We finished traveling up the St. Clair River and into Lake Huron today.
We walked around the quaint town of Lexington and had lunch at Cadillac House, a hotel built in 1860.
We witnessed a gorgeous sunrise before leaving the marina and Misty sent us some pictures of Perfect Match as we were leaving.
We crossed Lake St. Clair and headed up the St. Clair River which was beautiful with the U.S. and Canadian borders on either side of the river. We saw a few freighters and Misty got a shot of Perfect Match after we had been passed by one of them. We look so small next to a freighter!
We ate lunch at Murphy’s Inn, a restored 1836 boarding house. The inn has 7 guest rooms with private bathrooms and is one of the oldest operating inns in Michigan. There is a dining room and an Irish pub on the main level.
Today was a short and pleasant trip on the Detroit River and we enjoyed a nice lunch at the onsite restaurant at the marina with Misty and Darrel upon arrival.
The next day we toured the Ford House, the stunning 60-room, 30,000 square foot home on 87 acres which Edsel and Eleanor Ford built in 1928 and where they raised their four children. Edsel was the only son of Ford Motor Company founder Henry Ford and became president of the company at the age of 25. The home is filled with beautiful art including paintings by Van Gogh, Cezanne, Renoir, Matisse, Redon, Raphael, Chagall and Deigo Rivera as well as sculptors, Persian and Chinese ceramics and African and Asian artifacts. There are several original paintings left in the house but many were donated by Eleanor to the the Detroit Institute of Arts upon her death and replaced with reproductions in the house. Most of the interior woodwork such as fireplaces, staircases and wood paneling are from 16th, 17th and 18th century English manors.
The onsite museum features exhibits about the Ford family as well as three cars from the 1930’s:
Michael (Gratitude) and Heather met Misty, Darrel and us to tour the home. We later went for ice cream and then to Mike’s for drinks and a light dinner (since we’d already had desert!) Michael lives in St. Clair Shores and just crossed his wake (completed his Loop) a few days ago. We first met him in Annapolis but have run into him several more times since then. We will surely miss seeing him as we continue on our Loop!
Travel on Lake Erie was a little rough for about three hours but then calmed down and was quite pleasant. We crossed Lake Erie and began our way up the Detroit River where the Canadian border was a stone’s throw from our starboard side. We just stayed at the marina rather than venturing out into Detroit and Misty and Darrel joined us for dinner on Perfect Match.
We saw several large freighters:
It was pretty rough most of the day on Lake Erie as we traveled with Star Dust to Put-In-Bay. Put-In-Bay is a lovely town on South Bass Island. While there are cars on the island, the majority of vehicles used is golf carts. We shared a golf cart with Misty and Darrel and toured the whole island.
A new sign had just been installed a few weeks ago at South Bass Island State Park.
Heineman Winery was founded in 1888 by German immigrant Gustav Heineman and is the oldest family owned and operated winery in Ohio. It is currently run by 3rd, 4th and 5th generation Heinemans. We took a tour of the winery and sampled the wine. Crystal Cave was discovered on the property in 1897 while digging for a well and is the largest geode in the world. During prohibition, when many wineries closed, Heinemann Winery was able to stay in business by providing tours of the cave, producing unfermented grape juice and providing taxi service.
Perry’s Victory and International Peace Memorial, built in 1915, is part of the National Parks System and honors those who fought in the Battle of Lake Erie during the War of 1812 in addition to celebrating the long lasting peace among Great Britain, Canada and the U.S. that followed the war. Three American and three British officers are buried together in the rotunda of the 352 foot column. The memorial is the largest Doric column in the world and is 47 feet higher than the Statue of Liberty and a few feet shorter than the Washington Monument. The Battle of Lake Erie was one of the most decisive naval battles of the war as Perry’s defeat of the British fleet established control of Lake Erie. The views from the top were absolutely gorgeous!
We rode the ferry over to Middle Bass Island and rented a golf cart to tour the island.
Lonz Winery was established in 1884. All that remains now are the wine cellar, the facade and the tower after a terrace collapsed in 2000. Exhibits featuring wine making equipment found on the property are displayed in the wine cellar.
