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.