Day 316 – 365
The next month and three-quarters we spent in some sort of bizarre time warp period, that can only be compared to the movie, Ground Hog Day. We had seriously only planned to stay at Shady Harbor for a week or less, but our plans obviously changed.
During our first weekend at Shady Harbor Marina, we were entertained by the 12th Annual Jamaican Chicken Jerk-off – a popular barbecue contest and eating event, with music, games and raffle drawings, benefiting the American Cancer Society. Everything took place right up on the grounds of Shady Harbor, literally steps away from Legacy’s tie-up, so we enjoyed front-row seats all weekend. Multiple boats full of people arrived at the marina to spend that weekend and enjoy the festivities, as well as locals who drove to the event in cars. There is a tiny, but very clean and nice swimming pool at Shady Harbor Marina. Since this was the hottest part of summer, that pool stayed busy all throughout our visit, and was especially jam-packed this weekend. Guests of every age enjoyed the food, frolic, and refreshingly good music being performed by the hired Reggae band. Steve and I bought tickets so we could enjoy the food and contribute to a worthy charity at the same time.
Luckily for us, Shady Harbor provides not one, but TWO, courtesy vehicles for the use of their marina guests. There is a sign-up sheet inside the office to make advance reservations for the cars. Early in our first week, we drove the marina’s tiny, box-shaped Pontiac, which had no working a/c, low tires, and crank-down windows. As basic as basic gets. (But once again: Beggars cannot be choosers!) Since New Baltimore is a very small town, out in the middle of nowhere, we had to cover some miles to reach any kind of civilization where we might find our needed supplies. We wound up driving 14 miles, one-way, to Catskill, NY, where we found a Home Depot, a Walmart, and a Lowe’s. The courtesy vehicles carried two-hour use limitations each time they were taken out, so we had to make quick work of those long runs. As always, I failed to carry along any reusable grocery bags with me, so when it came time to checkout at Walmart, there were NO shopping bags of any kind for me to use (UGH), forcing me to place my twenty-something-odd items individually into my shopping cart, wheel it out to our car, then unload each and every item into the car, from which they had to be individually unloaded into a marina dock-cart, wheeled out to the boat, and then individually loaded from the dock into the boat. GOOD GRIEF! As I’ve mentioned before, I consider myself as environmentally-conscious as the next person, but HOLY CRAP, my forgetfulness was a real pain while we were in the northeastern U.S.! Miraculously, we made it back within our two-hour courtesy car rental period, but just barely. We also vowed to always reserve the courtesy VAN in the future, as it has a working air-conditioner.
Another day, we scored the courtesy van for a more luxurious ride into the tiny town of Coeymans, NY, to obtain more provisions. This time from CVS and the grocery store. We even had time to stop for some lunch at the Silver Spoon Cafe, for a small-town-New-York lunch, which turned out to be delightfully tasty.
We’d been watching our friends, Brandee and TJ Sharp, aboard Bella Vita, on Nebo and knew they would arrive Shady Harbor shortly. Brandee and I also texted back and forth. Sure enough, Bella Vita and crew arrived at Shady Harbor on 07/28/21, at 2:00 pm. Steve and I caught their lines and helped them to their wall tie-up, where they would be for the next several days. We all met that evening up at the Boathouse Grille for drinks and dinner outside on the deck. It was a fun night of laughter combined with a really funny waitress that made for a memorable evening. The next day we awoke to cooler temperatures (welcomed) and extremely foggy conditions. It was a good thing we hadn’t been planning to leave that day, as we were truly socked-in.
After several gray and rainy days of staying mainly on the boat and doing boat chores, we welcomed the sun one morning, when I joined Brandee in the marina’s courtesy van for a trip to the nearby Shop-N-Save. Shady Harbor has a really long and steep driveway from the road down to the water, which I tried to walk at least once per day, for some semblance of exercise. Brandee drove the van up to the top of the hill, picked me up, and we were off. Sure enough – Brandee and I again encountered the no shopping bags dilemma, but at least Shop-N-Save had paper sacks they would sell us for a nickel each. The Sharps were having work done on Bella Vita during their stay, and the repairmen were late leaving their boat that day, so Steve and I ventured up to the Boathouse Grille alone, so he could take advantage of Prime Rib Friday.
