We're back in Albany. 5/29/08

Hello All:

I could not resist showing you a picture of our four beautiful grandchildren. The girls both graduated from high school in the last couple of weeks. What a thrill for them and for us. And their brothers are happy that they will be leaving for college. I told the boys that meant more intense scrutiny for them! Anyway, we had a great time at home - would not have missed it for the world.

We are back in Albany at the Albany Yacht Club. My brother and sister-in-law are coming in today and we'll spend a couple of days on the coast of Maine (by car for those of you who are not great at geography) and then visit Copperstown. My father played for the Brooklyn Dodgers an eon ago so baseball of great interest. We're also looking forward to the LL Bean home store and the Vermont Old Country Store - it's only a couple of hours from here and a beautiful drive.

We are beginning to see a looper or two. I think you guys will catch up with us in the next couple of weeks. We're moving pretty slow.

See you out there. . .
Bob & Ann

Albany, New York 5/13/08

Hello All

We're in Albany, having gone through 10 locks today. Well actually, we're about 10 miles south of Albany at a marina with experts in electronics. Our compass is out and will need to be replaced. They will take care of it tomorrow and the we'll move the boat back to the Albany Yacht Club.

The locks went pretty well today - we only made fools of ourselves once. One out of ten isn't bad. Again, our deck is so high, it is difficult to reach what we need to reach. But we made it fine. We have a lot of cleaning up to do before we head home - there is mud and gunk everywhere from the locks.

I'm attaching a few pics - note the really dumb goose nesting on rocks. Also, if you look at the pic of Winter Harbor Marina from my last post, you'll notice that the price of fuel is blank on their sign. I don't think they want to advertise almost $5 per gallon for diesel.

See you out there somewhere . . .

Bob & Ann

Goodby to Brewerton and Winter Harbor!! 5/12/08

Hello All . . .

Here is our last view of Winter Harbor Marina. We left on Saturday around 9 am as the temp warmed, went through 4 locks and spent the night in Ilion. Sunday we had 8 locks and are now in Amsterdam. We'll stay here today waiting for better weather and leave again tomorrow morning for Albany, going through 9 locks. We'll be leaving Albany for home on Friday, May 16th for our 2 granddaughter's high school graduations.

As those of you have been on the eastern part of the Erie Canal know, the locks are difficult to say the least. Try for a day with warm temps and NO wind. We found it especially hard as our boat has a very high deck and the decks are bowed, leaving the lines WAY down there and WAY out there. Thank goodness of expendable boat hooks, long arms and strong backs. We are also using our walkee talkee thingees so we don't yell at each other so much. Be sure to bring good waterproof gloves and lots of patience.

We have found the lock masters friendly for the most part. The summer crews are not working yet so things are a little slow and a little unorganized. Last year the locks were free, this year we had to purchase two 2-days passes for $20 each to use the locks for 3 days. There are less expensive per day options if you need more time. A season pass is $100. You purchase the pass at the first lock you go through and may be asked to show it at each lock so keep it handy.

I'm uploading several typical scenes from the western Erie Canal. Please excuse the positioning of pics on this blog. I seem to have no control where they end up.

See you out there somewhere . . .

Bob & Ann

Yea!!! We are back on the water!!! 5/9/08

Hello All - After a looooong dry spell, we are back on the water. We are in Brewerton, NY, on the Erie Canal and will be leaving tomorrow, traveling east on the canal towards Albany. We'll leave the boat there for a couple of weeks and fly home to celebrate Rachel and Jessica's high school graduations.





We have spent the last few days reprovisioning, cleaning and planning for the rest of the loop. When we get back to Albany on May 26th, we don't plan to be home again until Labor Day. That will take some doing, as I am still in charge of the books and payroll for our company. Rob will take care of his clients by phone and e-mail. We'll both depend heavily upon our wonderful staff in Nashville.

We loved seeing our boating friends at Joe Wheeler in October and at Charleston in April. What a treat to see old friends and make new ones. We especially enjoyed getting to know Elaine, the widow of Skipper Bob. We, along with Elaine, made a presentation to Ron and Eva, the creators of the AGLCA. What a thrill that was.

We also enjoyed a mini-reunion in March with Bob & Liz, Paul & Jane and Larry & Lola. We met at our son's lake house on Tim's Ford between Nashville and Chattanooga. We had a wonderful time and hope to make this at least an annual affair - and perhaps include more folks next time. The last time these four couples were together, we were fighting the wind/current/tide on the Cheasapeake together - one of the more memorable days of our trip.

Much Love to all.

See you out there somewhere

Bob & Ann