OH, NY – Sep 2023

The beautiful Veterans Glass City Bridge, so named in honor of Toledo’s heritage in the glass making industry, spans 8,800 feet across the Maumee River. Behind the glass inlays running on all four sides of the center pylon are hundreds of LED lights that can produce light shows of over 16 million colors, visible for up to three miles away. I took this picture from the deck of the steamship Col. James M. Schoonmaker.  Details of that ship, and all the other interesting things I experienced during this leg of my journey can be found below.  But get yourself comfortable as this is gonna be another long one.

Perrysburg, OH

My first landing in Ohio takes me to Perrysburg.  This is a city of roughly 25,000, and is one of the fastest growing cities in Northwest Ohio and now the largest suburb of Toledo.  It was a great spot from which to explore the area, and was also only about 20 miles from the home of my former boss Mary who lives just across the border in Michigan. She was a gracious host and wonderful tour guide, spending several days with me on excursions all through the area.  Besides visiting many of the local attractions, we both enjoyed working our way through the area via lunch-time venues to enjoy a meal together.  I’ve had the pleasure of catching up with Mary on several occasions since my retirement, mostly in Florida where she sometimes spends time there during the winter months.  It was Mar of 2022 when we last visited in my home town of Lake Wales.  So it was nice to see her in her hometown, and to see and get a tour of her beautiful new retirement house.  Thank you Mary for the wonderful visit!

Our fist day of touring together would take us to the National Museum of the Great Lakes.  This mostly nautical themed museum features lots of history and artifacts including antique lighthouse tower lenses, steam engines, diving gear, and even one of the surviving life rafts from the ill fated Edmund Fitzgerald – once the largest freighter on the Great Lakes, that sank in Whitefish Bay in Lake Michigan on Nov 10th, 1975 taking the lives of all 29 souls aboard.  Also present at the museum, docked along the shore of the Maumee River, was the ship Col. James M. Schoonmaker.  This lake freighter was launched in July 1911, and at the time held the title of Queen of the Lakes – given to the largest ship on the Great Lakes.  This ship was 617 feet long, 64 feet wide, and had a depth of over 33 feet with carrying capacity of over 12,000 tons.  It was in service through most of the 20th century, ending its career in 1980 at the downturn of the steel industry.  Mary and I got to take a full self-guided tour of the ships deck, the storage areas, the engine room, the galley, crew and captains quarters, and the pilot house.  It was quite the amazing ship!

Next Mary and I ventured to the Detroit suburb of Dearborn, MI to visit the Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation.  Wow, was this place impressive!  It boasts millions of artifacts in its collection – only a fraction of which are on display, and is the largest indoor/outdoor museum in the country, and second largest collection of artifacts – second only to the Smithsonian.  To be honest, I thought this museum would feature mostly Ford items.  Boy, was I wrong.  In addition to housing one of the biggest steam locomotives I’ve ever seen (at left, top), it had an amazing collection of vehicles of all sorts including several presidential limos.  Among them was the presidential limo from President Reagan (at left, center right), and even the limo in which President Kennedy was assassinated in (at left, center left).  Also among the vast car collection was the land speed racing car Goldenrod that held the wheel-driven land speed record of 409 mph from 1965 thru 1991.  Now that’s fast!  Lots of cool everyday cars too including this nice lime green convertible, and one of my favorites a beautiful fully restored and complete VW Camper Van.  What a classic!

But what really surprised me was the depth and breadth of items on display that were not what I would have thought to be Ford related.  This included massive industrial equipment like steam engines and generators, airplanes, to rare and historical antique furniture such as Edgar Allen Poe’s desk (at right, center), to the actual chair President Lincoln was sitting in at the Ford Theatre when he was assassinated.  Just an amazing collection of artifacts that would easily require several days to fully take in and appreciate.  There was also an extensive exhibit dedicated to Julia Child, who frankly I only knew as an American chef, cookbook author, and television personality.  Little did I know that before her fame in cooking, she was a a top secret researcher in the Secret Intelligence division of the OSS.  The Office of Strategic Services was the intelligence agency of the United States during World War II, which later became known as the Central Intelligence Agency, or CIA.  I had no idea of this part of her life, and now will have to get a biography or two to read up on her very interesting life.

