New York - Day 11 - Northwest NY

Niagara Falls/Lewiston KOA
Friday, 11 May 2018

This morning we had a glorious sunrise that went on and on.  It started in the lake, which turned sunrise colors while everything else was a dark slate color.  Then it moved into the sky, as you can see.  This photo is at the very tail end of it.

sunrise on Lake Ontario

My route for today aimed at the Niagara Falls area.  Driving near Lake Ontario, I saw one fruit farm after another.  Occasionally, there would be a road sign warning that I might encounter an Amish buggy along the next x miles.  It reminded me that yesterday I saw 2 buggies in the state park, coming from the picnic area, with several people in each, Amish by their dress.

Several places along the way, I've crossed the Erie Canal but never saw a place I could stop and take a photo.  Today in Medina (pronounced meh-DEYE-nuh) I managed it.  As you can see, it's been tamed since the days when mules pulled barges along the canal, and when children as young as 8 walked alongside the mules to keep them going.  But it's still being used.  Remarkable.  https://en.wikipedia.org/Erie-Canal 

Today I got really lucky when I stopped at the Medina Railroad Museum.  It bills itself as the "Largest Railroad & Toy Train Museum in N.Y. State!!"  And I don't doubt it.  Their model train layout is 204' long and 14' wide.  It has numerous trains and multiple scenery sites and is an absolute delight.  The brochure I was following didn't have the hours and I didn't have wi-fi, so I just showed up.  The woman at the front said they don't usually open till 11 (it was 25 till) but I asked if I could just look around for 10 minutes or so because I wanted to get back on the road, and she relented and let me in and turned on the lights and started up the only train she knew how to start up.  It was great.  And then after a bit I realized there were a couple of other trains running too, and saw that the engineer had come in.  I loved it.  I don't know why but there isn't anything like a great model train set to bring smiles to faces.

Going west from there, I passed a sign noting down a side road was a memorial to Belva Lockwood, who I learned on NCIS (hey, as long as you learn it, right?) was the first woman to run for US president.  I looked the memorial up to be sure I understood it right, and apparently there is a plaque, very hard to find, that memorializes her as the first woman to argue before the US Supreme Court (1879) and the first woman to run for US president (1884 & 1888) (a candidate for the National Equal Rights Party).

I came to a town, announced by a sign: "Welcome to Gasport, Established 1826, Population Just Right."

Tomorrow, Niagara Falls, I hope.

today's route