celebration but Steve went to Tops to pick up a few things. He called and said lobster were on sale - what did I think? I responded with "what's to think??" So we first had a glass of champagne on Joysea and then Dave and Joyce were kind enough to help us celebrate our completion of the Loop by joining us for a lobster dinner. We'll miss them as we split up in a couple of days - they will continue their journey which started in Florida. But, we'll be there to welcome them back to Banana Bay in Marathon in January or so when they complete the Loop!

Thanks for keeping us 'company' on our trip - the blog will continue as we continue to travel.

Sunday June 19: Still in Rome, NY

One of Steve's side trips with John and Daisy's car Friday on his way here to Rome was to stop and pick up my new bike. Since I had ordered it on-line a couple of days before, it was even put together - a definite bonus. John dismantled my old bike to salvage any usable parts and then disposed of what was left. The nightly game of dominoes followed - can't remember who won so it definitely must not have been me :-) One last group picture and John and Daisy headed out for Cleveland (with a stop at Fort Stanwix) and then on to home after spending the night at Julie and Jim's. It was much fun having them experience boat living with us and we didn't lose Daisy overboard so perhaps they will be back for another cruise :-) Steve headed off to the laundromat to wash bedding and clothes. It's amazing how much he can carry at once!

We rode around town this morning and passed the fort again (more info at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Stanwix ) along with a number of plaques with short histories of the area (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oneida_Carry ). There are many very large old homes (very well kept) in the area. Obviously at one time this was a very wealthy area with a large Italian influence (mmmm ..... should have guessed that with a town named Rome!)

Also spotted a couple of fun murals and an old time Sears Service Station - complete with gas pumps (which I assume no longer function). Never saw one of these before!

Last night was a full house here at the docks but everyone except us and Joysea has moved on. We'll head to Sylvan Beach tomorrow. Since we've completed the loop, everything west of here on the Erie Canal is someplace we've already been - and Sylvan Beach was a fun place with an old style amusement park!

Saturday June 18: Rome, NY and the Completion of the Loop!!

We left the Canajoharie dock (with it's wonderful swings!) after breakfast at the little restaurant uptown and headed west again. It was so peaceful and smooth - definitely Daisy's kind of water! Side trip of the day was stopping at one of the locks and visiting the Fort Plain museum. It was small but very well done and had local information about every war - including the revolutionary war. The lady giving the tour told us more than we really wanted to know but most was pretty interesting. Nice person of the day: the gentleman that instead of just giving us directions to the museum - including the 'local shortcuts' - decided he'd just walk us there instead! Said he needed the exercise anyway. Good job John finding a guide!

George Washington slept somewhere in the area - I presume the building that now houses the museum - at least it says so on the first plaque. More plaque information - and finally me waiting for John, Daisy and Steve to catch up since I was riding Steve's bike.

The Erie Canal was closed most of May with all of the flooding that happened due to the unusual amounts of rain here in New York. Most of the debris has been cleaned up but there was a constant watch for logs - both floating and stuck in the bottom - just reaching out for our prop! The canal department cleans the logs up which really makes it a lot nicer :-) Last lock of the day was one of the most unique we've seen. The lower door is pulled straight up and we drove under the door to get into the lock. I think it's one of the few in any canal system.

We ended up staying Thursday night at Little Falls, NY. It was quite the gathering of Looper boats so of course there was the usual gathering at 5 pm for appetizers. There were many couples we hadn't met before and Joysea (Dave and Joyce) finally caught up with us! We ended rafted up together so it was just like old times. It was good to see them again :-) Dinner on the flybridge and then on to what became a nightly dominoes game. Off early with 6 boats ending up traveling together for a while.

A lunch stop at Ilion gave us a chance to visit the Remington Arms Museum which is located right by the factory. Nice little museum - lots of guns of course! Unfortunately they no longer give tours of the factory so we were a little disappointed in that.

