June 19                 Little Falls, New York

The weather gods were with us!  We awakened to a beautiful, sunny day with little wind.  Together with some of our fellow boaters, we left Amsterdam and headed toward Lock #11.  We were hoping to make Ilion our final destination for the day.  As the locks closed at 6:00 PM, we were on a tight schedule for we had planned a detour at Canajoharie to see the Arkell Museum. Docking was easy at Canajoharie.  We pulled in to an empty space at a small riverside park.  Dave jumped to the dock and within minutes we were leaving the boat to walk two blocks into town.  On our way, we saw a marker honoring John Winn.  As Winn is a family name for Amanda and the first name of our great-grandson, we considered it worthy of a picture.

 Like many of the small New England towns, once large, thriving, and prosperous businesses have departed.  In Canajoharie, Beech-Nut Industries, most famous for its chewing gum, once occupied an impressive industrial plant near the center of town.  It now sits vacant and in need of maintenance.  The company’s manufacturing interests are elsewhere.  The town presents a brave, confident face with baskets of lovely flowers hanging from posts and pristine sidewalks.

As we walked to town, we were startled to see coming down the street an Amish couple sitting in a small black buggy pulled by a horse.  Dressed in traditional black clothing in a style from the nineteenth century, the man wore a long beard and the woman a simple bonnet.  We learned later that the area has a significant Amish population.  They own large farms in the area and are reportedly quite prosperous.  They have no electricity in their homes and no tractors or mechanized equipment on their farms.  When Hurricane Irene brought devastation and massive flooding to Canajoharie, the Amish worked long hours to help the community.  They wanted no pay but used their skills in building and carpentry to restore homes and businesses.

Lunch was at a local café that seemed more like West Texas than New England.  The setting was tacky, the waitresses chatty, and the food presentation decidedly plain.  Dave ordered the special of the day, chicken and biscuits, and received a huge plate covered in white gravy.  To our amazement, he declared it to be good.  My veal parmesan was equally unattractive but was tender and flavorful.  David rhapsodized over his liver with onions and bacon.  He said it was much better than the same dish in New York last week that cost more than three times as much!

The Arkell Museum was a gift from the foundation of the Arkell family, the originators of Beech-Nut and pillars of Canajoharie for several generations.  Housed in a lovely, modern building adjacent to the library, the museum’s permanent collection is small but noteworthy.

 On exhibit were prints of black, white, and gray illustrations of Winslow Homer from 1859-1906 publications such as Harper’s Weekly and The Century Magazine.  Titled “A View from the Shore, Winslow Homer’s Impressions of the Coast,” the prints had an overall theme of life near the sea.  Like N. C. Wyeth, Homer gained early attention as an illustrator for periodicals before acquiring fame as a painter.

We were also pleased to view a small collection of landscapes by another American artist, George Innis.  His works have a sentimental appeal with rainbows and flowery settings but the detail and beauty of execution make them worthwhile.

On view also was a pictorial history of the Arkell family and Beech-Nut.  Besides being innovative in marketing and production, Beech-Nut offered amenities such as a display of art and piano music in the company lunchroom.  We enjoyed our stop at Canajoharie and our visit to the Arkell Museum, another of America’s lovely small art museums.

Back on the boat, we met again some of our friends from our previous dockage at Waterford and Amsterdam.  As we exited Lock #14, we saw pulled to the side the beautiful 52’ trawler with a blue hull we had admired in Waterford.  We learned later the throttle reportedly jammed and the captain was unable to stop the boat’s forward motion.  Racing past other boats in the lock, it slammed into the rear doors and sustained significant damage to the hull.

We barely made it to Lock #17 before it closed for the day.  We were awed when its massive doors opened and we saw the cavernous interior.  This lock has a lift higher than any other in the world—more than 40 feet.  The tremendous amount of water pouring into the closed space created a turbulence which required careful attention to lines and fenders as the boat could be tossed onto the walls of the lock.  Dave made sure that did not happen to The Bottom Line.  He and I watched with horror as two children, approximately 10 and 12  years old, were allowed to scramble about on the bow of a small 21’ boat bouncing to and fro.  If either had fallen into the murky water of the lock, it would have been difficult to rescue them.  They could have been swept beneath the boat or crushed between the boat and the wall of the lock.  Their life jackets would have been useless in the turbulence.  Fortunately, they survived the negligence of the adults onboard.

It was now too late to make it to Ilion, located past Lock #18.  We docked at the lovely municipal marina in Little Falls.  It was another opportunity to visit again with our boating friends.  Once more our dockage fee was $58.00!  Dinner was on the boat.