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| Rhubarb |
On our first attempt we missed the turn off for Burt, but only got a
short way down the road when we realized it, so turned around and found Murphy’s
Orchard. It really is an orchard and
they make all kinds of jellies that they sell there and in local shops as well
as flavored vinegars. The significance
is it was built by the McClew family in 1850.
His family owned the property for 4 generations. In the beginning that area was considered
Indian country and also was being fought for by the British. Mr. McClew put in a secret room under a trap
door in his barn for the dual purposes of hiding his family from the British
and the Indians and to hide run away slaves as part of the Underground Railroad
from 1850 until 1861. They have a video
presentation and you can see down into the room but it’s currently under
excavation. It is a working farm that
hosts many school field trips about farming as well as the Underground
Railroad. In the downstairs of the
original house there is a gift shop and 2 tea rooms and the kitchen. The owner for the past 37 years lives in the
upstairs. The tea room is open for
lunches, tea gatherings and bridal events.
The only thing they had fresh to sell today was rhubarb and they went
out and picked it while you waited. So I
got a couple of pounds. Not sure what I’m
going to make with it, but we both love rhubarb.
From Burt we headed into Lockport
again. Since we had plenty of time
before our tour and I had checked to see if there was an AAA location there, we
found it easily. I left the books at
home that I had ordered for this trip so we got new ones and looked in a
campground book they had to see about a place to stay on our way south from Canada. Bill wasn’t happy with the route I planned
and I hadn’t been able to find a campground the way he wanted to come back but
we found 3 possibles in the book. The
lady there gave us a lead on a place for lunch.
Since it’s Friday it was “Fryday” at the restaurant so I had Fish and
chips with no chips but slaw. The
breading was way too thick and I took most of it off but the slaw was very good
as was the fish without all that batter.
Bill had a bologna burger. He
said it was good, but he thought it would be a thick slice of bologna like I do
for him on the grill, but it was kinda shaved and piled on.
We were only a few miles from the Erie Canal Cruise location so we
headed there to check in and pay for our tickets. Once we did we checked out their building and
then walked down the street to a building that houses artists and craftsmen and
has a small military museum. The little
museum was nice and we did enjoy some of the wall art although we were not in
the market for any. The was a guy carving
a huge sea turtle from a log with a chain saw that I would have liked but Bill
constantly reminds me that we only have so much room in the RV.
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| Upsidedown railroad track over Erie Canal |
As 3:00 approached we headed back to the canal and
readied for our 2 hour tour, just a 2 hour tour. There were only 13 of us on the boat so it
was easy to walk around to get photos as we went west thru locks 34 and 35 and got a close
up look of the 5 step locks that were the originals. The two locks are back to back as we needed
to rise 50 feet. Each lock was a 25 foot
step. The old ones not in use are 10
foot each. We passed under an upside down
railroad bridge, saw the tow path along side the canal and some of the first
buildings built right along the canal.
The town of Lockport
was not there until they decided to build the locks. The process took so long and used so many
workers that the town sprang up in the process.
It’s
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| Locks almost closed |
really a pretty good size place now. We turned around and went back thru the locks
going east and passed where we started and went under 2 lifting bridges. In the normal position they are at ground
level, so even in a canoe or
kayak you’d have to duck to go under. As
taller boats approach the keeper raises the entire bridge with lifts on each
side of the canal. When it’s in the up
position pedestrians can still walk over but not while it’s moving. Cars have to wait for it to come back down
though. Further down the east side our
captain explained about “free stone houses”.
So much huge rock was blasted out for the canal and it was just piled up
on the sides that people started carting it off for free to build houses and
churches. We saw 2 of the churches and
6-7 of 30 houses that were build using free stone. There were a lot of Canadian geese, some with
babies and some ducks also. We got back
to “port” around 4:30.
 |
| Attica Prison |
Time to head back to Darien! Our co-hosts wanted us to go to a Fish Fry
meal with them tonight and we hadn’t told them what time we’d be back, so as we
entered the park we headed to their RV and they were just getting ready to
drive to our RV and see if we were back.
Perfect timing! So we headed home
and fed poor lonesome Molly and left for dinner. I The batter was really thin and crispy and the
slaw was homemade and coarse the way I like it.
Bill even had the fish but he had all the normal trimmings, fries, cole
slaw, potato salad and macaroni salad. He said the fish was really good and that’s a rare compliment from a
non-fish eater. We had seen a
 |
| Attica Prison Tower |
road sign for Attica and Bill asked our friends if that was Attica Prison. It was and they offered to take us to see it as Bill was very interested in it. That is one huge facility. They even have a farm that the less risky prisoners work on that provides most of their food source. It looks more like a fortress or something than it does a prison. I hadn’t thought about fried fish twice today
but I had the fish again with cole slaw and this fish was way better.
It was good to get home for real and go get a shower after being in the
heat and two fried food restaurants. I
needed to spend some quality time with Molly too. She was happy for me to sit in my recliner so
she could sit in my lap for a while. I
didn’t get to work on my pictures at all so won’t get this posted tonight. Not sure what our schedule it for tomorrow!
On our first attempt we missed the turn off for Burt, but only got a
short way down the road when we realized it, so turned around and found Murphy’s
Orchard. It really is an orchard and
they make all kinds of jellies that they sell there and in local shops as well
as flavored vinegars. The significance
is it was built by the McClew family in 1850.
His family owned the property for 4 generations. In the beginning that area was considered
Indian country and also was being fought for by the British. Mr. McClew put in a secret room under a trap
door in his barn for the dual purposes of hiding his family from the British
and the Indians and to hide run away slaves as part of the Underground Railroad
from 1850 until 1861. They have a video
presentation and you can see down into the room but it’s currently under
excavation. It is a working farm that
hosts many school field trips about farming as well as the Underground
Railroad. In the downstairs of the
original house there is a gift shop and 2 tea rooms and the kitchen. The owner for the past 37 years lives in the
upstairs. The tea room is open for
lunches, tea gatherings and bridal events.
The only thing they had fresh to sell today was rhubarb and they went
out and picked it while you waited. So I
got a couple of pounds. Not sure what I’m
going to make with it, but we both love rhubarb.
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