As you might imagine, there were a number of Roadside America items of interest in the Toledo and Detroit area, from which I chose the seemingly most interesting to visit.  First up was a visit to one of two of the tallest Uncle Sam statues (the other one is reportedly in Danbury, CT at a train museum).  Towering at 38 feet, this iconic fiberglass Sam sits on the grounds of a large fireworks store in MI just over the border of OH.  Fireworks are legal in MI, but no so in OH.  Next I visited America’s most honored Outhouse.  Built in 1870 and used for upwards of 60 years, this four-door two chimney structure is the only outhouse listed on the National Register of Historic Places.  This place was sadly boarded up and really screams to be fully restored and open to the public for a more detailed viewing.  Last up on this leg was a visit to the Rossford Public Library which is home to the 37AA shoe once belonging to the world’s tallest man Robert Wadlow.  The shoe used to be displayed in a local department store, but when that closed down it was moved here to the library.  Next to the shoe on the wall is a life size picture of Robert which as you can see from my comparison, he was quite the tall guy at 8 foot 11 inches.

My final stop during this visit to OH would take me to the town of Monroe, MI to the Michigan Museum of Horror.  Sadly, this turned out to be a bust of a visit, and resulted in the first and thus far only negative review that I’ve ever submitted to Roadside America.  Recently opened in Oct 2022, this museum is based on indie horror films such as Walking Dead, The Lost Boys, and Gremlins to name a few. In fact, it was a sparse collection of artifacts, mostly cheesy reproductions and many with for sale signs on them, from several of these B movies.  The only thing I really got a chuckle from was the jar of Jiff peanut butter whose 2022 production serial number matched those that were recalled due to salmonella.  Thus, this jar was labeled a “Killer” and featured in the museum.  Sad that for me, this was the highlight of my visit.

Thompson, OH

My next stop on my eastward trek (see there Gerry, I got it right this time 😁) takes me to Thompson, OH – a sleepy unincorporated community of just over 2,000 residents just east of Cleveland.  Overall, it was a beautiful KOA campground that I stayed in with a nice lake filled with inflatable toys, lots of cabins, and a wide collection of other entertainment like playgrounds and the like.  My only complaint was that my specific site had an apple tree along its side that had been shedding apples for a while – many of which were squished by my truck or others who proceeded me.  This created a somewhat constant battle with bees who were attracted to the pungent rotting smell of these fallen apples.  Otherwise, it was a very nice place far enough away from the highway to offer dead silent nights free of any road noise.  So, I guess I can put up with a few bees and dodging rotten apples.

One of the reasons for my stop here was to visit what would be my 12th National Park visit during this year’s RV adventure.  Cayahoga Valley National Park  was originally designated as a National Recreation Area in 1974, then redesignated as a national park 26 years later in 2000.  It is the only national park that originated as a national recreation area.  This 35,000 acre park preserves the rural landscape along the Cayohoga River between Akron and Cleveland Ohio.  This is very much a recreational park offering tons of hiking, biking, and mostly primitive camping among the forests, rolling hills, ravines, rivers and 100 waterfalls that exist in the park.  The Brandywine and Boston Mills ski resorts even reside within the boundaries of the park for some winter time fun.  Remnants of the Ohio and Erie Canal can be seen along the Towpath Trail.  There were a few items of interest that were reasonably accessible that I checked out including the Station Road Bridge (at left, bottom left) built in 1882 and now listed on the National Register.  From there, you get a nice view of the deck arch Brecksville-Northfield High Level Bridge (at left, top right) built in 1931.  Next I traveled further north within the national park to check out Bridal Veil Falls (at left, center and bottom right).  From the parking area it’s about a half mile hike into the forest on a well marked trail and traversing several sets of wooden stairs to get to the stair-step rock formation along Deerlick Creek that forms the falls.  The water was not running heavily on my visit which limited the falls action, but it was a nice and peaceful place to visit non the less.

