In Waterford But!

Well Jeannie and I made it to Waterford but only to find out that they have a tug boat fest this weekend and no one transients are allowed to stay on the docks at the town center. So we are hanging out back up between lock 3 and 4 for 3 to 4 days. Now backing up some here. It has been a wonderful trip thru the locks and what an experience we have had. There is so much to see and yes it is boring at times I will say. One thing we did find out is how lucky we were. Less then 2 weeks prior to us going thru the Mohawk valley.The lock were all shut down in this section of the canal due to heavy rain in the valley. Who ever was in the lock system you were stuck for 5 days and could not go no place. only between what locks you were at. It does show that the water level was up about 4 feet higher then what it usually is. All the lock Masters have been very nice and very helpful. They seem to want to make your trip go well and will give you suggestion where to stay if you ask. Usually we would stay on the down bound side so we could get going by 6 or shortly after as the locks do not start till 7 am. One of the locks we stay below had an Irish fest and we listened to
Irish music all night and then got to see fireworks which were right over the locks, Very cool. Getting into the Mohawk valley one can start seeing how it all flows into the Hudson River, it is very interesting if you read up on it and some of the early settlers that came through here. With the past flooding that had taken place just prior to us being here is that there are logs and trees everywhere and you do need to keep a look out for floating trees and logs, but they were out working as fast as they could to clean as much of it up as they could. One of the mornings that we got an early start we were faced with fog in the valley, something that is totally different on a river then

being on lake that is big and wide. Radar does help some, but the river twist and turns so fast that we were basically at an idle for many miles. But it was breath taking what we were seeing. It only lasted about 2 hours but that was long enough. It is interesting to see the country side change as we progress


thru this section of the country as to me it is different being on the water and looking back at the landscape. As we were setting on the lock wall for the night we had a rather large Hatters pass us and it was from Bay Harbor Mi, the name was Ziggy. We waved and she waved back and smiled. Well knowing me I had to find out who owned it, So google here I come. As it turns out it was Zig Ziegler whom was from Kalamazoo Mi originally. He is a motivational speaker.

Now that we finally, well almost finally got thru the locks we can slow down a bit and start enjoying the sights and what comes along our way. I know it will be different for us now getting into the tide system as never having to deal with it, but hey we all learn right. Life is a life long learning lesson.