Dropped Steve off at Utica so he could walk to the Amtrak station to pick up John and Daisy's car while we continued on to Rome with the boat. He also made a stop to pick up my bike which I had ordered on line the other day. Finally - our arrival at Rome - this time from the East. 9/19/2009 was the last time we were in Rome and we had approached from the West. Completion of the Loop!!!

More tomorrow from Rome, NY - including more of John and Daisy's cruise to Rome :-)

Wednesday June15: Canajoharie, NY

We saw a moon rise before turning in last night which was kind of surprising as it rained much of the day yesterday. But fortunately it was not raining when we transited the 3 locks for the day. It was good to get the plastic rolled up as it was forecast to be sunny and warm for today.

And it was actually true! Lazy 15 miles or so with 3 locks. Passed a McDonald's on the way to our destination today but sadly there was no dock. Oh well, there will be one in just about every small town we visit for the next few days!

First things first today when we arrived around noon in Canajoharie: lunch! There was a great little old fashioned restaurant on the main downtown street. Food was good - we'll be back tomorrow am for breakfast. John and Daisy decided to head back for a sundae (which looked really good - we saw some when we were there at lunch time). This is an older town that is working hard to come back from the Beech-Nut Nutritional plant closing some time ago. They had a very nice library with an art exhibit and this cool globe.

The park by the dock is really nice. Complete with swings and lots of daises for John and Daisy!

Steve, John and Daisy went on a more substantial hike to the local waterfall. The attraction was a pool of water that swirls around - it was called "the pot that cleans itself" by the Native Americans living in this region. Maybe that's what Canajoharie means??? Anyway, it's a very nice town. I hung around the boat - closed the windows when it started raining (they found a nice gentleman that drove them back to the boat!) - and found a new bike for me. I can pick it up in a couple of days when we'll be within one mile of the store that shall not be named. Pics when we get it.

Tomorrow: on to Little Falls!

Tuesday June 14: Amsterdam, NY

It was only 4 miles from the lock wall we stayed at Sunday night to the Schenectady Yacht Club so Steve decided to clean the decks of the boat since we didn't get that done in Waterford. More dirt accumulated over several months - gone! One of the guys off of a boat from Rattlesnake Island (west end of Lake Erie) had on an Encinitas surfboard shirt - what a coincidence! Seems his brother lives there. The club was very nice - friendly people around - river very calm and nice view behind the boat.

Finally, after some delays due to Amtrak, John and Daisy arrived via cab. They had a quick dinner (we had given up and eaten earlier :-)). Some catching up and then off to bed we all went.

Since this was the first boat trip through the locks for John or Daisy, we thought John should be fully immersed in the experience so he was the aft line handler as we transited 3 locks today. Wow he did a great job!! And man will I be spoiled when they leave and I have to handle the aft line ..... But Daisy and I did have to supervise from the flybridge so we were working also ....

We arrived in Amsterdam about 2 pm - thinking lunch would be at the restaurant right by the docks. Not so much -- it was closed on Tuesdays and even other days was open only 5 - 9. Lunch doesn't start until July! So off we went to town in search of the ice cream store. John and Daisy set off on foot, Steve and I on bikes. First we had to take an elevator up to a bridge that crosses over the railroad tracks (think it's going to be a bit noisy tonight??). The off in search of Main St. Seems no one who lives here really knows where main street is though. We asked several times and were finally directed up this huge hill. Could hardly push my bike up it! And after numerous wrong turns again, we were finally rewarded by actually finding the ice cream place. John and Daisy were there, had their sundaes, and were just headed back to the boat when we found them. Sundaes were great!

Last thing on the agenda today: choose new ring tones for John and Daisy's new phones. Must be hundreds of them out them and I think they tried them all :-)

Back to the boat - with one broken bike: mine. Seems the main bearings in the pedal part were shot. The next goal will be to find a new bike for me as this doesn't seem like something that we can fix - but who knows. Perhaps we can find a bike shop in one of the small towns we'll be in over the next several days.