Cody’s blog

St. Johnsville Marina & Campground
28 Marina Dr
St Johnsville, NY 13452

518-568-7406

June 18 – 22, 2025

Our final stop for the trip was the St. Johnsville Marina and Campground, a city park in St. Johnsville, NY. I arrived at around 1 PM, after a somewhat confusing drive from Westcott Beach State Park. I planned to stop for gas after getting off the 81, about an hour into the drive, but my GPS confused me and I ended up driving around aimlessly for about 20 minutes until I stumbled across a gas station and filled up. Then, when we got to St. Johnsville, navigation stopped in the middle of town and insisted I was there, when I was next to a bank and no campground was in sight. I circled around a bit more, then gave up, pulled over, and called the campground to get final directions to the site. Talked to a very nice lady who told me where to go and met me at the gate to show me to my site. John and Jill were already there. I set up and spent the rest of the day relaxing.

The campground has only 24 sites but it’s very well-kept with plenty of amenities. Our sites had full hookups, which was nice for a change. I could dump my cassette whenever I wanted to without having to leave the site! I’d filled the tank two days before and figured it would last the rest of the trip, but if it didn’t, I had water available. We were also right on the canal, on lovely deep sites with picnic tables by the water. Only negative was that the railroad tracks ran right along the back of the campground, and there were trains running through regularly. But I kind of like the sound of trains, so it didn’t really bother me. There was also a clean spacious bathhouse with laundry.

Our campsites were very pretty, with lovely views of the Mohawk River section of the Erie Canal.

On Thursday (June 15), we visited nearby Lock 15 of the Erie Canal. We stayed long enough to watch a boat go through, but it was pretty hot that day so we didn’t want to stand outside for too long.

Then we went to visit the Fort Plain Museum in nearby town of Fort Plain. The museum is on the site of a revolutionary era fort, Fort Plain, also known as Fort Rensselaer. The fort was visited by George Washington in 1783.

The museum also contained a large painting depicting the Mohawk attacking the village of Fort Plain, and several rooms of Revolutionary War era furniture.

Upstairs, there were more exhibits, including some no doubt haunted dolls and some old-fashioned cast iron cookware. There was no air conditioning in the upstairs rooms and they were pretty stuffy and hot, but the exhibits were worth it.

The only original building left from the fort is the blockhouse, which now stands next to the museum building. Above the museum at the top of the hill, the location of the fort is now a grass field with markers describing what was once there.

On Friday (June 20), we visited Fort Klock, which was the fortified home of Johannes Klock. It was restored and turned into a museum in 1973. We wandered around the grounds and looked at the buildings, but there was a fee to go inside so we just peered in through the windows.

Then we went on an adventure to find Lock 33, a no-longer-used lock on the old Erie Canal. Just across the bridge at the entrance to our campground was a sign pointing down a long dirt road, saying Lock 33. Out of curiosity, we headed down the road, and drove on Dump Road, through some open gates, muddy holes and ruts, for about a mile, until we came to the lock.

The signs at either end of the lock were obviously not being maintained. One was completely unreadable, but the other was somewhat legible and explained that the old lock had become too narrow for the current boats to pass, so they dredged the nearby Mohawk River and moved the canal there, leaving Lock 33 on dry land.

It was really lovely back in the trees and the old lock was very picturesque. There was a small picnic area with parking between the old lock and the Mohawk River on the other side.

That night, I stayed up late to watch the replay of J-Hope’s 6/13 concert in Goyang. Loved seeing Jungkook and Jin on stage with Hobi, and especially the encore when all three of them sang Jamais Vu together. So cool to see 3/7 of BTS singing together while the other 4/7 watched and vibed in the balcony. Warmed my heart to see the seven of them all in one place again, after so much time apart.

Also at 10 pm, which was around 11 am the next morning in Korea, on the day his service was complete, Suga posted on Weverse! It was so good to see his pixels again — but also a bit sad, as he apologized again for “what happened last year” and seemed a bit tentative about stepping back into the public sphere. BigHit had said there would be no discharge ceremony or events for him, but we’d still hoped he might do a live, like the others did after their discharges, but he didn’t. Which of course was his decision, he had to do what was best for him. At least we got to see him bopping at J-Hope’s concert!

Saturday (June 21), I was tired from staying up late to watch J-Hope’s concert, and didn’t get much sleep after that, either, so I stayed in for the day and napped in the afternoon. That evening, we went to dinner at Ripepi’s Restaurant, a family Italian restaurant and lounge in St. Johnsville. I’m not that into Italian food but I had a fish sandwich and salad that was really yummy and I loved the friendly atmosphere. It seemed that many of the guests were locals who all knew each other and greeted each other like old friends.

(I want to say that we also ate at the Bridge Street Diner at some point, but I didn’t write it down in my journal and am not sure when or if we actually did. I know we went inside and looked around, and thought about having dinner there on Saturday, but they were only open for dinner on Fridays so we went to Ripepi’s instead. So possibly we never made it there.)

Sunday (June 22) we packed up and headed home. It was an… interesting drive, with thunderstorms and flood warnings all along the way, although I managed to miss most of the bad weather. I did have to stop on NY-41, when I was almost home, to wait for the road to be cleared of mud and brush from flooding. But we got home safely after another lovely camping trip!

Geezers on the Go – St. Johnsville Marina & Campground