Thursday August 30th - Catskill NY - Hop-O-Nose marina
The last few days have been a flurry of activity for us and no reliable internet so I am lumping everything together and going to just post some photos that I think are interesting.
As we traveled the canal we were for the most part traveling through rural America. Small towns with some wonderful people ready to help visitors. The dock masters in Little falls were great, driving us for errands and to see the sights. Dave showed us his Kayak powered by a leaf blower, a project created by his students. Everywhere we meet people on their own adventures.

As we started the last round of canals we also encounter the sound of trains - all day - all night - the rumble of  cars and the long and short blasts of the whistles. Slowly sounds of traffic, the great interstates with dozens of bridges to go under.

We also saw scars of devastation this area suffered last year from Irene. There is a resilience in America that is often overlooked and you see it everywhere as one community after another picked up, cleaned up, repaired and got the locks ready for this season.  There is still a lot of work to do - and with the new hurricane season in full swing we are just watching and hoping we can avoid the trauma.

Little Falls dolomitic limestone of the Cambric age is one of the oldest of the World's rocks. It is found in the southern Adirondacks, in the narrow limestone border between the Adirondack Precambric rocks and the Ordovicic shales of the central river section of the Mohawk Valley.

this Lock is one of many in various stages of repair from storm damage

I believe these are snow geese

Gardens of the Arkell Art Museum

I could give you Wikipedia quotes - I won't - I do hope that if you are visiting the area, something in our pictures will spur you to turn off the highway and visit these towns and the people. More photos to come in the next two blogs