So rumor and advise says to not travel the river and canal waterways over the 4th holiday, so there are a lot of Loopers hunkered down in various marinas below the start of the Erie Canal. We; however, decided to rethink that plan. We did spend two nights in a little nook anchored out awaiting the end of the holiday weekend, but after some Looper stalking on our tracker app. we saw that no one was moving north through the locks so why the heck were we waiting? This morning we left our hidey hole and moved north. There is literally no traffic on the river. We only saw two southbound boats and one other boat, a tug, going north with us.

From Poughkeepsie northward to just below Troy, we have been seeing random smoke stacks along the Hudson River. Come to find out that they are the remnants of multiple ice harvesting facilities that were in operation along the Hudson River from 1840 to 1920. The advent of refrigeration and weather issues eventually shut that industry down. Today, the Hudson River rarely freezes long enough to produce ice of any usable thickness. The smokestacks from the steam engine houses remain a testament to a past viable and very important piece of history.

We are currently in Troy NY for the night before starting the trip through the Erie Canal tomorrow.

There is a steamboat exhibition further up the canal and a couple of the boats traveled south and passed us while we were sitting upstairs enjoying the evening. How fun it that!

Tomorrow we will be entering the first of 20 something locks to get us to Syracuse, about a 6-8 day journey. There we will be docked in a marina for 9 days, while Michael travels back to CA for a family funeral and there is where friends from NC will join us for the trip from Syracuse to Buffalo through another 20 something locks and multiple lift bridges on the Western Erie Canal, about a 7 day journey.

Will keep you updated as we progress. Love to all, Gina and Mike