The marina where we stayed in Cleveland was right in front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We had a great time touring the “Rock Hall”!
We walked around downtown Cleveland and went to Jack’s Casino and were happy to find the Lock it Link slot machine that we had played in Buffalo. Ellen was able to turn her $20 into $101.33 and Kevin turned his $100 into $244.95, even after he was down to $16.95 just before that! Unfortunately, Nathan wasn’t as lucky this time but he had won big in Buffalo!
After the casino, we went to Progressive Field and watched the Cleveland Guardians defeat the Detroit Tigers 6-5.
Ellen and Misty had a great time at the musical “ain’t too proud The Life and Times of The Temptations. The theatre was beautiful and the acting, singing and dancing were superb. We were sorry that the boys had chosen not to attend as they really missed out on a wonderful show.
The boys may have missed out on a great show but we all enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Blue Point Grill afterwards.
Our final full day in Cleveland and Nathan’s last full day with us was spent at Cedar Point. Cedar Point opened in 1870 and is the second oldest amusement park in the U.S. It is world-renowned for its stellar roller coasters. We had a blast but were wiped out after riding the roller coasters and clocking over 16K steps!
We had a beautiful sunset our last night in Cleveland.
We passed two lighthouses today, Presque Island Lighthouse and Ashtabula Lighthouse.
Ellen and Nathan biked to Geneva On the Lake which is like a 1950’s vacation town with restaurants, shops and arcades lining the Main Street. It is quaint but touristy and we imagined it to be a nice family vacation spot for those that live nearby.
There was a nice beach next to the marina where Ellen and Nathan spent some time. We weren’t used to seeing rocks on the shore rather than shells! Nathan even went swimming in Lake Erie.
We went back to town for dinner and, of course, ice cream!
Linda and Ron from Gypsy Soul were kind enough to send photos of Perfect Match as they were leaving Canalside shortly before we left.
It was a long but pleasant travel day to Erie. We had lunch with Michael from Gratitude at Oliver’s Rooftop which overlooks the marina and Presque Isle Bay.
Later we took the dingy across the bay to Presque Isle and then went to Oliver’s Beer Garden to listen to some live music and have a beer.
To Canalside including lock and fuel stop:
Today was our final day on the Erie Canal. We also had to bid farewell to Star Dust and Off Leash with whom we have traveled with, toured with, eaten with, had several ice creams with and laughed a whole bunch with this past week. They are both stopping in Tonawanda and we are going about 7 miles further to Buffalo. We sure hope to meet up again with them on the Great Lakes.
The final two locks on the Erie Canal are locks 34 and 35, often referred to as the “Siamese Twins”. These locks replaced the original “Flight of Five” in 1918. The Flight of Five was built to carry the canal over the steep Niagara Escarpment at Lockport, NY. There were two sets of 5 stone locks, one set for eastbound traffic and the other set for westbound traffic. One set was replaced with the current locks and the other set remains, with the gates removed, and functions as a spillway. The locks raise or lower boats a total of 49 feet and the upper door of Lock 34 is also the lower door of Lock 35.
Ellen’s son, Nathan, was waiting for us at the marina and will travel with us for a week. Ellen and Nathan went to Thin Man Brewery and had a delicious Buffalo Chicken Pizza while the Captain rested from our journey to Buffalo.
We spent Monday at Niagara Falls, America’s oldest state park, and had a great time! We got soaked on the Maiden of the Mist boat ride and the Cave of the Wind. We rode the trolley some but also managed to get in just over 10,000 steps while we were there!
We saw several rainbows throughout the day but failed to find a pot of gold.
We traveled about 5 miles to Canalside to dock Tuesday night because there is a lock, Black Rock Lock, that we needed to go through and their first lock through is at 8:30AM. We had decided to drop our planned stop in Dunkirk, NY and make the full run to Erie, PA on Wednesday so moving allowed us to be able to leave earlier from Buffalo.
