June 10, 2008: Renssalaer, NY

On to Albany, NY (actually Renssalaer)

We are anticipating an afternoon thunderstorm, and hoping to make it to Albany before it breaks, we left Hyde Park early. Today was a quiet scenic ride up the Hudson where the banks of the river were sprinkled with small villages, wooded land, marsh grass, doll house light houses, and an occasional water fowl sighting (one egret, one blue heron, some ducks and a family of Canadian geese). There are long stretches of undeveloped forests on the waters edge. The water way which is narrowing but still fairly wide is as smooth as glass. We have only seen a couple of small boats, and our wake creates a symmetric pattern from shore to shore.

As we approached Albany we begin to see more evidence of mankind. We passed a marina where they were lowering a sailboat mast with a crane. It is called “stepping the mast”, and allows the sailboat to pass under bridges with less clearance. For sailboats proceeding north of Troy they must be aware that there are fixed bridges with only 15 to 20 feet of clearance. Actually, it is also a concern for us with the canopy over the bridge at 17 ½ feet.

We saw several scrap metal yards at water’s edge where it could be loaded onto barges for transport and also a large Hess fuel tank landing station. We are now docked at the Albany Yacht club and though the wind did pick up, there was no thunderstorm. The Yacht club is not actually in Albany. We are actually in Rensselaer, which is the home of the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute founded in 1824 and may be oldest technical college in the US. I have known some smart IBM’ers who went to school here.

We took a short walk to a Crailo State Historical Site near by, the home of Hendrick Van Rensselaer family. The home would have been the center of the manor of 1500 acres in the mid 1700’s. Tradition says that this is where a British soldier composed the verses of “Yankee Doodle Dandy” sitting on the well in the yard in June of 1758. The song was making fun of the New England soldiers who were in New York and mistrusted by the local Dutch community.

On Sunday at the church in Tarrytown, the message reminded us to pray for others, so I wanted to let you know that we are praying for all our family and friends at home. God bless you with safety, confidence, kind spirit and hope.