Day 101 Tuesday Oct 1, 2013

Awoke to another beautiful day, we have been very fortunate with the weather, both for ourselves as well as for the repairs on the lock. 

Today is to be a day off from work on the boat and we have rented a car to tour around the area.  We have breakfast and wait the arrive of the rental car which is to arrive around 10:30.  Just before the car arrives, the boat Airtime shows up at the docks.  Airtime is crewed by Al and Susan out of Sarnia and we had spent some time with them up in the North Channel. 

Enterprise Car Rentals picked us up and we head into Herkimer to do the paperwork on the rental.  We plan on touring today and then doing some shopping tomorrow, but before we take off we stop at Radio Shack to pick up a replacement diode for our voltage regulator.  It is quite easy as Mike (our new friend the electrical engineer from Amicus) has given us a listing of Radio Shack stock numbers of suitable diodes, so we are in and out of Radio Shack in less than 5 mins.

We head north out of Herkimer up to the south end of the Adirondack State Park to get a sense of the country side.  It is quite beautiful with the colour change on the leaves happening.  It also is kind of sad as approximately every sixth house is for sale; upstate New York is a depressed area of the US.  Matter of fact the driver from Enterprise used the term “impoverished”.  We stop at a number of scenic/historical spots along the drive. 

  The valley we are traveling in was a scene of a running battle during the American Revolution. 



Low water below Lock 13

View along road

We stop for lunch at an old Inn overlooking Lake Pleasant, a good meal.  From Lake Pleasant we head south back towards the canal to get a view of Lock 13, the one which has caused us to be in New York for an extra 2 weeks.  We stop and pick up some local produce and get canal views below lock 13, the water is quite low here to facilitate work on the lock.  We have been looking for a coffee shop but with no luck so we end up at MacDonald’s.  MacDonald’s serves decent coffee for a buck with free refills and wifi, which keeps us coming back.



Julie and Dave Klock in kitchen of fort/farm house

We leave the canal and decide it is time to head back to Little Falls but take all back roads.  Just before 5 we see a historical site called Fort Klock which is a fortified farm house.  The board says it is open till five so we head down to take a look.  There are a couple of older gentlemen standing around so we get to talking and one offers to take us for a tour.  We both say it is almost closing time and not to bother but his reply is no problem.  So we pays our $6 and we are off on the tour.  Turns out the farmhouse/Fort was built by the tour guides family back 7 generations, he is a Klock. 

 

The tour guide was originally from Michigan and learned about the property when he starting doing genealogy works on his family and when he retired and became involved in the property.  He became involved enough that he moved to the area about 10 years ago.  The fellow does an excellent job on the tour telling stories about the farm house, how it was built, its use during the generations and its involvement in the French Indian Wars, and the America Revolution.  The farmhouse/fort was built in 1750 by settlers from Germany.  It is a farmhouse but with 2’ thick walls and ~30 loop holes for firing your musket through making it a fort.

From the fort we make our way to the town of St. Johnsville marina where we catch up with a boat called Sea Safari.  We had met them in Utica, and from the crew we hear the locks will be open on Thursday Oct 3, a day early.  All good news.

It is now dark and we head into Herkimer to do some shopping and then back to the boat.  Julie pays some bills on line and we are off to bed.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie