17 Annual Tugboat Roundup
Held at the "Confluence" of the Hudson River, Mohawk River
&
Erie Canal.
A marvel of construction even in Modern times, connecting many ports along the way, but mainly  Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, and the Champlain Canal
to mention a few.
It has an elevation change of @ 570' and was built for a measly 7 million dollars back in the day and the loan was repaid in 10 years through revenues from cargo traffic.

The New York Thruway and Pipelines killed the commercial traffic on it quite a while back, but still it garners a lot of recreational traffic.
Amazing stuff.

If you felt something pulling at you while you were attending this event it was the "Tug" of the Cabot Cheese tent where you could find yourself "Plowed"
over by the great tasting Legacy Line of Cheddar.
All courtesy of the Cabot Farmers, and there are some in the General area.

Kenyon Hill Farm
Cambridge, New York
&
Peckhaven Farm
Saratoga Springs New York

"High Lites of the event Below"
~0~

Arrived early afternoon Friday and found my spot and started unloading my rig.

Got my basic stuff set up then I had to get my Van out of the way to make room for others to get in.

As I was getting set up some of the boats were coming and tying up to and getting ready.

View from the area where I parked my Van up in the woods above the Mohawk River

Basic Set up ready to go except for chopping Cheese and loading bowls.

Now more People and other vendors showing up, you name it,
 they came from all over for the celebration, by boat and car,

This was a home party wine company they come to your house like a "Tupper Ware" party etc, except they do wine.

So even though it was early I put some cheese in the bowls and I was off and running.

So now a few customers were showing up even though it was prior to the official opening.

I was kind of concerned early on that it was going to be really slow because a 1/2 hr before the celebration started it was looking pretty stark.
Then things livened up and it was a decent evening, but not a block buster Friday evening, But it was way better on Saturday.
There were weather concerns which kept a few people away too.

Everyone closed up about 7:00 PM
So I did too and headed out to my sons house to rest up for the next day,
and spend some time with the gang down there.

Up and at em early Saturday and was there at at @ 8:30 to get things shipshape.
The morning started out cloudy like it might rain but everything held off so we got going pretty early.



I suppose because it was cloudy, muggy, warm I got blasted with Yellow Jackets and flies all day & I thought I was going to go nutz with them, so I had to improvise some covers for my bowls to keep the things off the cheese.

Those bee's were so determined I could actually grab them between my fingers and smash em.

I realized pretty quick that the Alpine Cheddar was the favorite among the bugs.

Then the wind kicked up and was started blowing my covers off my cheese bowls so I was not having a good day until about dusk when the wind died down

a little bit.

I made up my mind I was hit'n Wally World 1st thing in the morning and figure something out for my bowls.

The band was playing steady all day and they were a talented and fun group,I don't know what their name was but they were set up and playing on a large boat right in front of the Marina Office.

As soon as it got dark everyone was starting to get ready for the fireworks most vendors other than concessions were closing up shop, there were no light's where I was so I stopped choping cheese and just passed out 3/4 oz bars from the "Kuzy" bag through the crowd, I was pretty popular.:-)

They were forecasting some showers over night and there was no security scheduled so I had to drop the tent and protect my goodies as best I could before abandoning my post, well everything but my chair for the fireworks show and my Cabot "Kuzy" Bag

It got very crowded right along the edge of the water right in front of my table and although there was not supposed to be any alcohol, like duhhh? so I was a bit worried that somebody might take a dip but it never happened.

Then it was time for the fireworks, I have seen a lot of fireworks in my day but this was the MacDaddy of them all it was a good 40 minutes of solid fireworks.
 I just videoed a little of it and this is nothing compared to the "grand finale".

After that I headed up to my Van and the traffic was terrible and it was almost 10:00 PM o I just camped out in the woods along the upper bank of the Mohawk River in the Van, pretty comfortable actually.

There were rain showers and a very stiff breeze off and on all night I was very glad I had brought the Cabot tent weights because a couple of the vendors tents got ripped off during the night.

Sunday Morning I headed out to Wally World looking for some clear glass lids to fit over the bowls and ended up with clear plastics ones which would have to do.
I wasn't sure at this point I was going to need anything because the skies were very dark and it was raining hard and the wind was blowing pretty strong as well.

Got back down to the Dock and the tent had made it through the night relatively undamaged but it still was not looking real promising.

However about 10:00 AM it cleared up and turned out to be a great day, although a few of the vendors had given up and bailed out.

But I had my new covers now and that made it a whole lot more bearable for me. 

So I stayed until the closing ceremony at 4:00 then folded my tent and headed north rolled back into East Craftsbury about 8:30
with what I considered another pretty good event.
I loved all the cute little tugs that showed up for the event.

This lady definitely got the "Big Dog" award

All N All pretty good event and I was happy to be a part of it.
Till next Time
Keep Calm and Cheese On..:-)Jim
Ov'rn Out