We’re in Troy, New York, a stop we didn’t make on the way south. As we were passing through town, we noticed tents were being set up along the waterfront. We pulled along side the sea wall, and Phill hollered to a young guy who was busy with one the of tents, to see what was going on.

The guy said “It’s the Troy Pig-Out. It starts tomorrow and goes ’til Sunday!” We’ve only happened upon a couple of American festivals in our travels, so needless to stay we’re stopping at the Pig Out.

We just left Castleton on Hudson this afternoon where we stopped to un-step our mast.

We were last there September 9th, 2012, to put it up, so it kind of closes the loop to have put it back down for the canal trip home.

We spent a little more time in Castleton this time, and ventured into town to mingle with the locals a bit. We went to the Village Inn – a nice pub/restaurant run by a really nice guy named Jan. There we met Mark, an electrician who’s actually a closet mycologist/naturalist/budding author.

The next day we visited Mahar’s, whose proprietor, Jim, is a beer aficionado. His world-class Public Bar, Mahar’s (in Albany) recently closed ’cause he lost his lease. That night we met Podrick, a well-spoken fellow fighting the call of local politics, and T.C., a 33-year school-bus driving veteran who’s traveled across the continent (twice) on his motorcycle since he retired last year.

We were even invited to the town’s 1960-1968 High School Reunion, but we had to keep on keeping’ on.

Incidentally, we’ll be taking the Champlain Canal to Lac Champlain to the Ottawa River to get home. We were interested in seeing something new and a good chunk of the Erie/NY State Barge Canal (the way we came south) is closed due to flood damage.

You’re probably sick of us by now, but we still have a few stories to tell you about – just have to get around to posting them.