I still am having some issues with groin/hip pain so I decided not to join Randy at the 58th Annual Antique Boat Show & Auction at the Antique Boat Museum in Clayton, New York. We have been to this show several times now, but Randy is always up for looking at boats, so he braved the hot weather and went by himself. I did not think I was up to walking around and did not want to pay the entry fee just to sit in the shade while Randy looked around. He did not do any of the inside exhibits, but mainly looked at the boats in the water and watched a few boats being auctioned.
His favorites were a HydraStream and a 1955 Chris Craft that had been donated to the museum by Alan Jackson. The Hydra Stream looks very similar to the one that was owned by a friend. We spent quite a bit of time when we were younger enjoying the Magothy River and the area we now call the “Horse Farm” aboard Dickie’s boat. This was before the 6-knot zone was implemented so we could fly over the water in this small but powerful boat.
Randy especially liked the 1955 29′ Chris-Craft Semi Enclosed boat that Alan Jackson donated to the museum back in 2013. Jackson purchased the dilapidated boat in 2002 and then spent three years having it restored in Tennessee by Travis Hickman. “Flat Top”, whose name refers to the flat top, steel-string acoustic guitars commonly used by Jackson, is one of just 36 of these boats ever built by Sarasota, Florida-based Chris-Craft.
In addition to the Antique Boat Museum, we went to Aleandria Bay for their Pirate Days. We were very disappointed. Its nothing like the Pirate and Wenches Festival in Rock Hall, Maryland, we did several years when on Liberty. They did not even have any T-shirts for the festival. They advertised street performers, etc., but the only thing we saw were booths for
Hydra Stream similar to the one owned by Dickie that we spent lots of time on when we were younger. Mostly used on the Magothy River and area we now call the “Horse Farm.” Back view of Hydra Stream Flat Top, 1955 29′ Chris-Craft Semi Enclosed boat that Alan Jackson donated to the museum back in 2013/14.Side View of “Flat Top” Miss Comet Miss Comet’s engines; Hemis with 4 deuces Cool bow lights on this wooden boat. Randy dressed for the Pirate Festival Alexandria Bay docks Skippy is getting better on the boat. Alex Bay
Plans for our summer, including the trip to the Canadian Maritimes with the Fantasy RV Tour, changed drastically this year due to my health issues. I was really looking forward to this trip since a lot of the people from our Alaska caravan were also going, but when my doctor could not guarantee me that I would be sufficiently recovered to travel after my surgery, we decided to cancel our summer plans. One of the disadvantages of taking a Fantasy tour is the requirement to pre-pay for the tour with a large penalty for a late cancellation. Because we would have lost a lot of money for a last-minute cancellation, we thought it was best to cancel the trip before the 90-day cancellation cutoff which meant we would not join the caravan this summer. Hopefully we will be able to reschedule for another time!
Cancelling the trip really was a blessing in disguise because our renters also gave notice that they were moving out this Spring so being home for several months gave Randy time to make some needed repairs to our home. We did not want to leave our home empty while we travel so we were lucky that Kat agreed to move into the house once our renters moved out. Kat now works from home the majority of the time, so the long commute to her job was no longer an issue like it was pre-COVID. Before getting our home repairs done, Randy helped Kat get her home ready for sale. Our first priority to our house was getting the back yard fenced for both her dogs and our new puppy, Skipper. The new fencing actually makes the back yard appear bigger, even though the entire yard was not fenced. And Skipper loves having the room to run and play with Kat’s dogs! Randy also power washed the entire outside, replaced outdoor lighting, trimmed and cut down trees and spruced up the outside. Once that was finished he started on the interior of the house. He painted two bedrooms and the hallway. He still has to completely renovate the master bathroom and finish painting the rest of the house, but he won’t start on that until we return from a trip to Swan Bay Resort in Alexandria Bay, New York.
We already had a couple of weeks reserved in Swan Bay for the end of August, when we anticipated stopping after our Canadian Maritime trip. We wanted to have some fun time this summer and the Thousand Island area is one of Randy’s favorite, so we extended the reservations at Swan Bay for the entire month of August. We could not get a waterfront site, but at least we were able to secure a water-view site. At least it is water view from inside the RV. I don’t particularly like being in the middle of the park with kids and dogs everywhere, but it is better than sitting at home and gives Randy a much needed break! Other than going to dinner with Bill and Gail since arriving, we have not done a lot since it has been windy and its a rainy day here today, but hopefully we will get better weather to explore the area again!
We made it back home for the summer of 2022We decided to have the back yard fenced so Kat’s dog and Skippy would have room to run. It only took them 2 days to get the new wooden fence installed! Skippy at 9 months old! Randy spent time while we were home this summer power washing the entire exterior of the house. Randy painted the master bedroom as well as Kat’s bedroom and the hallway. Randy painting the master bedroom ceiling. Randy painted all of the trim too! While home we had dinner with Bill and Cheryl at the Maryland Mallet to celebrate Cheryl and Randy’s birthday. It was great as Ryan was home for the weekend so him and Kat could join us. Skippy loves playing tug with Keira. While home we visited Ryan and had dinner at Smithfield Station. A great softcrab dinner at the Station. We had an awesome dinner with Bill and Gail at Rainbow Shores on the first night in New York. We mooch-docked at Bill’s shop so we could arrive at Swan Bay early in the day. I made a Chesapeake Bay dinner and invited Bill and Gail . I think they liked the crab cakes! I made a soft crab and crab cake for dinner! Our view from the campground in Swan Bay Resort for the next 2 weeks. Randy will like the view from the waterfront site we will move to the middle of August. Randy finally relaxing while enjoying the view of the St. Lawrence.
