Short run to Schuylerville -- and a day at the track

 Wednesday, August 30 -- Fort Edward to Schuylerville -- 14 miles and 2 locks

Just a very short run today to check out another town and stay at a nice marina where we could get some laundry done and have Wi-Fi. Like Fort Edward, Schuylerville is an old village that has seen its better days, but is still hanging in there. 

We walked into town for lunch and ended up eating at the same place we had lunch last year when we drove through Schuylerville after visiting the Saratoga battlefield, which is eight miles south of town. 

The British army retreated to Schuylerville (then known as Saratoga) after losing the second battle at Saratoga and set up an encampment which the Americans surrounded. With winter approaching and no hope of escape (the British were greatly outnumbered), General Burgoyne surrendered ten days later, on October 17, 1777. This major victory helped convince the French to support us in the war. A fancy monument was erected on the hill near the British encampment to commemorate the centennial of the surrender. 

The monument wasn't open, so John couldn't climb inside for the reported spectacular view. But the view out over the Hudson valley was nice enough from the monument's base. 

Another historic site in Schuylerville is the home of General Philip Schuyler, who served under Washington, owned lots of land in the area, and was part of a prominent family of early Dutch settlers. The British burned down his house during their retreat and Schuyler had it rebuilt within weeks, only a bit smaller than the first one. 

The original Champlain Canal, which was completed in 1823, was much smaller, just 40' wide and 4' deep, and was dug parallel to the Hudson River. The village of Schuylerville grew up next to the canal turning basin, which was for barges to pull out of the way of traffic so they could load and unload cargo. The canal headed north in the far right corner of the turning basin, and is now crossed by state route 29. The second photo shows the old canal ditch running north from route 29.

We had a very nice dinner at the Basin Diner right next to the marina, but watched the place close down because our 7:30 reservation (which we really didn't need) was late for them.

Thursday, August 31 -- layover in Schuylerville -- day at Saratoga Springs

We had a lazy morning while waiting for our driver to show up at 11 to take us over to Saratoga Springs -- about a 20 minute ride. He is also a boater and was very chatty. 

Our destination was the Saratoga Race Track, where we spent the day watching the horses and watching the people. We did not do a very good job wagering, but that wasn't really the point.

We left after the eighth race and walked into town for dinner at a fabulous Italian restaurant called Chianti II. Then we called our driver and he drove us back to the Schuyler Yacht Basin, after first driving us around to see some of the great Victorian mansions just north of town.