Friday, June 8, 2012

Day 70...Waterford, New York


THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2012
      I woke up at my regular time of 6:30 a.m.  We doodled around on the boat until almost 8:00 a.m. and decided to walk to the laundromat to wash one of two good-sized loads of clothes.  We met the attendant there named Mike.  He was a very friendly guy who suggested we eat breakfast at a restaurant on Broad Street.  Broad Street is their main drag.  After we started the clothes, we walked up one block and over two to get to Don and Paul’s Coffee Shop.  It wasn’t very far away at all.  They have a breakfast special of two eggs cooked any way, toast and coffee for $1.75.  It was good too.  There was a waitress there who was like a whirling dervish.  She never slowed down.  This placed was packed.
     We went back and put the clothes in the dryer.  We hung around feeding the dryer quarters.  
     After about 20 minutes we took the dry clothes out and transferred all of them to one dryer.  I’m telling you all of this for a reason.  All of a sudden there seemed to be a clunking noise coming from the dryer but I thought it was my jacket’s zipper.  When we opened the dryer, we found out that it wasn’t the zipper.  It was my camera.  It had fallen out of the pocket of Gary’s shirt I was wearing into the dryer.  Man, you know my luck.  Well, I was lucky this time.  It’s scratched and dinged up, but it still works.  So I’m going to use the excuse that my camera was dried if the pictures start to get worse.
     After we finished the clothes, Gary was going to walk to get some filters from a NAPA store.  We had started to walk to a different one yesterday but found out it had closed.  When we were walking to the store, we went by a ball field.  Remember the fox we saw in Chesapeake City?  Well this time we saw dog cutouts to keep the geese off the grass. 

     The village of Waterford was incorporated in 1794.  
      It is a neat little town with immaculate houses and others that would be beautiful with a lot of work.  
     It is the entrance to the modern day New York State Barge Canal System.  Near Lock 2 are remains of the old lock system.  Gary says the only things missing are the old, wooden doors.  Mules or horses guided by men would walk next to the canal and pull the boats or barges.  They have put hoof prints and footprints in the walkway next to the present canal to commemorate this.
     We decided to walk to the grocery store where I would shop while Gary would continue on to the auto parts store.  On the way there we passed a waterfront park and crossed the Hudson River.   
      I really like Hanaford’s.  It has a good variety of items.  I found cookies there that Allison’s family liked when they were visiting before.  When Gary got back to the store to pick me up, he told me they had given him an employee discount since he had worn his NAPA shirt.  When you’ve finished shopping, a couple of the grocery stores will permit you to take a shopping cart back to the Waterford Visitor’s Center with you.  The store retrieves it later.
     We washed the other load of clothes in the pouring rain.  Good thing we were inside.  Gary saw this MiniCooper out of the window.  I think we’ll keep our little red one.
     Afterward Gary did boat chores.  We’ve worked hard to get everything ready for our departure tomorrow.  We’ll be ready to go in the morning.  We enjoyed our visit in Waterford.  We will be back.  

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