I think I’ve mentioned in the past that Roadside sometimes takes me to a cemetery to visit the gravesite of some interesting or famous person.  Such was the case in Cleveland, OH where I was directed to Lake View Cemetery to visit the graves of several notable folks.  One of which was Ray Chapman (at right, top) – a lifelong center fielder for the Cleveland Indians.  He would have the sad distinction as being the only baseball player killed by a baseball during a major league game.  It was on Aug 16, 1920 when a pitch thrown by Yankee pitcher Carl Mays struck Chapman in the head and 12 hours later he died from that head injury.  As you might imagine, his gravesite has lots of baseballs, gloves, hats, and other memorabilia from adoring fans. Next was the grave of Harvey Pekar (right, bottom right) fully covered with hundreds of pens stabbed into the ground by his fans.  Harvey was a famous underground comic author of “American Splendor”, and also starred in the movie of his life also titled “American Splendor”.  Definately in interesting gravesite.  Next up was the resting place of our 20th president, James Garfield (at right, bottom left).  Not a tombstone, or even a simple mausoleum, but rather a full blown castle.  There was construction going on around it at the time, so a visit inside was not possible which is unfortunate as the inside is beautiful as I’ve seen from pictures.  Maybe next time.

Also residing in this cemetary is John D. Rockefeller Sr (left, bottom right) – widely considered the wealthiest American of all time.  He founded the Standard Oil Company in 1870, and at one time, controlled 90% of all oil in the Unites States at its peak.  Now thats wealthy!  The next grave on this tour was to none other than Eliot Ness (left, bottom left) – the lead agent of a prohibition team known as the Untouchables.  This group was formed by President Hoover to crack down on bootlegging, and to bring down the gangster nicknamed Scarface – aka Al Capone.  Eliot was quite the legend and over the years has had books, movies, and TV series developed all based upon his life. Last up will likely be a name you’ve never heard of – at least that was true in my case.  A simple grave marker lies on a hillside noting the burial spot of Garrett Morgan (left, top).  Garrett was not listed in Roadside, but rather I noted his presence here in the cemetary via a Google Maps entry.  Curious, I dug into him a bit and found him to be very interesting, and oh so worthy of a mention here in the blog.  Garrett Augustus Morgan, Sr was born on March 4, 1877, 7th of 11 children, in Paris Kentucky – an almost exclusively African American community.   His father was Sydney Morgan, a son and freed slave of Confederate General John Morgan of Morgan’s Raiders fame.  Garrett only received a sixth grade education, then moved to Cincinnati, OH at the age of 14 in search of work.  Most of his teenage years were working as a handyman.  At age 18, he moved to Cleveland and began repairing sewing machines.  He was quite smart and a tinkerer, and his first invention was a belt fastener for sewing machines.  Later, he invented a zigzag attachment.  In 1907, he opened his own sewing machine shop, but soon after grew tired of this business and wanted to pursue his own inventions.  He also became very active in civic causes and formed the Cleveland Association of Colored Men in 1908.  His first patent came in 1912 when he invented a number of hair care products including hair coloring and straightening cream, and a specialized straightening comb he invented.  In 1914, his design for a smoke hood (modern day gas mask) won him another patent.  What I found most interesting was in 1923, after witnessing a horrible crash at an intersection between a car and horse drawn buggy, he developed a new way to safely manage traffic. The traffic signal Morgan created, patented in the U.S. on November 20, 1923, and in Great Britain and Canada shortly thereafter, consisted of a T-shaped pole with three positions: “Stop,” “Go,” and a third position that halted traffic in all directions to enable pedestrians to safely cross the intersection. Morgan sold the rights to his invention to the General Electric Company for $40,000 – an astronomical sum at the time. So he essentially invented the modern day traffic signal.  Though Garrett had a fairly successful and prosperous life, it wasn’t until after his death that he would receive national recognition.  Today, there are schools named after him in both Cleveland and Kentucky, and several streets bearing his name including Garrett Morgan Blvd in PG County Maryland.  He was also included in the 2002 book “100 Greatest African Americans”.  What an interesting and extremely talented guy!