Even though the summer season is winding down, Swan Bay Park is very busy. We noticed quite a few large Class A Motor Homes pulling in. After googling events in the area, I discovered there was an All-Inclusive Motorhome (AIM) Rally here next week. I had never heard of this club and even though I read that it is open to Class A, B or C type motorhomes, the majority appear to be high-dollar Entegra Class A’s. There are several million dollars worth of RV’s in the park!
As busy as the park has gotten, I guess it is good that we have started packing up to get the Dirt Yacht ready to head home for a few weeks. The weather forcast is for some rain next week so Randy decided to pull the boat yesterday and he loaded the golf cart today while the weather is still dry. Randy was busy today rolling up the carpet, puttiing away all but 2 of the chairs, removing the wheel covers and polishing the wheels. Tomorrow he wants to take down the weather station and the DISH. He will probably keep the DISH hooked up, but just place it on the rocks in the back where we can still get reception.
We got to visit Boldt Castle on Heart Island and Singer Castle on Dark Island in the last few days while Ryan, Bill and Cheryl were visiting. Randy did a trip to Boldt two times since Ryan’s visit did not coincide with Bill and Cheryl. Randy toured Boldt Castle with just Ryan and then again a few days later with Bill and Cheryl when I joined them too. I did not want to do too much on the boat so Randy and Ryan explored the Canadian side of the River by themselves too. When Randy and Ryan toured Boldt Castle they also toured the Yacht House which we did not do on our trip to Heart Island. I liked being able to explore Boldt Castle at our leisure more than the tour of Singer Castle because the Singer Castle tour was a guided tour with a limited time frame of 45 minutes. I wish we could have explored the dungeon, tunnels and secret passageways in Singer Castle, but all we were allowed was a quick peek. I think they were trying to entice anyone to come back for an overnight stay so you could explore the entire castle. The day we toured Singer was probably one of the warmest days all summer so it was a little hot inside the castle too. It was fun taking Sweet Thing to both of the castles, instead of having to take one of the tour boats, even if the ride back from Singer was a little bumpy!
We started out the Antique Boat Show weekend wanting to watch the boats cruise on Thursday afternoon for the 2021 Boats on Parade. According to their website, the boats were supposed to leave Clayton about 3:00 and cruise around Grindstone Island. We planned to watch the beautiful wooden boats when they went through the Wellsley Island Narrows about 4:15. We arrived in plenty of time, but only saw one wooden boat: No parade of boats! I am not sure if they just did not go or if they went later in the day. After reviewing ABM’s website, I found multiple times for the Thursday cruise on different pages: the 3:00 start time, a 5:30 start time and a 6:30 start time. Needless to say, I was very disappointed that I did not get to see the parade of boats. I wanted to grab a few pictures as the boats navigated the Narrows. Before heading in, we headed to Clayton to look at the boats tied up at the docks.
We started celebrating Randy’s birthday early with dinner on Saturday night with Bill and Gail and ended it up with a boat ride to Dark Island on Monday. It was a little windy so the ride back was a little bumpy and a storm was building so we didn’t stop for a late lunch, but it was still a good day. Hopefully Randy enjoyed his birthday!
We enjoyed our day with Bill and Gail visiting the Antique Boat Museum in nearby Clayton. It was another cool, damp day with light showers, but it was still a lot of fun. Even thought we had been to the museum two years ago, it was still interesting to see the antique boats again. They have such a large inventory of boats, the exhibits are not all the same as our previous visit. I know Randy especially liked talking motors/engines with Bill.
We took advantage of the nice day to visit the U.S. Eisenhower Lock in Massena, New York. This lock was constructed on the portion of the St. Lawrence River known as the “Long Sault” by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Originally named the “Robinson Bay Lock” the lock was renamed for President Dwight Eisenhower after his term was over. It is one of the seven canal locks on the St. Lawrence Seaway. The $30 toll charge per lock from pleasure craft vehicles traveling downbound is collected from the officer in charge at the Eisenhower Lock. The tolls for upbound traffic are collected from the officer in charge at the Snell Lock.
So far most of our days here in Alexandria Bay are cool with showers. Had a line of strong thunderstorms roll through Thursday night with cool weather and a few light showers on Friday. At least the thunderstorms waited until after we helped Peter and Paulla move cars so they will have their car here once they arrive by boat. We are still eating pie that they brought as part of Peter’s family tradition of bringing pies on their first trip to the Thousand Island area for the summer. I really don’t think we will have any left by the time they get back next week.
In anticipation of the 4th of July holiday, the park started filling up on Thursday afternoon and by Friday night there were only a few spots left. We watched a solid line of RV’s line up at the office starting about 1:00 on Friday and the line did not end for at least 3 hours. We even got to meet our neighbors for the first time. We did not have any special plans for the weekend, other than friends visiting on Monday, so we had a relaxing few days. Most of our projects had been completed so we did not have any work to do which allowed us to spend some time by the water to watch the boats drive by.
