This set of stories are meant to be read as chapters in a book. If you haven't read the previous chapters of the Great Loop, I recommend you do to better understand the characters.
All characters are fictional. Obviously, many of the place locations are real.
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Finding docking or a mooring at Niagara Falls proved to be more difficult than I thought. It was the height of the tourist season and a lot of people come to see the falls by boat so all the good spaces were occupied. Finally, I found a marina that could fit me in, but it took a lot of maneuvering with the bow thrusters and throttle to get me safely tied up to the dock. Since it was mid-day, I decided to go see the falls. I was still in Canada, so thought that I would visit a casino for the evening since I had never been in one.
The falls were as advertised. A lot of water pouring over a cliff. There were thousands of people there, Japanese, Europeans, and a host of other nationalities, as well as both American and Canadian tourists, kids running amok, noise, and everyone trying to take pictures of the falls, or themselves at the falls. It was almost overwhelming to the senses, especially for a guy that had spent the good part of a couple of months on a boat mostly alone. After being jostled around by tourist, kids, etc., I left to find a casino and hopefully a little less noise.
The casino wasn't hard to find, but it was crowded. The slot room was full of people playing the slots, mechanically putting coins in the slot and pushing the button. I decided to get some cash from the ATM and play some games. With $500 in casino money, I sat down at a roulette table and quickly lost $200. I moved on to play Black Jack and see if I could improve my luck. Just as I sat down, a siren went off indicating someone had won $5000 in the slots room. I smiled at the lady next to me and said, "Someone just got a nice pay out." Her response was, "She probably spent that much to win!"
For the next 4 hours, I watched my fortunes go up and down. A waitress came and took my drink order, the dealers changed as the shift for one finished and started for the next. My drink arrived and I continued to play. Men and women would join us at the table and leave after a while. The lady I had sat next to moved on to another game. I looked around the room and was interested to see the number of security cameras and obvious security personnel. There was probably a similar number of not so obvious security personnel. At the end of the 4 hours, I picked up my chips and cashed them in. I had $100 left of my original $500. I concluded I was not a very good gambler.
The boat was quieter, but the noise from the nearby highway was unrelenting. Sirens, trucks, and speeding cars. I couldn't wait to get back out on the water. I had planned to stay another day, but decided that I would move on in the morning and head for Rochester, NY.
Early the next morning, I carefully maneuvered out of the marina and set a course for Rochester. I had to clear customs when entering US waters, so I radioed, and customs told me where to meet them. It took a little longer than expected because they went thru the boat pretty thoroughly. Finally able to leave I headed east. Two days later, I was tying up to a dock in a marina near Rochester. The water front was well developed with shops, boutiques, and small restaurants. The marina provided a pump out, fuel, showers, laundry and WiFi. I had my holding tanks pumped, topped off the fuel tanks, cleaned up the boat and inquired about a cab or public transportation to the Eastman Museum.
Rochester is home to several large corporations, including Kodak and Xerox. In addition, there is the University of Rochester, Rochester Institute of Technology and other schools.
The Eastman Museum is in the mansion of George Eastman and houses a huge collection of photographs, moving films, cameras, etc. They also do conservation of rare photos and other filmography. The house is also known for its gardens which are carefully cared for to show the gardens as they existed when the home was occupied by the Eastman family.
I arrived at the museum the next morning, paid my fee and joined a tour. I learned that there are over 400,000 photographs in the museums collections, plus thousands of other artifacts associated with photography. The tour was interesting, but they moved you along faster than I wanted to go, so after the tour, I wandered back to the areas that interested me most. I studied photographs, both black and white as well as color. I was also fascinated with the progression of technology of the camera and film making. I totally lost track of time. As I was looking at an old wooden camera similar to what Ansel Adams would have used, my thoughts were interrupted by a lady saying, "Excuse me Sir, it's time for us to close and lock up and I'm afraid I have to ask you to leave."
I quickly looked at my phone and realized I had been here for almost 6 hours. Accompanying her to the door, she let me out and said, "Where's your car?"
"I live on a boat and am staying at the marina on the north side of town. I came by cab, so I'll call one to take me back. Thank you for a wonderful time today. You have a fascinating museum. I may have to come back tomorrow and spend more time here."
"Oh, I live out that way, if you wait for a few minutes, I'd be happy to drive you out there. No sense trying to get a cab during rush hour around here. You'd wait an hour or more to be picked up."
"All right, thank you."
About 15 minutes later, she walked out and we got into an older Honda. She introduced herself as Amber and I introduced myself. As we drove and sat in traffic, she was full of questions about living on a boat. When I explained why and what I was doing, she had another bunch of questions. I was hardly able to ask any questions about her. In addition to working at the museum, she was also a photographer and had a small studio where she did animal and child portraits. She also liked to do nature photography.
As we arrived at the marina, I asked, "Would you like to join me for dinner. It's the least I can do for the ride."
"I would like that, I haven't been out to dinner for months, so yes. Do you have a place in mind, or can I suggest a place right here on the water front?"
"You know better than I do."
"Good, I'll leave the car here and we can walk. It's a beautiful night. We're supposed to have a full moon."
We walked a few blocks to a small restaurant. She must go there often as everyone seemed to know her and she them. We were shown to our table and after ordering a bottle of wine, I asked questions about her. She had a Fine Arts degree in photography, was in her mid thirties, never married, dated occasionally, but spent most of her time improving her photography skills. She was in the process of self publishing a coffee table book of her work and hoping it would sell a few hundred copies. Some of her photos had been published in various photography magazines and on line.
As we ate dinner, I looked closer at Amber. She wore a nice conservative dress that came just below her knees, had shoulder length light brown hair, wore glasses, had a nice smile, and her brown eyes had an unusual sparkle to them as though she knew something that you didn't and she wasn't going to tell you. They were fascinating. Every time she caught me staring at her eyes, she would simply smile and I would smile back.
After dinner, we walked back to the marina talking about photography. She wanted to know why I didn't have a camera to document my travels. She said I needed a better camera than my phone. I said I would have to think about it.