There were a number of other interesting Roadside places to visit in this area.  First up was this so called Flintstone House located in a rural residential area in Painesville, OH.  This 3,400 square-foot main home has five bedrooms and two bathrooms.  There’s even a separate guest house on the property.  Built in 1970 by Wayne Trapp from metal rods covered in wire mesh then two layers of smooth concrete, this unique home is like no other.  It was reported that the current homeowner since 2000 named Kristoff is known to give impromptu tours to curious onlookers.  I was sure to hang around taking pictures for some time, but alas no luck in getting an inside invite.  Next, I visited this amazing metal geodesic seemingly straight out of the TV series “The Dome”.  At 274 feet across, over 100 feet tall, and weighing in at around 80 tons, this amazing structure serves as a canopy over the world headquarters of the American Society of Metals (ASM) International in Novelty, OH.  Built in 1958, this dome is made up of 13 miles of aluminum tubing cut into something like 65,000 parts, then welded into hexagons to form this amazing geodesic structure.  All I can say is WOW!

I then took a drive to the quaint little summer resort town of Geneva On The Lake, OH – located on the southern shore of Lake Erie.  This quaint little summer village with a population of less than 1,000 was very similar to pretty much any coastal beach town tourist area with walkable Main Street, lots of restaurants, bars, gift shops, arcades, and the like.  One of its main claim to fame however is its putt-putt or aka miniature golf course.  First opened in 1924, it claims to be the oldest miniature golf course in the Unites States in continuous operation.  I would imagine next summer will be filled with special celebrations to welcome its 100th anniversary.  With this being mid Sept and the end of the summer season, the course, along with pretty much everything else in town, was closed for the season.  But I did walk around a bit, got a view of Lake Erie, and the Farris Wheel that adorns its shores.  Looks to be a pretty cool little town that would be fun to enjoy during the summer.

Finally, I drove around chasing after what would be the smallest, and longest, and craziest covered wooden bridges in the country.  The longest covered bridge in the country (at right, bottom left) is located in Ashtabula, OH.  Dedicated in 2008, it spans across the Ashtabula River and is 613 feet long – beating out the previous record holder of the 449-foot Cornish-Windsor Covered Bridge built in 1866 that spans between Vermont and New Hampshire.  I also visited the world’s shortest and smallest covered bridge located in Geneva, OH.  It was designed by engineer John Smolen – the same person who designed the longest covered bridge noted above.  It was completed in Oct of 2011, and spans the Cowles Creek at a whopping 18 feet making it the shortest covered bridge in the country.  Finally, not to be outdone by all the covered bridges in the area of northwestern OH, some as record holding bridges,  the town of North Kingsville got its own covered bridge.  Originally built in 1862, it was dismantled, moved to a vacant lot in town, then turned into a pizza parlor that has been in operation since 1975.  It must make a really great pie as while I was there taking pictures, there was a lot of traffic stopping in to pickup a pizza to go.

Grand Island, NY

I landed in Grand Island on a Friday afternoon, and the following day on Saturday, I had the pleasure of hosting a lasagna dinner followed by a campfire and s’mores with some local friends.  Dezeree is the daughter of my former coworker Jim, and his wife and my friend JoAnne – both of whom passed away over the past several years way to soon and way to young from that nasty killer cancer.  Jim passed back during my working days, and I remained friends with JoAnne thereafter, even seeing her in hospice care just a couple days prior to her death a couple years ago.  During all that time, I also had the pleasure of meeting with all their family, three daughters and a son, and have remained close and in contact with them since.  Dez lives here in the Niagara Falls area, so she and son Dorian came out to the campground to have some camping fun.  It was great seeing her again, and I especially enjoyed taking in the fun of camping life with them.  Thanks Dez and Dorian for the wonderful visit!

I’ve been to Niagara Falls several times over the years – including a camping trip over on the Canadian side when the girls were young.  But, like many other natural wonders, the falls are always a spectacular sight to see.  I got a terrific tip from a friend and area local to park in a free area just down the road from the main center, then take a nice walk along the rapids of the Niagara River to the trolly station.  There, I can get a $3.00 day-pass and use the trolly to visit all over the park.  That turned out to be an excellent suggestion!  The walk along the rapids was awesome, and I took the trolly to visit various viewing points on Goat Island.  Such a wonderful falls.  Now for some specs – the U.S. side of the falls, known as Bridal Veil Falls, dumps upwards of 65,000 gallons of water per second, while the Canadian side, Horshoe Falls, is ten time that with 675,000 gallons per second.  In either case, it’s an amazing amount of water,  The Niagara River which feeds the falls flows up to 35 miles per hour, and its rapids are rated as Class VI – the highest and most dangerous class, deemed to be life threatening.  As our tour guide so succinctly pointed out, if the rapids don’t kill you, the sudden drop at the far end certainly will.  So true!  Anyway, the falls is really beautiful, and pictures don’t fully represent its beauty.  So, I shot some video and stitched those along with some still images into a video.  I hope you enjoy it.

