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Posted By:
Hal Brown
Date Posted:
Jul 4, 2008
Description:
At 4:59 PM we landed at Maxson Field (89N) for our 5:00 appointment with U.S. Customs.
At 5:05, three burly guys in dark blue uniforms with black markings drove up. Their black automatic pistols were holstered. They did not smile. They looked at our passports and at my pilot certificate. Then they went away.
We walked to the FBO to arrange for the tie down and the ride into town.
The door was locked. On the door was a phone number. My Verizon cellphone was roaming. I called the number.
'Oh,' said a woman with an English accent. 'The airport is closed. It was sold last week. It may re-open next week.'
'No.' she said in response to my question. 'There's no taxi in Alexandria Bay, but you can walk. It's not far--just go out to the road and turn left.'
I knew from past experience that it was FAR. At least five miles.
There was no telephone and, logically enough, no telephone book.
We called Verizon's 411 (still roaming).
'No,' the operator said. 'There are no taxis in Alexandria Bay. No motels, either.' I knew that wasn't so, but she didn't seem inclined to change her mind.
Eventually, she patched us through to a robot which read off three numbers of places to stay in the area.
We called one and got a recording. We called the second and got a woman named Lou.
'What do you look like?' Lou asked me. She added, 'You never know what kind of weird guys might be calling.'
She said, 'Don't worry, honey. We'll come and get you.' She drove up in a few minutes and we loaded our bags into the back seat of her car. She turned right, away from the bay. After we had gone several miles, Carol asked her if the motel was in town.
'Oh!' she exclaimed. 'I don't know what I was thinking--turned the wrong way.' She did a 180 and drove back past the airport and about three miles later turned left onto a road that I knew didn't go to town. She pulled into a parking lot leading to a nightclub on the water, but well away from town. She introduced us to Madeline, who took us to a row of those old style mom and pop mo-tel rooms. Madeline handed me the key to one of the rooms, said we'd settle up in the morning, and then she and Lou both drove away.
No water came out of the taps in the bathroom.
I was tired and willing to flop there for the night. Carol, however, had better sense and prevailed.
We walked across the parking lot to the nightclub--which actually seemed quite nice, although most of the patrons seemed to have gotten a good head start on us as far as getting plastered was concerned.
A waitress led us to Tim, the manager. He said he was just leaving. He said they had been having water trouble at the nightclub, too.
While I was chatting with him, Carol phoned the third of the Verizon robot's numbers. Yes, they had a room for us.
Tim drove us to the third-number place and on the way gave us a tour of where he had grown up, the school he had attended, and other places memorable to him.
The third-number place was not in town either, but it was a whole lot closer. It looked quite nice as we drove in and the lobby had a certain dusty elegance. Room 301 (on the ground floor) had existed for many years, but it was clean and there was running water in the bathroom.
The desk clerk, a quick young woman, whose ancestors apparently came from India, was very efficient and pleasant.
'No,' she said quickly and pleasantly, 'the restaurant is closed for renovations, but you can walk to town. It's only five or six minutes.'
It took us half an hour.
Alexandria Bay is quite attractive in the tourist section, and a bit run down elsewhere. Business was terrible this summer, everyone said. Everyone also said that the place we were staying was supposed to have been closed permanently last year and seemed very surprised that we had a room there.
We had dinner in the second floor lounge at Captain Thompson's restaurant. The restaurant is on a floating dock that needed just a teensy bit more floatation on the south side, making climbing the stairs, um, interesting. The food was good, however, and the view of The Thousand Islands, lovely. Boldt Castle was directly across the channel, and the setting sun illuminated it and the other islands and the sky with a lovely warm glow.
Date Taken:
Jul 4, 2008
Place Taken:
Alexandria Bay, NY
Owner:
Don Maxwell
File Name:
BoldtCastle_Carol_IMG_1525.jpg - Photo HTML
Full size - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZTOT0000h">
Medium - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZTOT0000m">
Thumbnail - <img src="/show.php?splash=SZTOT0000s">
Category:
23, Max Pix
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Click on photo to view the original size. |
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Read what others had to say:
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Dan Nickens - Jul 05,2008
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An excellent adventure, beautiful ending, and lovely lady. As my friend K.D. would say, 'You are a lucky man, Don Maxwell.'
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Dan Nickens - Jul 05,2008
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Let me guess....you are now using Carol's camera? If so, don't give it back!
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Don Maxwell - Jul 05,2008
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It was the squashed cam, Dan. The various programmed modes still work, so I had Auto at the widest angle and automatic focus, shutter, and aperature; and one Custom setting that specified a slightly zoomed-in condition and focus on infinity. Nothing else works. I'm ordering a new one today.
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Frank A. Carr - Jul 05,2008
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Don, Having visited Alexandria Bay in the early 50's with good recollections, I always wanted to go back. Thanks for the account, it's now off my Bucket List. Glad you made it out!
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Don Maxwell - Jul 06,2008
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You can put it back on the list, Frank. The town is fine--just get a list of accommodations first--and the airport should be open again soon. And coming from the USofA you won't need to meet the burly guys with black guns.
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Kevin D'Angelo - Jul 06,2008
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Sorry you had a rough go at the islands. I wish I had known that you were going there as i have some friends on Round island which is not too far from the airport.( I had heard that it closed) you could have landed the rey on the water and bypassed all the walking. I was trying to get up to the Gaggle on Friday but airport food coming back from Tahoe Thursday night gave me rough time on my stomach and so I gave up my plans. Luckily I was able to hook up with Joh Spratt while in Tahoe and had a fantastic tour of the lake in a mighty fine rey.
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Don Maxwell - Jul 06,2008
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Kevin, in retrospect, that part was actually kind of fun. Would have been downright delightful if we'd been rested and if I hadn't been anxious about crossing the border with the radio receiver inop. (It went easily, in both directions.)
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