Several Ways to Get Wet

 Here's a great idea:   Drive to the Erie Canal on a cold, Sunday morning and ride your bike on the tow path before taking a two hour tour of the canal.   Then, go to Niagara Falls and take a boat ride to the very base of the biggest leaky faucet you have ever seen.    What could happen?!?

Lockport, New York is the home of several locks on the Erie Canal.   Two hundred years ago, this canal connected the east coast to the mid-west, allowing for massive expansion of our country.   Today, it is primarily used for recreation, the railroad and the automobile having lessened the impact of barge and boat traffic into this part of the country.   Some of the original locks can still be seen in Lockport, and a few of them actually still work.     Later a bigger set of locks was built to accommodate barge traffic.  The canal stretches across New York state, from Albany to Buffalo.  But, I've always been intrigued.   

                                                Original locks.   Not very wide.

I went for a bike ride along the canal.   And it started to rain.   I passed young people fishing on the banks.   I didn't see anyone else walking or riding.   I came to the mighty locks of this 200 year old transportation system.   It rained.   I rode through the town and took a wrong turn.   It rained.   After about six miles, I returned to the car, found a dry, clean, public restroom along the trail, and changed into dry, warm clothes.   Now I could look at the world a little better.   I still had time until my boat tour, so I drove slowly through Lockport.   A diner.   Tom's Diner.   And they were open!   And they serve hot chocolate with whipped cream!   And I can get some outstanding French Onion Soup.   Life is better.

I took a very informative cruise through the locks and a few miles either side of Lockport.   On a cool Sunday afternoon, this was a very relaxing  and beautiful ride back into history.

                                              model of the original locks

                                       Replica of the long boats.   This was top of the line!

I figured as long as I was in the area, conventional wisdom demanded a very wet cruise to the base of Niagara Falls, with the requisite walk along the banks.    Lot of water.   Lots of international visitors.   Part of the trip is my souvenir raincoat, made, I believe, from Saran Wrap, but it got the job done.   This is why all passengers were clothed in blue.   Passengers in the Canadian boats are all in red.   These boats are now all electric.   First benefit is there is no diesel smell, nor engine sound to drown out the running commentary during the ride.   They charge the boat for a few minutes between each cruise.     

The American Falls look like they could use a good stone mason.   There is a lot of rock junk at the base, causing the falls to look more like a cascade than real falls.    The Canadian side, Horseshoe Falls, is the spectacular sight.   Our boat got so close all we could see was spray, and that causes some pretty stiff winds.  The raincoats only protected so much.

I short drive down the Niagara River is the Niagara Whirlpools.    Nice park.  

I have an appointment for a 10:30 tour of the Fillmore home in East Aurora.   I plan to visit several other presidential sites in the Buffalo area, before retiring to my room to prepare for my dash across Ontario and into the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.   By prepare, I mean I may need to do some laundry.

Martin Van Buren and The Erie Canal

This happened Saturday, September, 28.

First off, I don’t think President Van Buren had anything to do with the Erie Canal, but both are in the Albany area, thence the title.

There is a wedding party staying in this hotel. The ceremony and the reception will occur across the street, but preparations have been going on here all day and many many of the guests are here. I talk about this because when I took the elevator downstairs for breakfast this morning, the elevator opened and three young ladies exploded into the elevator, almost knocking me down! Granted, it’s not a bad way to die, but I swear there’s 20 bridesmaids getting their hair done!

After breakfast, I drove to Kinderhook, a short distance from Troy to the post-presidency home of Martin Van Buren. The only two things I knew about Van Buren prior to the tour was that English was his second language (Dutch was his first), and he was known derisively in Washington and politics as The Little Magician. He was from Kinderhook, but did not move into that particular house until after his presidency.     Very nice tour. Van Buren was one of Jackson’s vice presidents; his wife had died long before he became president and his 20 year year-old daughter-in-law took on the duties of the first lady. Far away the youngest first lady.  Van Buren had slaves (I should say enslaved people) until New York State ruled this out and so his house was served by about a half dozen Irish teenage girls. The guide got a kick out of showing us the bell system that I have seen in a few other houses. There was a lever in each room that the family could pull, and a bell rang down in the servants quarters in the basement. Much of the house is reproduction or from the same time-period. The wallpaper in the main room of the house is original and is worth the visit. It took 55 pieces of wallpaper and the French company that manufactured it is still in business . 

Van Buren supported President Jackson’s Indian removal policies and in fact carried out many more of them himself. The Trail of Tears, I believe, actually happened on Van Buren‘s watch.  Van Buren only had an eighth grade education, but was apprenticed to a lawyer and became a very successful lawyer himself.

It was warm today, so I went back to the hotel and got out of my blue jeans and went for something much cooler for the rest of the day. I have always been curious about the Erie Canal, whose eastern end is by Albany.   My tiny map on this iPhone was no help so I pretty much just started crisscrossing the area looking for the part of the canal that I wanted to see. Soon enough I come upon the Mohawk river and a 35 foot sailboat, cruising towards the eastern end of the canal. I set off to find it entering Canal Lock Six. As I watched it slowly dropping elevation in the lock I struck up a conversation with Leroy, the guy working the lock, and soon enough, it was time to open the other lock gate.    He motioned to me to come over to the control house and he pointed to the button and I, Dan Nagel, with great fanfare and bluster, opened a lock gate on the Erie canal! I followed the sailboat to the next lock and learned that there is still some commercial traffic on the canal in the form of barges.

For dinner I had a flight of four little craft beers and a Ruben made from grilled haddock! Very tasty and satisfying.

Tomorrow, I am going to try to go to Cooperstown on pilgrimage to the baseball Hall of Fame.