Up Another Lazy River

En Route Erie Canal
NoLL

The weather is wonderful. Warm, sunny, dry, cool nights. Even better, the good weather is supposed to continue all week.

We've been enjoying cruising through familiar territory all day. As I said, we lived in Schenectady for many years. My parents however lived in Syracuse so we made very many trips between the two cities by all possible routes. That means that almost everything we see in between is familiar. That makes it fun. We passed Schenectady mid morning, Amsterdam at noon. Now we're passing New York's Amish territory. The green hills are very beautiful.

We made a stop at Putnam Park, just West of Amsterdam. There, we saw some locks from the old Erie Canal (before the Barge Canal) Several plaques there explain details about canal design and operation that we didn't know. For example, that they build aqueducts and culverts to allow creeks to cross the canal without intermingling their waters. That was important for water level regulation in the canal. Most of the old canal did not follow the Mohawk River but rather it ran beside it.

The park also has an exhibit about the stores and businesses that lined the canal. During its heyday, the Erie Canal was dominant in the economy of upstate New York.

We plan to spend the night on the wall of Lock 13. Tomorrow morning we'll move on to Canajoharie. There is an art gallery there we want to see. The last time we passed by this way, the gallery was closed for renovations.