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Albany, New York Area September 14-24, 2019
The High School had been expanded since I had graduated and I thought about a GPS tracker while I was touring through it. I couldn't even find the Boys Room I had been suspended for smoking in. (That was probably age rather than a changed school configuration)
Side Cafeteria entrance to the high school which was there when I was. Don't remember eating very many cafeteria meals but some of the local wives from my street worked there	The relatively new Eagle Elementary School my youngest sister had worked at across from the High School
I used the 50th High School Reunion for a reason to go back to my roots for one last time. At 16 I started working in Albany at St Peter's hospital. My friends became my co workers from Albany and I never paid much attention to high school. I joined no functions, went to no proms and rarely associated with people from school. I would put my school books on the base of the stairs leading up to my bedroom and pick them up again on the way to school  in the morning. I was pretty much a B student without trying. I went back to say goodbye to closer friends and relatives. It was interesting seeing some of the people I remembered from 50 years ago and what had become of them. We had lost about 10% of our graduating class of around 330. I was surprised that when touring the old school the principle said they graduated 400 give or take. Would have thought it would be closer to 600 by now, especially with how much they had expanded the facilities. (My National League West Coast Team is the SF Giants whose colors are Black and Orange same as BC)
SACANDAGA
My Grandfather Ludwig bought the property on Sacandaga in 1955 including a framed out cabin which he finished off. Upon his death the cabin passed to his youngest daughter Mary Lou and then on to her son Martin Johns III. The 2/3 of the property and the trailer above the camp to the road is now owned by my sister MaryAnn. Having acquired the 1/3 that was owned by our deceased Aunt Inge.
View across the lake from the camp	Martin Johns Jr. at 90
It used to be the Sacandaga Reservoir when they dammed the Sacandaga River in 1930 for flood control of the Hudson River. Now more fashionably "The Great Sacandaga Lake", (Delmar and Elsmere where I grew up are no longer villages they are hamlets, again more quaint and sellable) At 29 miles long and 5 miles wide it is one of the largest lakes in the Adirondacks. (Under a mile wide wide at the camp)
The Delaware and Hudson
Old D&H Trestle  (The middle picture is September 2019, side shots are May 2011 and September 2012)
I used to love hiking the old Delaware and Hudson rails, I still remember running off the trestle over the Norman's Kill when a train came. Putting pennies on the tracks and letting the train flatten them was another good memory. Even after the rails were removed you could still  hike the roadbed with no one else around. The trestle had become too dangerous to easily cross safely. Now it is a paved bike/walk trail all the way down to the port of Albany. Way too popular for my liking but good for the area residents. I never realized it was all down hill from my sisters houses to the trestle until a took a bicycle down the paved trail.
Catskills Kaaterskill Falls
Only part of the rocks at the top of the falls which have had names and dates carved into them.
The Helderbergs Thatcher Park Indian Ladder Trail
A lot of Limestone	Distant Albany