The next day, all four of us took the minivan up to the Silver Spoon Cafe (since Steve and I were old hats at that place), where we enjoyed a gigantic, small-town-diner breakfast, complete with all the fixin’s and plenty of grease. 🙂 Since I always want to take full advantage of any friends when they are nearby, I insisted that we all return to the Boathouse Grille that evening for a light dinner (we were all still full from our giant lunch) and cocktails. We had another really fun night together and it was our last night with them, as Bella Vita was heading northward the following morning, 08/01/21. Sad for us, but glad for them. There is a low bridge on the Hudson River, just before Albany, the Sharps were a bit concerned about making it underneath, as the river’s water levels were higher than usual. We all kept our fingers crossed, which must’ve worked, because we were advised that Bella cruised right under that bridge without a hitch.
Once our friends were gone, we spent multiple days on our own, but did not progress any farther up the Loop. Canada’s border closures due to COVID restrictions were still in full force, with little hope of opening anytime soon. In fact, it had become a joke with Loopers, as Canada kept “promising” to finally open up on the 21st of each month, but then would simply extend the closure for yet another month, with the following 21st as a target date. Brandee and TJ had decided to just go for it and deal with things as they found them, but the crew of Legacy began doing some serious soul-searching about continuing onward. Rumors were strong that the borders would – in fact – actually open on 08/09/21, but we knew that waiting that long to enter Canada would seriously reduce the amount of time we would have to spend there, and the upper Canadian portion of the loop is supposed to be the best part! The rule is to be OFF of the Great Lakes by the middle of September, to avoid extremely dangerous weather conditions.
Since we had decided not to progress any farther up the Loop (this year, anyway), we were in a quandary regarding the next step. We’d already made plans and scheduled multiple annual physical checkups with our doctors in Nashville, and planned to leave the boat and drive a rental car southward for those. Originally, we’d thought we would leave the boat farther on up the loop for these appointments, but now that our plans had changed, we decided to leave her right there at Shady Harbor Marina, in New Baltimore, NY, and rent a car out of nearby Hudson, NY. Our trip to Nashville wasn’t until the week of 08/16/21, so we just stayed put there at Shady Harbor until then.
One day, I went rogue and drove the courtesy van all the way to Hudson, NY, for a TJ MAXX fix. It took so long to get there and back, I exceeded the two-hour limit, but called Shady Harbor to get permission before I did so. I found a night-shirt and a small planter I couldn’t live without.
Another day, we both took the courtesy van into town for groceries and then to a popular restaurant (their parking lot was always packed) called Red’s Seafood, located in nearby Coxsackie, NY. They had really good food, so we understood the crowded parking lot!
On, Thursday, 08/12/21, a large and bizarre-looking electrical storm blew up right over us shortly after we’d returned to the boat. The clouds were ominous and intense lightning flashed everywhere. We felt glad we were no longer aboard a sailboat, with a 60-foot mast sticking straight up in the air as a wannabe lightning rod… The next day we took the courtesy van into Hudson, NY, to pick-up our rental car we’d rented for our drive to Nashville, and right when we returned to the marina, another electrical storm hit us that was identical to the day’s before! What the ?
On Saturday morning, 08/14/21, we made sure Legacy was well-secured to the dock, locked her up tightly, and set out in our rental car – heading westward. Since our plans had changed, we would no longer be boating past Niagara Falls (another of my many bucket list stops), so Steve planned our route so we could go there by car. As we drove, we continued to be amazed by the beauty of New York State. Lush, green, rolling hills and farms spread out in every direction, with rivers and creeks abounding. Many of the rivers ran through expansive river valleys. Obviously these rivers have been running here for centuries!
