A Night in Troy

I made the third and final road trip of the season this year (I make it a habit to see as many of the Princeton Women's Ice Hockey games as I can), and this time it was the garden spots of Troy and Schenectady, New York. Let others go to the tropics during winter, I go where the gloom is.

Troy is the home of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or RPI, who have a team that joined the conference this year, and thus it was my first visit there. Back in the summer I made a reservation at a B&B in Troy. I didn't expect a B&B to be in the midst of urban decay, but that's where it was. Troy, at least the part I saw, is a sad little city, with little going for it. When I went out looking for a place to have dinner, I started with a bodega across the street from the inn. I just wanted some takeout so I could watch the football playoffs on TV. But once inside the bodega I was told that they had no food. So I had to get in the car and make a tour of a city that seemed essentially closed down on a Saturday night at six.

It's easy to condemn the franchises that proliferate the countryside, but sometimes they are welcome sites. It was odd to drive around a city and see not one Starbucks, McDonald's or Pizza Hut. There were a few independent restaurants, but when you're a traveler and in a hurry you hate to take chances. I ended up driving out of town and found a major thoroughfare and soon enough was in the comfortable area of strip-malls.

The next day I awoke to icy weather, but fortunately the short drive to Schenectady was uneventful. Schenectady is home of Union College, and is in better shape than Troy. Whereas Troy was full of old Victorian homes in disrepair, the houses in Schenectady have fresh paint and are grander. The area around Union College has much more in the way of commercial establishments.

Three years ago I paid my first visit to Union and saw much more of the campus, including the statue of Chester A. Arthur, esteemed alum and one of the more obscure presidents of the United States.

As for the games, Princeton lost to RPI, which was an upset and a bad loss for the Tigers to endure, but bounced back against Union, which is the doormat of the league.