We visited Frank Lloyd Wright’s Martin House which was stunning. The Martin House is one of Wright’s earliest and most important works and is classified as a Prairie style home. Unfortunately, photos of the interior are not permitted. In addition to the beautiful art glass windows or, as Wright called them, “light screens”, Wright also designed pieces of furniture and built in units.
On the 1.5 acre estate are also a Gardener’s Cottage, Carriage House, Conservatory, and the Barton House which is a home Martin had built for his sister and brother in law.
Nathan and Ellen later walked to a casino and played some slot machines. Both walked out with a little more than they walked in with!
We went under several more lift bridges today. The scenery changed to a lot of farms and crops. We saw a couple of bald eagles perched in a tree but not one of the three boats was able to get a picture of them!
The canal crosses over Culvert Road on an aqueduct and this is the only place where cars can drive under the Erie Canal.
Just after the Culvert Road crossing, the canal also crosses over Orchard Creek.
After a nice lunch at a Zambistro which had tablecloths (when have we seen those!), we took a walk to see Medina Falls and later toured a magnificent Railroad Museum.
Medina is known for its beautiful sandstone as seen in the following two churches.
The Medina Railroad Museum houses one of the largest model train layouts in the country at 204 feet long by 14 feet wide. The layout is a timeline of how transportation of goods in Western New York began with the Erie Canal and progressed to trains.
We ended the evening with ice cream at Rudy’s.
This last 100 or so miles of the Erie Canal most closely resembles the original canal which was a ditch with towpaths on each side although the original canal was not as wide as the current canal. Boats were pulled through using ropes attached to mules and horses as the animals walked along the towpaths.
There were several lift bridges through the next several towns. The one in Fairport is in the Guiness Book of Records for several reasons. One end is higher than the other, it is built on a slant and no two angles on the entire bridge are the same.
We spotted a deer on the bank of the canal.
This section of the canal is known as the “Rock Cut”. Some of the most extensive excavation of the entire canal took place here through solid rock, long before modern machinery.
We went through 5 locks and many more low bridges today.
We were up and out of Brewerton by 6:30AM. We went through two locks and had an early lunch with Misty and Darrel at San Miguel Mexican Restaurant and walked around town. In the evening, we went to JessiCakes for ice cream. It rained lightly off and on all day.
We saw a beautiful swan on our trip to Baldwinsville.
We went through two locks today. Both locked down which we had not done before. We stopped at Sylvan Beach for a couple of hours on our way from Rome to Brewerton. We had breakfast and walked around a small craft fair.
We’ve been staying on free walls for most of our time on the Erie Canal but Brewerton has several marinas so we chose to stay in one. We had docktails on the marina pavilion with about 10 couples before watching the fireworks which the city set off on July 3. So many funny stories were exchanged and the evening was filled with much laughter! The marina had decorated for the 4th and had also put out two gorgeous flower arrangements.
On the 4th, Kevin played golf with Rob and Darrel while Ellen worked on route planning for the rest of the Erie Canal with Karen and Misty. Later, we took a loaner car from the marina and went to the grocery store and Home Depot. We ran into Susi and Mark from Rose Cottage, who were staying at a different marina and also had a loaner car. That evening, we removed the isinglass on the flybridge, lowered the bimini and lowered the radar arch and other antennas in preparation for passing under some upcoming low bridges on the Western half of the Erie Canal.
Upon leaving Little Falls, there was light rain and a lot of debris in the canal (branches and logs). We were headed to Sylvan Beach, NY but decided to stop in Rome, NY instead so that we could visit the Fort Stanwix National Monument. On the way, we also saw that there was a beautiful theatre in Rome and purchased tickets to what we thought was a play for that evening. After purchasing the tickets online and marveling that the tickets were only $8, we realized we had purchased tickets to a movie, not a play! The movie was titled Phantom of the Open which is the true story of Maurice Flitcroft, who, after never having played golf, was able to gain entry into the 1976 British Open qualifying rounds where he then shot the worst round in Open history (121 – 49 over par) and even went on to enter a few other times under different names after having been banned from returning. It was actually a cute movie although not shown in the grand theatre we had seen photos of on the internet but a tiny 1950’s looking movie theatre next door!
