Lock 20.

It is Friday and I am working from home today. To keep everything in the spirit of my typical lunch time activities, I went down to the local Dunkin’ Donuts and treated myself to a sandwich on a french roll and a large, unsweetened iced-tea with lemon. Oh, I added a side of hash browns. They’re not quite tots but they’ll suffice.

In order to enjoy some lunch time sunshine with this little lunch, I decided to take my impromptu picnic to the local park, which is officially called The Lock 20 Canal State Park. Lock 20 is situated along the Barge Canal, which stretches right across the waist line of New York State, from the Capital District to the Buffalo-Niagara Falls area. The Barge Canal is the big brother of the older Erie Canal. Lock 20 is seeing some traffic as I enjoy my lunch hour; there is a boat being raised up in the lock as we speak. They must be heading west because the water level is higher in that direction. There’s a dog barking on the boat, he or she must be sensing that something is going on and they want to talk about it.

I am enjoying this relaxing time during the last lunch hour of the work week and I am eagerly anticipating the weekend. We have plans to go to the New York State Fair after work tonight. We always enjoy the fair, though it’s a reminder that summer is winding down.

As I sit here enjoying my lunch hour I’m watching an elderly couple have a picnic. The older man and woman got themselves situated at a picnic table in a shady spot and then the woman came back and decided to sit in their SUV, leaving the man at the picnic table. I’m a little bit curious about that.

I’m not the only one sitting here working on an iPad or laptop. There’s a couple of other folks doing the same at other picnic tables in shady spots. This seems to be a common practice on beautiful days like today.

Perhaps I should do this more often. We forget that this park is down here, sometimes.

Update: I’m trying to include a little map of our adventures in case you ever want to seek the same spot out on your own someday.