Tonawanda NY Erie Canal August 10, 2015

Tonawanda is the last port on the Erie Canal going west. We have traveled 171 miles since we entered the Oswego Canal a week ago. In just a couple of miles we will be in the Niagara River. I am a smidgen apprehensive about the river as currents can run up to 21 knots under the peace Bridge according to this book Jim has. Of course we plan to avoid those swift currents by going through the Black Rock Channel. There is one last lock to pass through there, but only a 5 footer.

We left Middleport at 7:30 with a plan to meet Rusty at 8:15 at the Gasport Lift Bridge. We had to pace ourselves so we did not get there too early, so it was a nice leisurely motor up the canal. The plan was almost perfect - Rusty did not arrive to lift the bridge until 8:30, so we marched in place for a short while. 

The trip to Tonawonda was 26 miles, and took us 5 hours, until 12:30. We did our last two Erie Canal locks in Lockport. They are two 25' locks and they are back to back - you leave one and enter the next. So in a very short distance we were raised 50'. In these two pictures we are following a boat into the lock, and are ready to be lifted from the first lock to the second.

On the way here we passed another Nordic Tug like ours. Of course we waved at each other and told each other how nice our boats were. They looked like they were loaded for cruising!

After lunch we walked to the Herschell Carousel Museum. Marty is a big carousel enthusiast and really wanted to see it. It was pretty neat. We saw how the horses were carved, how the music rolls were made and got to ride on a real Herschell carousel.

We had a nice dinner with Jim and Jola at Crazy Jake's Restaurant. It's hard to believe but this could be our last joint dinner of the trip. Jim made an appointment tomorrow for his boat at Smith Boys service facility. Hopefully the vibration problem will be diagnosed and with lots of luck could get repaired tomorrow. If it needs a multi-day servicing they will probably rent a car and drive home. 

Our plans are to stay here tomorrow, and then go to Buffalo, or if the lake is good for traveling, we may skip Buffalo and go to Port Colborne or even Port Dover. It just depends on Lake Erie. Tomorrow Marty is treating us to an excursion to Niagara Falls. She has never see the Falls, and it has been quite a while since Kerry and I have been there. Should be a fun day.

It's raining quite hard now. Kerry's pillow is wet again  :-(  so the garbage bag is again flying from the ceiling.