We saw a couple of Bald Eagles on our trip today. Our photos were not as good as one that Susi took so we are borrowing hers!
Fort Stanwix was originally built by the British in 1758 during the French and Indian War. and was captured by the Americans during the Revolutionary War. It later burned to the ground in 1781. The site of the original fort is now home to a reconstructed structure built by the National Park Service.
We had an early diner at the well regarded Franklin Hotel before attending the aforementioned movie.
We traveled with Star Dust and Rose Cottage again today. We went through 6 locks for a total lift of 95 feet.
Our last lock today was Lock E17 which is the highest lift lock on the canal at 40 feet. All of the locks we have gone through up to this point have gone smoothly. Once we had pulled into Lock 17 and Ellen had grabbed her rope, the boat began moving backwards. Kevin came around and yelled, “Ellen, what are you DOING?” to which Ellen replied, ” What do you MEAN what am I doing?” It turns out that as Kevin was leaving the lower helm to come out and grab his rope he had inadvertently shifted from neutral to reverse! He quickly corrected and saved us from running into the back gate.
Some more phots taken by Star Dust and Cottage Rose:
There was just enough room on the wall at Little Falls for the three of us to tie up but we had to move a boat forward a little bit for Kevin to be able to dock our boat. The lock master and our friends moved the boat, not thinking there was anyone on it. Actually, the man was napping and the woman was working and neither of them even knew the boat had been moved!
Later, we were sitting on the boat and unwinding from the day of travel when Ellen spotted Jane and Tony on Clean Cut passing by outside the window. We had not seen them since New York City so she jumped up to go shout “hello” to them as they passed. They had planned to stay here and weren’t sure where they would go since the wall was full by the time they arrived. We offered to let them tie up to our boat which the marina does allow. So they turned around and did just that! After they were safely tied up to our boat, we enjoyed talking with several other couples on the wall and then the four of us went across the street to a food truck and had dinner.
The next day we biked to the quaint town of Little Falls and had a wonderful breakfast at That Little Place on Main.
We then biked on the Erie Canalway Trail to the Herkimer Home which was built in 1764. General Nicolas Herkimer was an American Revolution hero who led the defense of Fort Stanwix (which we will visit at our next stop in Rome, NY) at the Battle of Oriskany in 1777. This battle was one of the bloodiest battles of the Revolutionary War and had families fighting against each other. Herkimer’s leg was wounded during the battle but he kept command of the battle. His leg was later amputated and he died 10 days later from complications of the surgery. He is buried in the cemetery on the property.
We stopped at Lock 17 on the way back to get a view from the top. We noticed on NEBO that Michael from Gratitude, whom we had met in Annapolis, was on his way to the lock so we waited to watch the lock masters empty the chamber and take pictures and videos of Michael locking through.
Pivot was docked just north of the lock and we met the cute young couple, Jen and Elliot, and their dog, Ollie. It turns out they live only a couple of miles from us in Atlanta. We didn’t realize it at the time but they are Scho & Jo who have a great vlog detailing their Great Loop adventure. We have heard about them from several Loopers but had not yet watched any of their videos on YouTube. A while later we saw them pass by where we were tied up.
We spotted our first deer across the canal from us.
Every Thursday in the summer at the marina there is a Cruise In where many antique cars are on display. We enjoyed walking around and looking at all of the beautifully restored cars. There was even a 1918 Harley Davidson motorcycle. After we looked at all of the cars we biked to town for dinner and a flight of beer at The Copper Moose and later watched the parade of cars drive by.
The following day we had a full day of boat cleaning and laundry followed by an amazing dinner at Beardslee Castle. We had a dickens of a time getting an Uber to the restaurant and no luck getting one back to the marina. The owner of the restaurant was kind enough to let the hostess take us back. We were extremely grateful we did not have to walk 6 miles back to the marina in the dark and rain!