As we traveled, we realized the state of New York has unique “service areas” built along their interstate highways. These island-like areas are a combination of rest stop, fast-food restaurant, gas station, and mini-information center, all rolled into one. They seem to be spaced out about every 25 miles or so. They’re completely different from the multiple interstate exits populated with separate gas stations, shops, and eateries found in other parts of the country – especially in southern states. We stopped at a couple of them, and it was like entering some sort of roadside, rest area “mall” of sorts. Unusual to us, but still filled the bill!
We traveled all that day right along side the Mohawk River, which we would’ve cruised up, if we’d continued with our Loop. The Mohawk is fairly narrow in places, and I could tell it would’ve been a unique experience to cruise it. Oh, well… maybe someday. The further west we got, the more trees we noticed that were just starting to turn color for the fall, which told us that fall really is triggered by the angle of the sun, rather than cooling temperatures, since it was still plenty hot in New York during August.
Later that day, we reached the famous Niagara Falls, NY, and our arrival seemed monumental to me. However, too late, we realized we shouldn’t have visited this area on a SATURDAY, of all days, as it was absolutely packed with tourists. It took us almost an hour to find a parking space, and once we left our car, we realized the lines for every exhibit or venue were all exceedingly LONG and would require us to spend hours just standing in line. I had wanted to ride the Maid of the Mist, which is a tour boat that takes its passengers to the very base of the falls, where the tremendous mist that arises when the falls meet the river below is all-engulfing. But we nixed that idea when we saw the wait we’d have. We were able to walk out to the overlook and see the falls, which are truly magnificent (and LOUD), and take some pictures, but that was about the extent of our visit. We vowed to return there someday, NOT on a weekend, so we could enjoy everything the falls have to offer. The thing that intrigued me the most about Niagara Falls is their location. All these years, I’d envisioned them being located out – away from civilization – in a remote, national park type setting. Instead, they are right smack-dab in the middle of a city, with high-rise buildings looming all around their perimeter. I’d had that completely wrong!
We spent a road-travel night at a Holiday Inn Express in Hamburg, NY, and ate dinner at the Waterstone Grill, next door, which turned out to be really crowded, along with every other place in the area, because Billy Joel was playing in concert in nearby Buffalo, NY, that night. Evidently Billy is quite popular in this area, because the whole town was aflutter. I kind of wished we’d known we were going to be there in conjunction with Billy, as I wouldn’t have minded seeing him in concert one more time, but, oh well…
The following day, we traveled just parallel to Lake Erie on the New York State Thruway (aka I-90), as we entered into Seneca Native American Territory, as multiple signs informed us. The drive along side Erie was scenic, as we occasionally caught glimpses of the expansive body of water through the shrubs and trees lining the northern edge of I-90. Lake Erie is immense and a dark, dark blue color.
We crossed from New York into Pennsylvania, then into Ohio. I marveled at how much more ground we could cover in a much shorter period of time, when riding along at 70+ miles per hour, rather than the turtle-slow 10 miles per hour we average aboard Legacy. The terrain in the central part of Ohio is long, gradually rolling hills dotted with forests of hardwoods. We spent that night in a hotel in Cincinnati, that appeared to be in a questionable part of the city, so we didn’t venture out.
We arrived in Franklin, TN, on Monday early afternoon, 08/16/21, and the first thing I wanted to do was eat at Chuy’s, since it had been more than a year since we last had. We were sorely disappointed in our meals, however, as it is obvious COVID has permanently changed the menu and recipes at Chuy’s. 🙁 My beloved corn chips are no longer as light and tasty, and many of Chuy’s former menu items had been deleted. I almost cried over that… We stayed in the new Marriott Courtyard at the intersection of I-65 and McEwen for the week we were there.
