Brockport, Erie Canal

On our way to Albion we passed through the town of Medina. We spent four days there when were west bound. We toured the impressive railroad museum and visited with the founder Martin Phelps.


Martin, Mark & 204'x14' HO Scale model train layout

And had a nice time visiting and buying goods from the local farmers on Thursday afternoon farmer's market and music at Friday's Cruise nite by the town dock.


Cruise Nite at the Canal Marine Park

Our next stop is Albion. This town has many historic buildings and churches. We took a walking tour of the town, the shops and came back to the boat with several purchases including a new electronic bread maker.




Churches & Courthouse

Spending the summer on the Canal has been very relaxing and easy. You don't have to worry much about the weather, the water depth is predictable, and the Lift Bridge operators and Lock masters are helpful with local information and accommodating. In this part of the canal there are sometimes two lift bridges in each town, so the timing of the lift bridges can really affect your travel.











Albion town dock & boats waiting for Lift bridge

So far we've gone through locks 39 times and liftbridges 28 times with no problems, except a rough ride in one lock. We also enjoy riding our bicycles around each town, meeting and talking to the locals who stop by. We've met a lot of nice people, so willing to help and give directions and they also make you feel that they really appreciate your coming to visit their town.

We spent two nights in Albion then on to Holley. It's one of quietest stops on this part of canal. There's a nice park right by the dock and a beautiful walking trail leading to a waterfall. We picked blackberries and watched a family of ducklings feeding in the pond. On our way west someone stole one of our bicycles at the dock, so we stopped to see if the police had recovered it. No luck, so I'm back to walking.

Dock at Holley, checking out fire truck and the falls

Brockport is 5 miles from Holley. It's a popular stop with the boaters. The town dock has a nice visitor center staffed with helpful volunteers and you can borrow a bike for free. We do our grocery shopping here and anything else you may want. It's one of the few towns that you can walk or bike to all the stores. This also is a college town, the State University of New York at Brockport.










Canal barge passing thru Brockport & entertainment at dock

Middleport, Erie Canal

On the way to Middleport we stopped at Lockport. This part of the canal there's a town dock every 8-15 miles. Often, we only travel 10 miles, stay for 2-3 days before moving to our next favorite town. In Lockport, we went to see the small Erie Canal museum and the five old locks, also joined the locals on their "Cruise Night", music and a lot of refurbished antique cars.


Lockport: old locks-new locks

5 miles east of Lockport we stopped at Gasport just to have lunch there. Our cruising friends had told us that this little spot has the best beef on weck. So we waited for the bar/cafe to open at 11:30 AM, got our beef on weck, boy, it was yummy good!



Beef on Weck

Middleport is one of our favorite stops. The town dock has free electricity and water, shade trees with picnic table, cafes, laundromat and restroom facility all within 200' of the dock. We met some nice boaters here and had a delicious fried fish dinner at the Towpath Cafe.




Middleport town docks

Tonawanda, Erie Canal

We arrived at Tonawanda yesterday after cruising to the Niagara River, the west-most point of New York Erie Canal of our 2008 cruise. We left our home dock at Ortona, Florida on March 22, 2008, and now 4 months later and 2,500 miles under our keel, we will turn around and head home over the same route; Erie Canal, Finger Lakes, Oswego Canal, Hudson River, New York Harbor, off-shore of New Jersey Coast into Cape May, Delware Bay to C&D Canal to Chesapeake Bay, Norfolk and east coast ICW to Stuart, Florida by November 2008. Hopefully Lake Okeechobee will have enough water for us to cross to get home.

So we thought this will be a good starting point to share our trip.



Bounty from the Farmer's Market

Tonawanda waterfront

Tonawanda is one of the few towns on the western Erie Canal that charged a fee for docking at their town dock. It's a good size town with good public transportation. We walked to the Farmer's Market and took buses to see the Niagara Falls. We walked across the Rainbow Bridge to Canada, spent two hours and crossed back to the US. We noticed that things in Canada are more expensive yet prosperous compared to the US side. So we waited to have a late lunch on the US side of Niagara Falls.

Rainbow bridge to Canada & The Niagara Falls