As I noted above, I’ve been to this region of NY many times, but mostly work related.  While I did have the opportunity to check out the falls more than once during my business trips, I didn’t have the luxury of a lot of spare time to check out the other cool and interesting things there are to see in the area.  So, with a full week’s stay planned here, I had lots of opportunity to do so.  One of those trips took me to downtown Buffalo, and the vast cemetery called Forest Lawn.  Lots of famous and otherwise interesting folks are buried here.  The first resting place I saw there was not necessarily of someone famous, but rather a very interesting custom burial lot.  Wealthy parents Mr and Mrs Blocher were so saddened over the death of their adult son, they had a fancy marble tomb created with statues of the two parents looking down on their son with an angel overhead.  All of this is covered by a glass windowed gazebo (at left, top).  Very fancy indeed!  Also present was a stair-stepped architectural piece titled Blue Sky Mousoleum (at left, bottom center) designed by none other than Frank Lloyd Wright.  A really nice firefighter section (at left, bottom left)  has a tall firefighter statue at its center, and is surrounded by those who lost their life in this noble service.  Last up in this collection is the gravesite with a stone simply with the name Carrier.  Homeowners may recognize this name associated with their air conditioning system.  In fact, this gravesite is the final resting place of Willis Carrier – an engineer best known for inventing modern air conditioning, and founder of Carrier Corp which continues to manufacture HVAC systems to this day.

There were many other notables here in this cemetery, including our 13th president Millard Fillmore (at right, left side).  He was elected in the 1848 election as Zachary Taylor’s VP, and was elevated to President upon Taylor’s death two years later.  He was a native and lifelong resident of NY.  Also buried here is William Fargo (at right, top right) a pioneer American who, with partner Henry Wells, formed what we know as Wells Fargo.   An upright Napoleon barrel marks the burial site of Civil War Union Army Officer Bayard Wilkeson (at right, upper center right).  As a 1st Lieutenant , he was in command of a battery on the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg.  While riding his horse up and down barking orders to his troops, his leg got mangled by an artillery shell.  He reportedly fell off his horse, tied off his leg, and using his pocket knife, amputated the rest of his severely damaged leg.  He was taken to a nearby field hospital, but died that night.  Bayard’s grandfather, Samual Wilkeson is buried nearby, and was involved in NY politics from 1824 thru 1837, serving as a member of the State Assembly, as a NY State Senator, and finally as the 5th mayor of Buffalo.  Finally, I wrapped up my visit to Forest Lawn with a visit to the gravesite of American-Canadian singer-songwriter and musician James Ambrose Johnson, or as he’s better known by his stage name, Rick James.  He was born and raised here in Buffalo, and had a successful music career with Motown Records.  Besides his music fame, he was known for having joined the US Navy Reserve in order to avoid being drafted into the Army, then later moved to Toronto and formed a music band.  He later was captured by military authorities and was convicted of desertion and served several months in prison.  Otherwise, he had a fairly prolific career in the rock and funk music scene.

While in downtown Buffalo, I drove by the Buffalo Art Museum to take in a few of their art pieces located outside.  Among them was this large grouping of 60 canoes attached to a pole created by artist Nancy Rubins and titled “Stainless Steel Aluminium Monochrome 1”.  Unofficially, this is called a “giant pile of canoes on a pole” and is the third art piece in the series by Rubins after her Las Vegas “giant pile of boats on a pole”, and the LA “giant pile of airplane parts on a pole”.  Very interesting!  Honestly, I often lack appreciation for weird art, but this next piece had me mesmerized.  Titled “Karma” by artist Do Ho Suh, this piece is a  man, crouching on the shoulders of another man, each holding his hands over the eyes of the other below, continuing skyward extending to what seems like infinity.  This was such a cool piece!  It was actually only 23 feet tall, but seems to go all the way to the clouds.  Amazing!  Lastly, off in the distance was this tree-like thing with all the roots above ground.  Not sure about this one.

