- 43 miles
- 6 hours 26 minutes
- 6.7 mph average speed
- 3-4 mph winds
To Canalside including lock and fuel stop:
- 5.7 miles
- 1 hour 5 minutes
- 5.2 mph average speed
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!