Donvan's - Troy Ny - Ft Edwards NY

 June 13

Donovan's Shady Harbor

SPRING BREAK FOR ADULTS!!!!

Everyone said "be sure to hit the pig roast at Donovan's Shady Harbor".  Terri and I were thinking "what's the big deal, we are from NC where pig roast area a weekly event if you want it to be (and everyone knows that NC has the best BBQ)."  But, as we traveled, it became apparent that everyone was converging on the event so we committed ourselves to being there.  Thank God we did for it was AMAZING ... not the pig so much as the entire event.  Look at this agenda:

Thursday (we did not attend this day)

Bourbon tasting 

5 course meal  

Friday

 Buckets and "Little Beers" (no idea what this drink really was but it looked and tasted like a beer in a 1 oz glass ... Very dangerous.)

 Prime Rib night at their grill

Live music until 9:00 pm

9pm - ??? Bondfire

Saturday

Raising of the flag and blessing of the fleet by the Bishop

Lunch of burgers and dogs (free)

Beach Party with vodka tasting and live music

Bonfire all night

Sunday

Breakfast Sandwiches

Ladies on the Loop networking (read drinking) event

Pig Roast

"High Noon" Vodka and Tequila Soda tasting (really good BTW)

Live music until late and again another bonfire 

What an absolute blast.  We went from ~8:00am until ~10:00pm everyday.  In addition to all the listed, above Ron and Sonja aboard HelluvaLife invited us over for cards.  They had this crazy game that was a ton of fun.  The bourbon flowed and they were delightful.  Unfortunately, their loop plans and ours diverged given they were still working full time and Ron wanted to stay in the US to ensure strong network access. We had originally met them at Catskill NY so here is a pic of them (and incase you are wondering, that is a "catfish" behind us).

Here are some pics from Donovan's:

 

This was us at "Prime Rib Night" with other friends Scott and Mary Beth aboard At Last II.  Mary Beth is such a wild child that she makes me look tame.

But if you really want to understand the event, it is better captured in this video:

Just to orient everyone, here is our Nebo log on the way to Shady Harbor.

The Nebo log is good for providing stats but it really doesn't give the perspective of where we are so here is a quick Google Maps shot:

Troy NY

Alas, all good things come to an end.  Monday came and we headed north... to our next adventure .... Troy NY with Bill and Delcy Fox (Terri's brother and his wife).

Bill and Delcy demonstrated extreme kindness and generosity towards us by shuttling us around town for provisions, bring us to their house for dinner and dedicating multiple days to simply playing with us.  We had a great time and it was good to see them.

 Here are some pics of Albany as we passed through it on our way to Troy.

And once we got to Troy ... Bill and Delcy!

Troy turned out was a really cool city.  There are three cities located in this area and they are known as follows (according to Delcy): 1) Albany - the "capital city" because, well, it is the capital of NY.  2) Schenectady - the "electric city", a nod to General Electric and 3) Troy - the "collar city"!  Huh??? What?  Explain!

As told by DF, Men's shirt collars used to be a separate item from the shirt itself.  Therefore the collars were manufactured and sold separately and Troy was THE PLACE to make a collar!  Who knew ... well, Delcy of course!

Anyway, the town was cool with really old buildings (and old people because Terri was there --- this will let me know if she really does read this thing!) as well as a monument to the soldiers of almost every war this country has faced.  Here are the pics:

I don't know if it is readable but this building is from 1842.

Here is the NEBO log for that segment (again, for the interested geeks).

Ft Edward

All of this brings us to today.  This was a first for both of us: LOCKING THROUGH!  Shorebillies from the Chesapeake just don't do stink'in locks!  But before we get into that, a funny story.

When in Troy we stayed at the town dock.  The tie up itself was great with floating docks, water, fuel, electric and pump out.  However, not all the services worked, like the hot water in the showers.  But that wasn't the story.

Terri and I decided to pump out first thing in the AM.  It is a self serve kind of thing and early this AM we untied and moved over to the pump out since we intended to anchor out the next few nights.  I hooked everything up and turned on the machine.  My boat was pumping out just fine when I looked over at the far end of the dock and saw this poop geyser 20 feet in the air.  The machine pumped it uphill to the town sewer and the line was broken at the highest point.  DISGUSTING!!!  Even worse:  I had to figure out how to turn off the machine where it was all happening!  Let's just leave it at one drop did hit me and I was totally grossed out!

Story over, let's get back to Locking Through.  First (according to google):

A lock usually consists of a watertight basin known as a lock chamber, which is used to raise or lower the water level as required. Boats are raised or lowered by filling or emptying the lock chamber. Gates at each end of the lock chamber allow the boats to enter and leave.

We did great, no scratches, dings or dents today!

We did a total of 7 locks today.  

We did have to make one strong commitment.  This is the fork in the river just above Troy where we could go either West on the Erie Canal or North on the Champlain Canal.  We are going North to Montreal, Ottawa and more!

At last, we arrived at Ft. Edwards.  I can't tell you much about the place other than it has a free town dock with water and power for us to tie up to!

Here is the Nebo log for the day.  If you have been tracking these, you will notice the overall time for a short distance is very long due to the low average miles per hour.  Each lock, or even sitting still waiting for the lock, is counted as a voyage since it is counting stops.

That is it from Ft. Edwards.  Stay safe and show love.

Terri and Aubrey (aka ... poopyhead on the poopdeck)