There were a few other Roadside items of interest in the area.  First up was this tower of pay phones that sits in front of a downtown pub.  Titled “Don’t Drop a Dime on Me”, is made up of 36 pay phones salvaged and collected from other Buffalo-area bars, was created in 2019 at the Essex Art Center and includes a couple of metal people talking into the handsets.  Pretty cool!  Next, I visited a rock that marks the location where President William McKinley, the 25th President, was fatally shot.  Located on Fordham Dr on the north side of Buffalo, it was this spot that deranged anarchist Leon Czolgosz shot then President McKinley.  He died 8 days later from his wounds, while Czolgosz followed soon thereafter via the electric chair.  Last up was this crazy residential house that has an attached lighthouse.  There’s not much about its purpose or history, or even if it is a functioning lishthouse – though I’d imagine neighbors would not be too pleased if it were operational.

There were some other interesting houses to check out in the area.  The very colorful house known as the “Second Coming House of Prophet Isaiah” (at left, center left) was pretty interesting. The prophet Isaiah Robertson died in 2020, but his house still stands waiting for judgement day.  It seems he was directed by God to decorate his house in advance of the Second Coming – schedule to happen in 2014.  Alas, it has not come to pass.  The house is currently undergoing restoration by the Kohler Foundation with plans for limited inside tours later in 2023.  Another residential house of interest is the one having a giant 12-foot human skeleton on its roof.  This is not merely a sessional decoration, but reportedly stays on the house year round.  It is even reportedly dressed up to correspond with various holidays.  Last up, is this unique building that sits next to Niagara Falls State Park.  This 60,000 sq ft building is fashioned in this form of a turtle, and was once home to the Native American Cultural Center.  Today, it stands empty looking for a new owner or tenant.  While the ground level picture clearly shows the turtle head, the Google maps aerial view clearly shows its overall turtle design.

Next, I took a trip to Eden, NY, about 30 miles south of Grand Island,  to visit the Original Kazoo Co factory and museum.  Long time readers of this blog may recall that I visited another Kazoo factory and museum during my trip through SC back in Sep 2021 on my way to my home base in FL.  While Beaufort, SC is home to the plastic Kazoo factory, the Eden, NY factory produces the original metal versions.  In continuous operation since 1916, this rural town factory still uses the same overhead belt driven stamp and punch equipment to cut and form the signature musical instrument.  Also on display was a nice collection of various other models of the metal Kazoo, including some more recent car, tractor, and even an ear of corn versions.  The factory was up and running during my visit, and it was absolutely amazing to see these devices, made up into several stations of production, to punch, stamp, and form the sheet metal blanks into the final product.  Interestingly, ownership of the Kazoo Co name and all assets, including the factory, were turned over in 2002 to an organization called Suburban Adult Services (SASI), whose mission is  “Transforming lives through creative opportunities and excellent supports for people with disabilities and special needs”.  It was wonderful to see many folks in this category performing many tasks of the production, and having meaningful employment.  Well done Kazoo and SASI!

After visiting the Kazoo factory, I stopped in Orchard Park to take a hike and visit what is known as the Eternal Flame.  Now this was very cool!  Located in a ravine within Chestnut Ridge Park, behind 30-foot creek-fed  cascading waterfall, is a flame that reportedly has been burning since prehistoric times.  It’s actually a never ending seepage of natural gas that comes up through cracks and fractures in the shale and provides a never ending fuel source for a flame.  This flame has been awarded a world record for longevity by the National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology.  It was really awesome to see in person, but despite the sign at the head of the trail suggesting the hike was just over a mile round trip and rated as “moderate”, this was quite the adventure.  Getting down into the ravine required traversing what seemed like hundreds of stairs, followed by a hike along a wet and slippery creek bed with an occasional obstacle of a fallen tree that needed to be hurdled.  It was a challenging hike, but the destination so worth the effort.  I put together a short video that provides additional commentary and video footage of the actual flame.  Enjoy!