Beardslee Castle was built in 1860 as a replica of an Irish Castle. It survived two fires before being purchased by the current owners in 1994 who renovated it and opened it as a restaurant. It is also a popular wedding venue.
We were up early in order to make the first lock opening at 7:00. Today we went through 9 locks between Waterford and Amsterdam! The total lift was 241 feet. We traveled with Star Dust and Rose Cottage all day.
The Erie Canal was built to connect the Atlantic Ocean with the Great Lakes. The original Erie Canal was built between 1817 and 1825 and the current canal was completed in 1918. The canal runs about 360 miles between the Hudson River in Albany and to Lake Erie in Buffalo and raises and lowers boats over 570 feet.
The first five locks (E2-E6) are known as the Waterford Flight. The Waterford Flight, built in 1907, raises boats 169 feet from the Hudson River to the Mohawk River. Each lock has a lift of 33 to 34.5 feet and the distance from lock E2 to E6 is only about 1.5 miles which makes this the greatest lift in the shortest distance on any canal in the world and greater than the total lift of the entire Panama Canal. As mentioned in the previous post, these locks were built so that mariners could bypass the Cohoes Falls. Ellen took a screenshot of Google maps when we were at the falls that shows why the Waterford Flight was necessary and how it diverts marine traffic around the falls. It took us about two hours to go through the Waterford Flight.
Next to lock E2, is the site of the 1823 Side-Cut Locks which were built to allow boat traffic from the Hudson River to the Champlain Canal. Mules were used to pull boats through the locks with ropes.
Some photos of Perfect Match taken by our buddy boats:
Today was a short trip that included our first big lock other than the two smaller ones we went through on the Dismal Swamp Canal.
Before arriving at the lock, guess what we passed? More barges! We also passed Albany, the capitol of New York.
Lock 1 on the New York State Canal System in the Troy Federal Lock. Planning for this lock began in 1903 and the lock opened in 1916. This is technically the first lock on the New York State Canal System but it is not actually on the Erie Canal so the first lock on the Erie Canal will be lock E2. Lock 1, the Troy Federal Lock, is 520 feet long, 45 feet wide and 17 feet deep. This lock raised us about 14 feet.
Shortly after Lock 1, we entered the Erie Canal.
Just after the turn to enter the Erie Canal is the town of Waterford which has a first come, first serve free dock along the wall on the edge of the canal and directly in front of Lock E2 which is the first lock on the Erie Canal. When we were about 2 miles out, we texted Misty and Darrel from Star Dust, whom we had first met in Southport and saw again at our last stop in New Baltimore, to make sure there was still room on the wall since they had arrived there earlier. They scoped it out and found one spot that had 50 amp power and waited there to help us tie up. It turns out this was the best spot on the wall as it was directly under a bridge and remained shaded throughout the day which was nice.
There were several Loopers tied up at the Waterford Docks, including a couple that is currently on their 32nd Loop! We met the 82 year old man who lives aboard with his wife and dog. They bought their boat new in 1987 and have been traveling the Loop ever since with no plans to stop!
Fellow Loopers Salty Peacock and Varlabania were passing by shortly after we had docked. They were going ahead to Amsterdam which will be our next stop. Since Lock E2 is directly ahead of the Waterford Dock, Ellen walked up to the top of the lock to take pictures of the two boats locking through and get a glimpse of what was in store for us when we lock through here.
We walked around the town and later had docktails on our flybridge with Misty and Darrel from Star Dust before cooking dinner on the boat.
The following day, we walked to the local grocery store after a morning of rain. Later, we took a 3 mile bike ride to see the beautiful Cohoes Falls. Once there, we had to descend (and later ascend!) about 100 feet, including about 86 steps on a steep stairway but it was well worth it! As it is now summertime, the falls are dried up compared to their peak Springtime flow but still stunningly beautiful. The falls span the 1,000 foot width of the Mohawk River and drop as much as 90 feet in height. These waterfalls were a barrier to mariners on the Erie Canal which led to the creation of the Waterford Flight which will be explained in the next post.
We had dinner in town at McGreivey’s with Misty and Darrel from Star Dust.
