August 24 Scotia, NY to Waterford, NY 26 miles

After a night in the car, I am never very well rested and without my coffee or a real breakfast I will admit to being grouchy and negative. We got our stuff in the boat as early as Heather could coax me into getting going. It was not a good start on the final day of our trip. I guess I also didn’t want to finish either and hoped to squeeze one more day in. Heather seemed determined that we make it to the end of the canal in Waterford no matter how we felt.

She served me a potion of energy juice for breakfast telling me this was my coffee and I decided that the remaining fat on my belly would have to be considered breakfast. There was sufficient wind that we decided to go without the canopy. I did not want to be fighting the wind trying to steer us a direction we did not want to go. This takes pulling on one side over and over again causing pain in that arm and sometimes blisters.

We immediately encountered wakes from SeaDoos and other fast boats and a winding course that made the wind change from one direction to another frequently. Getting into a long lasting rhythm of the kind like we had managed for the past three weeks was just not happening. Capt. Grouch became more and more ornery and discouraged by such conditions. But I think Heather had listened to Hillary Clinton about keeping going and not quitting.  We kept going. We stopped at the magnificent dock and other facilities of the Burnt Hill Rowing organization where Morgan was starting to row. This stop allowed us to put up the canopy. It had become oppressively hot in the sun. 

The two of us rowed on one stroke at a time stopping to ride out wakes so frequently it is surprising that we progressed at all. Our conversation remained about how evil these weekend warriors were in their gas guzzling power boats. They seemed to have no destination or purpose other than to upset us!  They certainly had no worries about a shortage of or the cost of fuel! Why is there no luxury tax on the frivolous use of fuel by such boats with no function other than to disturb the peace? Numerous bends of the Mohawk River, crowded with boats as we had not seen before on the whole trip, got us past Schenectady and its suburbs and finally to the gate that opened to the final four locks of the Erie Canal descending to the Hudson River. This gate allowed us to pass into a peaceful final stairway of locks which dropped us 165 feet.

As we entered the first lock Heather pointed out a canoe following us being paddled by a young fellow with a kayak paddle. I had never seen this combination except in a picture which was part of a clipping I had seen before we left telling about a young singing guitar player who had started the trip a week or two before us paddling from “Gig to Gig”.  When we were both in the lock I called to him and asked if he was the Gig to Gig guy.  He confirmed that that was so.  So we had four good visits with Chris Bell while riding down the final four locks of the canal. When we got to the end we gave him one of our cards and bought one of his CDs.  He had told me that his songs would probably appeal more to his age group. I challenged this saying I felt like I was in that group.  But later we listened to the CD in our car and I came to understand better that I was not. And I am not really sure that I am too sorry if his was the kind of music of this group.

We recognized the landing in Waterford where we had stopped on our way to the Canadian Border from Albany three years before. It seemed familiar but busier. I needed to step out into a collection of flotsam that had accumulated near the ramp. The old grouch had cheered up considerably and I need to give Heather all the credit for us making it this day. I’d have stopped half way along this 26 mile piece! We did agree that this was not the best day of our trip! In fact, it was probably the only day that we did not enjoy completely!

Once again, St. Bill Almy showed up to take me to the car. He had his two other daughters, Madison (10) and McKenzie (Ken) (5), with him. He is a lucky man to have three such sweet girls. I had run out of water or Gatorade this day and needed something to drink. I persuaded Bill to let me get us all some ice cream before we went too far. So we stopped a few blocks away and got our ice cream and a large Gatorade for me. Bill would not let me pay for them!  He was a very valuable asset to us and we owe the entire Urell Co. New York team our deepest gratitude.  I should mention that the Urell Company contributed generously to the fund raising part of the trip as well! I consider them to be among TOTO’s very best reps.