Another day, I took a drive about 20 miles to the north east to Lockport, NY to get a glimpse of the Erie Canal.  I don’t think I’ve seen the canal before, at least I have no memory of it, so this would likely be a first for me.  Built in 1825, this canal spans upstate NY connecting the Hudson River to the east, with Lake Erie to the west.  All in, this waterway formed the first navigable pathway linking the Atlantic Ocean to the Great Lakes, and was largely responsible for the countries westward expansion. The canal runs over 350 miles, and contains 36 locks along the way making its necessary water elevation changes.  Lockport is home to perhaps the most iconic of all locks along the waterway, known as the “flight of five” (at right, bottom left).  Originally back in the early 1800 when the canal was built, this section of canal contained two rows of 5 consecutive wooden hand-cranked locks that would raise or lower boats a full 60 feet of elevation change.  Later in the 1900s, a two-lock steel section was built (at right, top left), while the one remaining 5-step section was retained as a spillway for excess water.  Also included is an art piece created by Susan Geissler from an 1897 picture that depicts the taking of a picture of then lock tenders – those who guided boats in and out of the locks as well as working the gates.  What makes this art piece kinda unique is that it also includes a sculpture of the photographer who took the picture.  Very cool!  As I walked down the street to visit the canal, I passed a building that used to be the town’s city hall – now a commercial building with various offices and restaurants.  An outside sign caught my eye with the word “Stooges” on it.  Being the lifelong Three Stooge fan and one-time avid collector of Stooge memorabilia, I had to go check it out.  It was a pub/restaurant, but sadly had no affiliation or reference to the Three Stooges, but rather just the name Stooges.  Oh well!

Also in Lockport was this Roadside anomaly that they titled the Upside-Down Bridge.  It was built in 1902 and spans across the Erie Canal with its single set of railroad tracks that are still in use today.  Legend has it that the bridge was built sort of upside down this way intentionally by the railroad to incumber and prevent large loads of goods from being carried by boat along the canal system – thus directing more trade through the railway.  Sort of the “If you can’t beat ‘em, block ‘em” theory.  Supposedly, this design is not unique, but is reportedly rare.  So, who knows for sure why this was built the way it was.  Viewing of the bridge was said to be best from a small local park called Upson Park, so that is where I went.  Besides having a great view of the bridge, the park also features the remnants of an old timber mill that once operated here along the canal.  So, that was pretty cool to see also.

I spent my final full day as tourist here in this area checking out North Tonawanda.  There I would find the Herschel Carrousel Factory Museum, and what an amazing sight to see!  This factory was one of the largest carousel producing facilities in the United States, and is the only carousel museum housed in its original factory building.  I arrived here early afternoon, apparently just missing a bus load of kids who were there earlier in the day.  As it was, I was pretty much the only visitor at the time, which certainly was to my benefit.  A museum guide named Druscilla, or as she goes by her preferred name “Docent Dru”, afforded me a one-on-one personal guided and narrated tour of the entire facility.  What an absolute special treat!   She was so knowledgeable with the companie’s history and full of interesting anecdotes making my visit all the more special.  This factory began operation in 1915 led by Allan Herschell, and produced custom made carousels here thru the 1950s, when they relocated to downtown Buffalo.  This factory was the complete setup – a woodworking shop to create the horses and other carousel artifacts, a pain shop to bring the wood carvings to life, and a machine shop to produce all the metal pieces like cranks, gears and things necessary to operate the mechanical components.  There was even a large roundhouse where the completed carousel would be setup for quality and safety testing, before being dismantled and shipped to the designated customer.  After closing in the 1950s, the factory remained vacant and quickly declined,  The roundhouse building roof, made of canvas at the time, collapsed in a snow storm, and the rest of the buildings were in major disrepair.  It was about 1977 when a group of woman decided to restore the building to its former glory, and create a museum honoring Allan Herschell and his achievements.  The transformation was stunning.  From its deteriorated state (above, center left) to how it is today (above, top) is simply amazing.  A new roundhouse was built (above, center right) and now holds a complete and fully operational 1916 Number 1 Special Carrousel (left) – one of the first carousels to have been built here in this factory.  In fact, the old factory had no leftovers from its manufacturing days, so its entire collection of artifacts on display, including this amazing carousel, have been acquired since the restoration.  All the rides on this carousel are original to the time period, and even includes a rare spinner ride (at left, top right).  A fully functioning band organ (at left, center right) provides the background music for total ride authenticity.  The overall artwork and colorful paint found on this carousel is just stunning, and looks exactly as it would have some 100 years prior.  Truly amazing!