The next week was a blur of multiple annual doctor appointments and tests for both of us. Steve and I alternated using the rental car to fit our different schedules. One evening, I was fortunate enough to attend a meeting of Lizz’s Ladies’ monthly girls’ dinner at the Bonefish in Franklin (my old stomping grounds). It was heart-warming to see and hug so many of my old Franklin buddies that I’d missed seeing for more than a year! Another day I met my dear friend, Judy Snow, for lunch at Granite City, and we spent several hours talking each others’ ears off. That same night, Steve and I met the Wehrles for an ‘old-time’s-sake’ dinner and drinks at Stony River, where we laughed, reminisced, and had a wonderful time. 🙂
All of our medical appointments went well, and we both received good news following each test. I was even told I no longer need to have anymore breast MRIs performed (FINE WITH ME!), as my results showed everything is okay in that area. Excellent news! We made more appointments for the following August of 2022, since we might as well keep our doctors there at Vanderbilt in Nashville, as long as we are living the vagabond lifestyle, and have no home-base.
We left Franklin at the crack of dawn on Saturday, 08/21/21, and drove east this time, on our way back up to Legacy, where we’d left her on the Hudson River in New York. We were almost paralleling Hurricane Henri, which was unfortunately churning out in the Atlantic and had our boat in its cross-hairs! After spending a night in Staunton, VA, we continued our race with the weather to beat Henri back to our boat. Virginia is a breathtakingly beautiful state. We drove through some of the Appalachian Mountains during this trip, and hope to come back to Virginia in an RV to explore it more fully. No sooner had we crossed the state line between Virginia and West Virginia, we crossed into Maryland, and then into Pennsylvania! On Sunday morning, 08/22/21, we caught up with Henri and drove the rest of the way back to New Baltimore, dodging the storm’s raucous outer bands.
When we finally arrived back at Shady Harbor Marina, there was Legacy, still safe and sound where we’d left her, and the weather was anything but hurricane-like. It was cloudy and damp, with a soft, steady rain falling, and only a very slight breeze. We had to unload the car and board the boat in the rain, but it could’ve been far worse. As what was left of Hurricane Henri passed over us, we kept expecting high winds and rough waters, but never got them, though Monday, 08/23/21, was a total washout. We took the marina’s courtesy van back to Hudson, NY, to return our rental car and got soaked in the process, but both survived, and Steve fixed us a big pot of chili onboard for dinner.
Post Henri, the weather cleared and turned hot. We continued our stay at Shady Harbor because now our starboard generator wouldn’t start, so we had to get it repaired. When the technician was finally able to check the generator, he found that its exhaust manifold had a hole in it and would need to be replaced, which meant we’d stay at Shady Harbor for at least another week, waiting for that part to arrive. UGH!
On Monday, 08/29/21, we watched on The Weather Channel as Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans and surrounding areas, and felt glad we were all the way up in New York, rather than down on the gulf coast. Ironically, we DID get hit by the remnants of Hurricane Ida on Thursday, 09/01/21, once it moved across and up the east coast, and it rained on us for that entire day. We got no bad storms or wind, but learned the following day that Ida had wreaked havoc south of us in New York City and in Pennsylvania. We received several inquiries from family and friends in other parts of the country, as the flooding and tornadoes that Ida brought not too far from us were all over the national news.
As the technician was installing our new starboard generator’s exhaust manifold, he found that generator also had a broken water pump, and so had to order yet another part. This 22-year-old boat is really showing her age! Trying to lift our spirits we joined Jay and Ellen Anderson, aboard 9-1/2, for dinner and drinks at Boathouse Grille, which was a fun evening. A bright spot in this long and bizarre stay in New Baltimore, NY. We’d recognized the Andersons by their perpetually-barking dog, Holly, who we remembered seeing on the bow of their boat down in Beaufort, SC, earlier this year! 🙂
All crucial repairs aboard Legacy were finally completed by Friday, 09/10/21, and I told Steve we needed to hurry up and leave before Shady Harbor’s mechanic found something else that needed replacing! 😐
Position: N 42° 27.078, W 73° 47.206
Total marina nights: 341
Total nights at anchor: 23
Locks today: 0
Locks Total: 28