The Grande Caribe
Remington Art Museum. Remington is
famed for his bronze sculptures of the Old
West.
The western end of the St. Lawrence is
home to the 1000 Islands and Millionaire’s
Row. Midday, we docked on Dark Island
for a taste of how the “Robber Barons”
lived, with a tour of five-story Singer Castle, which has 28 rooms and secret passageways.
Our last stop on the St. Lawrence was at
Clayton’s Antique Boat Museum, a boat-enthusiast’s dream come true with every kind
of boat from Native American dugouts to
private luxury yachts to Gold Cup Boats. I
was surprised to find that Dr. Seuss did the
artwork for Esso and that Guy Lombardo’s
love of racing earned him the title of “The
World’s Fastest Bandleader.”
We crossed Lake Ontario during the
night and docked in Oswego, where the
pilot house was lowered so that the Grande
Caribe could fit under the “low bridges” of
NYS’s canal system. What started in 1817
as the Erie Canal grew into the 525-mile
NYS system now on the National Register
of Historic Places. It was life in the slow
lane. As we motored along at five miles per
hour enjoying the beautiful fall foliage, I
would occasionally see people in cars and
trains whizzing by, never knowing the
beauty and serenity they were missing.
We made several short stops along the
canal with the option of taking a side trip
to Cooperstown’s Baseball Hall of Fame
and The Farmer’s Museum or the Fenimore
Art Museum. I was familiar with them, so
I elected to stay on board and savor the
scenery.
Our last stop on the Canal System was
Troy, New York, the home of Uncle Sam.
Samuel Wilson was a meat packer and
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