The horses were all hand carved in the wood shop.  Journeymen carvers would do simple elements like the bodies and legs and tail and such, while the more experienced master carvers would do the heads and complete the final assembly.  Solid pieces of wood were avoided due to the potential of splitting over time.  Instead, boards of basswood or yellow poplar were glued together to form the necessary bulk from which the horse pieces would then be carved.  After assembly, they would move to the paint shop where many coats of base and final paint would be added to bring these beautifully carved pieces to life.  Today, while manufacturing of new horses is rare here in the operational shop, they do perform touch up and restoration services for customers all over the globe.

Last up in this world wind tour was a look at this collection of band organs.  The museum is home to 13 functioning band organs, each playing their recognizable signature sounds so often associated with the carousel.  What was also very interesting is this museum houses one of the largest collections of music roll masters, and the associated machines used to produce music rolls from those masters.  Rows upon rows of shelves contain the masters of all sorts of music like polkas, marching band, and other orchestral favorites that are used in instruments such as the player piano, mechanical organ, and the electronic carillon.  What an amazing collection!  Also, little did I know, the famous company Wurlitzer who made all these band organs and music roll masters is also located here in North Tonawanda.  So, I did a drive by to have a look.  Wurlitzer is famous for making band organs, player pianos, and pipe or theater organs in the late 1800s, then evolving to regular and electric pianos, electric organs, and eventually jukeboxes through the mid to late 1900s.  The manufacturing plant closed in 1973, and in the early 1980s was purchased and converted into an industrial park.  Today it holds a variety of restaurants and retail shops, a banquet venue and others, and is a very nicely done repurpose of an old factory.  Well done!

My last and final events here in Grand Island included visiting the Raymond Klimek Veterans Park and the Navy Seabees Memorial.  This really nice park sits along the shores of the Niagara River and pays tribute to those who were part of the Navy Construction Battalion, who call themselves Seabees, who built roads, bridges, and airfields – often in war zones under enemy fire.  It was a really nice memorial.  Finally, as I had looked forward to for the entire week I was here in Grand Island, was a visit with Paula, who is a loyal follower of this blog, and sister of my friend JoAnne.  We had a terrific dinner at one of my favorite restaurants named Dick and Jenny’s – located here on the island.  It was nice seeing Paula again, and catching up with her.  Thanks for an enjoyable get together, and a terrific meal!

Final Thoughts

Well, I find myself once again with a very long blog.  While it literally only covers my travels within three stops, it is clearly evident that there were certainly lots of things to see and experience in those locations.  I’ve got a couple more stops in NY ahead of me, then I’ll land in my hometown of NH where I’ll spend a couple weeks catching up with lots of friends and family, and also attending my 50th anniversary get together with my friends from elementary school.  So, lots to look forward to.  Now, a quick rant about the weather.  It seems like I went from the sweltering heat of the southwest, all through WY and NE, only to arrive in OH and NY to lousy, cloudy, rainy and cold (60s is cold to me) weather.  I’ve not had the need for my AC for the past two weeks, but I sure have had my heat producing fireplace turned on.  Geez – what happened to late summer early fall?  Seems like we zoomed from blazing hot to chilly fall without benefit of the weather in between.  At this point, I’m almost looking forward to getting back to FL for some warmth!  Ok, rant over.  Till next time, be well and safe travels.

I only show a sampling of my adventure pictures here in the blog, and do so mostly in collage format for brevity and ease of reading. If you want to view an album containing individual full fidelity and hi-res images of all my travel pictures related to this specific blog, click the image below. Enjoy!