Today was another unsettled weather day. Kathleen and I each looked at the forecast independently, and agreed that we could miss the morning rain and the afternoon winds if we left early. Boy were we wrong! Although it’s light enough to travel by 5:00 AM, the locks don’t open until 8:00 AM, so we waited until 7:30 AM to depart, and spent the entire morning dealing with a depressing gray drizzle and a brisk tailwind, which made line-handling in the locks difficult, but at least helped our fuel economy.
Five locks and 31 miles later we docked into a stiff breeze at Riverlink Park in Amsterdam, NY. Map Link: Amsterdam, NY
Like so many other towns that we’ve visited in these past two weeks, Amsterdam became an important industrial center following the opening of the Ere Canal in 1825. Amsterdam was also the birthplace of actor Kirk Douglas. Born Issur Danielovitch to Russian immigrants, he grew up in stark poverty, the only boy of seven children. He rarely ever returned to Amsterdam, since it brought back unhappy childhood memories. Kirk Douglas appeared in more than 90 films and lived to the age of 103.
We chatted with the crews from two other Looper boat on the town wall, including one with three generations aboard, then took a walk around town. After visiting Kirk Douglas Park, where the beautiful falls of Chuctanunda Creek rush towards the Mohawk River, we walked over the Mohawk Valley Gateway Overlook, a spectacular pedestrian greenway over the Mohawk River, with plantings, public art and lovely vistas.
Back on Dragonfly, we had dinner and drinks at Drifters, a waterside bar and grill in the park where we’re docked. We have live rock music playing as I write this, and this was the view from the bar:
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