Lakes End

Lake's End
If you saw the last pictures I never mentioned the Green Goo. Going to Erie we came to this green goo. It looked as if it were green food dye in the water. As you could see from one of the pictures it stretched for about two miles. It was some sort of algae we think. It did not plug any of the filters and seemed to break up really easily.
Erie was a great stop as it was the first time. We were docked with a Looper who was probably the last to be going around this year. He and Carole took the bus to the Walmart for shopping while I watched over Annie and did some housekeeping.
Went to dinner at Molly Branigan's Irish Pub and we now have a new leader in the Wing War. These were definitely the best yet. Fives on all points except Heat. Only a 4.7 for spice heat.
Wednesday 9 September
Left Erie for Dunkirk. Weather was pretty good only 1-2 ft. seas to start and then it got better. It kicked back up a little by the time we arrived, but not bad.
Dunkirk is a town For Sale. It seemed like every other house or business property was for sale or rent. Not a bad place, just seemed like it has been hard hit. Pretty much like most of the industrial towns in this area.
Thursday 10 September
Flattest water yet. Barely a ripply all the way to Buffalo. Left the lake in Buffalo on to the Black Rock Canal and the Niagara River.
I once again reaffirmed that motoring on the lake is boring. Other than the green goo there was nothing to see or distract us. I did do a lot of reading underway. If we were sailing it would have been a little more interesting. I can see why most of the power boaters on the lake have fast boats. As I said before at least on the ocean there is a possibility of seeing something interesting, like whales, dolphins, turtles, sharks, sunfish, even jellyfish. On the lake – nothing.
We Stopped at the Smith Boys again, Geoff Smith offered a free dock and we took him up on it.
Friday 11 September
This was going to be a work and shopping day, but hedonism prevailed. We rented a car, got haircuts and drove to Niagara Falls. Took in both the American and Canadian sides. The view is free, but parking is not. It was especially hard to find anything close on the Canadian side – even if I was willing to pay $18.00 for a one hour stay. That said the view on the Canadian side is spectacular. The American side gets you closer to the falls, but you can not see the entire panorama from there. We did not do any of the side tours as we got there rather late. We really liked both sides and are glad we did take the time to go.
Went to the home of wings in Buffalo – Anchor Bar. This is where they were invented, by mother Theresa (the owners mother) – his words. Well they were good, but come in fourth IMHO.
Saturday 12 September
Geoff offered to loan us his truck today to visit an antique boat show, and invited us to stay for the Marina year end party. We seriously considered it, but decided to get underway again.
The canal is fine with Annie. She really likes the flat water. Arrived in Middleport about 4:00 and were helped at the dock wall by a boater from Canada. We met two more boats also. These were weekenders making the trip from Buffalo for the weekend.
I got a good insight as to how subjective the evaluation of Buffalo Wings can be. The Canadian was telling us how great the wings at the local Irish Pub were, and he and his wife were headed there tonight (they make this trip two or three times a year). The people two boats in front of us came back from the pub and said that the wings were not as good as the wings at Anchor Bar. The two on the boat in front of us cam back and said that the wings at the pub were way better than the wings at Anchor Bar. So there you have it Folks! My opinions are just that. Mine alone.
We however went out to The Basket Factory a restaurant recommended by Geoff. All of the other boats concurred that it was a really good restaurant, and they were all right. The meal was excellent.
I just could not face wings again for three nights in a row.

Sunday 13 September
Took another recommendation and went to Peggy's for breakfast. Then spent some time looking at a car show on the main street of Middleport.
We left about 11:00 and traveled to Holley. Nice easy day.
We are docked at a nice parklike setting. Took a walk down to a nearby waterfall. Annie had a good swim in the stream and is now laying contentedly on the foredeck. Her double just walked by. I actually thought the woman had Annie on the leash. Her dog was also a rescue dog and of unknown heritage.
This place has grills, so it is barbecue tonight.

Monday 14 September
We went all of 5 miles today. Stopped in Brockport, NY. The canal wall is really well done and the welcoming committee was so thorough that we were convinced to stay for the night.
Long walk through town to look at the historic buildings and some of the artwork around. This is a college town (SUNY at Brockport), so the town has not collapsed like many of the other towns in the area. However, Pizza seems to be the predominant business here. There are actually more pizza parlors and laundromats then normal, but lots of others not college related also.
Really nice Bill Stewart sculpture at the dock and several other sculptures around the town. Many buildings date back to the 1850's. Some are on the historical registry and have been restored by local volunteers, others are still in use. Nice pleasant town.
Annie is continuing to work on her social skills. The walkway along the canal at most of these stops is the local hangout for dogs walking their people. Annie sits on the boat and watches them go by. If she sees that one of us is not watching her she will take off to put the other dog to the sniff test. She has however been very polite and sniffing the nose first – then the butt! With people she mostly does it the opposite.
We passed on the opportunity to head down the canal a few miles to eat what three different people told us was really great Barbecued ribs. Instead we took a local's suggestion and went to the Smokehouse, a local barbecue joint. It was Monday night and the Buffalo Bills were on. That combined with it being a college town created one of the noisiest places we have ever eaten. We were also the by far the oldest people there. We were older than the combined ages of any three other people in the place, including the staff. There were about thirty TV screens and two projection TV's most of which were tuned to the football game. Every time the Bills made a good play there was a huge cheer, and conversely if something bad happened there was a huge groan. Oh! The meal was pretty good, but not outstanding.
Tomorrow it's Pittsford.