Saturday - June 15

Beautiful bright sunny morning and what a difference a day makes.   We set aside the fleece jackets, sweatshirts, rain coats and gloves and enjoyed the ride to Ilion (pronounced  "ill e on").    Because of all the rain, there was a lot of debris to dodge including may large logs.   We went thru 1 lock which had logs to dodge, too.    Ilion is a village in the Mohawk Valley with a population of around 8,050.

We were settled along the wall (fuel, pump out, laundry and park-like area here, plus a walk-up restaurant - Voss' with many choices of sandwiches, ice cream, etc.)   And it is also an RV park with mostly seasonal folks with a few passing thru.   It is a happening place here along the canal with  people fishing, kiddies playing and many enjoying the park and enjoying lunch at the picnic tables.

After lunch (Mark had a tuna melt and fries from Voss' and I finished off my leftovers from yesterday (grilled cheese with spinach and artichokes), we took the bikes downtown to check it out - Mark went into the True Value hardware and we rode around the town and back to Catrina.    Took short naps, read, etc. 

Rain is coming, so we walked rather than biked to 4:00 Mass at Annunciation only to get there and everything dark and empty.    A couple and their son came wondering what was going on as this is when they usually go to Mass (4 on Saturdays......or 11 on Sundays).    We knelt down, said some prayers and another man came in and wondered why there was no Mass?    The sign out front says "4:00 Saturday" as does the website and sign in back of church???    So.....this nice man offered to pick us up for 5:30 mass at Blessed Sacrament in Mohawk, a few miles away.    We had some sprinkles as we were leaving church,

Mark and I stopped at Main Moon for some Chinese-to-go and walked back to Catrina.     At 5:15, Dale came to marina and away we went to Blessed Sacrament - a newer, very modern church - looked more like an auditorium?     A little boy, Griffin made his First Communion.   

Dale offered to drive around and show us a few sites here in Ilion.    This Mohawk Valley region is very depressed and we sure saw evidence of that when we were in Ilion and outside the city limits.

 Dale and his wife live in Charlottesville, VA, have 4 children and 4 grandchildren.    He loves to golf and comes up to Ilion (his hometown) to visit his daughter, help with 2 of the grandchildren and play golf.    He is a young 84 years old and such a nice man.    We drove all around and then back to Catrina.     Our Chinese was waiting and enjoyed dinner (not as good as Mandarin Garden, though)!

The rain started shortly after we got home.....

Davis wake surfing at Lake James today - wow!    That takes some talent!

Liam, his family and teammates are in Bettendorf, Iowa this weekend for a 20-team tournament.    They won last night and were to play at 8:15 tonight but with rain delay, now pushed back to 9:10 start.