August 12 Day 73 Lockport NY 24 miles 2:13 riding
A semi-rest day. We had originally intended to take a rest day at Niagara Falls, but the crowds overwhelmed us. We decided to go on to Lockport instead.
Lockport is Roy's ancestral home. He's never been back in the approximately one hundred years since his family moved away. He found his childhood house. We talked with the current owner. Roy checked out his school and the plant where his father worked.
Roy's father had some involvement with the First Presbyterian Church at Lockport. The stained glass windows are from the Tiffany workshops. I've never seen anything like them. They are the most beautiful glass I've ever seen.
Lockport is the beginning of the Erie Canal for us. We inspected Locks 34 and 35 on the canal. We watched some boats descend through the locks.
Our motel has some memorabilia from a friend of the owner. The friend was one of the last people to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel. It was actually a rather elaborate barrel with padding to protect the occupants. The friend and his girlfriend went over the falls together (makes the 30,000 foot club seem pretty tame!). The police do not care for this sort of thing. They both went to jail. Somebody bailed out the girlfriend promptly; the guy spent two weeks in jail. Since then, a man attempting suicide went over the falls unprotected and survived. That took the challenge out of going over in a barrel so nobody does it anymore.