The weather had cleared up the next morning, and we were greeted by clear blue skies and sun, strolling along the pier and small beach. Sheila enjoyed the stroll as well, getting sand in between her toes, although she was too quick for Lisette and managed to chomp and swallow something on the sand (a bit of dead bird?) before Lisette could react! Grr...
We were redlining our freshwater tank, as there hadn't been many options to refill and dump for days, but found a free (yay!) place to do this at a Camping World branch on the way to Buffalo. Have you ever needed to use the free facilities of a place (in this case the refill/dump and the restrooms) but try to make it seem like you're not too much of a freeloader by either trying to be discreet (let me use them while the employees are distracted), or making small talk (they see me, and I'm not a bad person?). I think we've tried both strategies, it just depends on the place!
Buffalo on Bike
After the relief of getting the water refill/dump done, we drove on to the city of Buffalo, which is in the western part of New York state, close to the Canadian border and sitting along Lake Erie. There's immediate signs of industry as we drove in--we saw Silo City, 14 acres of industrial land with the world's largest collection of historical grain elevators. You can tour the silos, and today it also is a music, arts and events venue, with a bar and restaurant within the complex. There's even a company that rents out kayaks and stand-up paddle boards to tour around the area.
Once we arrived in Buffalo, we found a place to park near Shark Girl, a quirky sculpture of a girl in a blue dress with a shark's head, sitting on a bench! We got our e-bikes ready, excited to explore the city. And we went on one e-bike each like we did in Cleveland, with Sheila and her dog trailer attached again to Michael's e-bike. Sheila has gotten used to being on her trailer now--she didn't like it at first and tried to even escape while we were in motion, but she looks like she's enjoying the opportunity to sightsee, and have the wind run through her fur while we breeze past buildings and along roads!
We first saw the striking buildings of the Pearl Street Grill and Brewery (a historic 4-level warehouse) and the Guaranty Building (one of Buffalo's first skyscrapers, formerly called the Prudential Building, and completed in 1896). Then it was a quick stop at Buffalo City Hall, a mammoth, 32-story Art Deco skyscraper completed in 1931. It looks like multiple buildings clustered around one big tower in the middle. We love Art Deco architecture--it's always so opulent and rich in character. Can we bring back Art Deco when constructing more buildings, please? City Hall is looking at Niagara Square, a public plaza downtown that also has the impressive McKinley Monument in the middle, a massive, 96 foot (29 meter) white obelisk commemorating US President McKinley, who was assassinated in 1907 in the city.
Handcrafted Design and Architecture
It was a lengthier (but not too long!) cycle to get to Stitch Buffalo on Buffalo's West Side. It's a textile art center that empowers refugees and immigrant women to sell handcrafted goods, and also offers communal classes and a thrift store of textile supplies. Walking into the center, the store is at the front, which has a lot of the items that have been crafted by women immigrants, including bags, jewelry and ornaments. What's great about these items is that each include a tag with the name of the lady who made the item, and where she is from--we saw goods from women hailing from Afghanistan, Ukraine, and Bhutan, to name a few countries. The back of the center has an area where women were coming together to make items (and it's here that workshops are also held for the public).
Heading back towards Lake Erie, we saw the Connecticut Street Armory, a beautiful, castle-like structure built in 1899 that was once home to the New York National Guard. It's simply an incredible architectural feat to look at! Once we got to the lake, we saw the Fontana Boathouse, designed by the famous architect and designer, Frank Lloyd Wright. We could immediately see his classic design elements in the building, including the flat roof, straight lines, and strategic use of natural light. What's interesting about the boathouse was that it was designed for a site in Wisconsin back in 1905, but was only built over a century later, in 2007. We didn't go inside, but we couldn't help wondering if it would have been constructed differently had Frank Lloyd Wright been around to oversee it, or if he would have stuck to the original design.
Cycling into the road leading to the Richardson Olmsted Campus, we initially thought (thanks to its name) that we were maybe entering a university. But if that's the case, why was it so quiet? It's because it's actually once a mental health asylum, and is now in the process of being converted to include a hotel, and hold events (there were signs of an upcoming fall food festival with stalls). However, the impressive buildings remain open for tours. Near this area, however, is actually a university--the University of Buffalo, and we headed there to see the St. Calasanctius Mural, an 18 foot (5.4 meter) by 12 foot (3.65 meter) mural created by the Polish artist Józef Slawiński in 1967 of Joseph Calasanctius, the founder of the Piarist order and patron saint of Catholic schools. What's unique about this mural is that it was created in sgraffito, a mural-making technique where layers of colored plaster are applied to a wall, and it's then scraped away to reveal the color of the coat below. This mural uses 4 layers of colored concrete to achieve the final image.
We were cycling through the historic neighborhood of Allentown, but quickly braked along the footpath when we noticed that the area is filled with colorful houses! Apparently starting in the 1960s, many of these Victorian-style homes were brightly painted in a style known as "painted ladies", a trend that continues to this day. The homes are painted in the most vibrant colors you can imagine--pinks, purples, yellows, oranges and greens--adding to their individual charm.
Buffalo's Black History
Buffalo also has an African American Heritage Corridor, a neighborhood that focuses on showcasing the city's African American history with its shops, restaurants, historical markers, and other structures and events. One notable building is The Colored Musicians Club & Jazz Museum, the only continuously running, all-Black-owned music venue in the US. The building is currently undergoing renovation, so it looked like it was closed when we went there, but there's some cool murals around it.
And before we knew it, we were back near Shark Girl, going back to the RV! While we didn't go into a lot of the buildings, it was fun to explore Buffalo on e-Bike. But the show (or should we say the RV road trip) must go on!
The Magnificence of Niagara Falls
From Buffalo, it's only 25 minutes' drive or so to Niagara Falls, and we couldn't believe that we were so close to Canada--there was one exit off the highway that would have taken us right there! Lisette had visited the falls years ago as a teenager, but it was in the dead of winter, there was nobody there (because people were staying away from the cold and blizzard that also happened that year!), and walking around was a perilous affair--if she wasn't trying to slip on the icy roads, she and her family were trying to avoid having a branch fall on us from the weight of the snow!
It was a much different experience this time, fortunately. We figured that parking within the Niagara Falls State Park would be challenging in an RV, so we parked on the other side of the bridge connecting to the islands within the State Park, and got one e-Bike down for us to share (sans Sheila). Our first stop was to see Bridal Veil Falls. There are actually 3 waterfalls that make up Niagara Falls: Horseshoe Falls, American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls. And while Bridal Veil is the smallest of the 3, it's still a very respectable 181 feet (55 meters) in height! Near the viewing point for Bridal Veil, there's a statue of Nikola Tesla, elevated on a platform and reading a book (many people try to clamber up to sit on it, so the bronze pages are probably rather worn from everyone rubbing up on it!). Tesla found a way to harness Niagara Falls' power to generate electricity using his alternating current (AC) system, resulting in the first large-scale hydroelectric plant in the world--which is the foundation for electricity today.
The biggest of the 3 waterfalls is Horseshoe Falls, which stands not much higher than Bridal Veil Falls at 188 feet (57 meters). However, it has 90% of the river's total flow, which is equivalent to about 681,750 gallons per second! The falls were so powerful that it caused a huge backsplash or updraft, making it seem like there was also a mist of water rising upwards as well as crashing down below. We looked at Horseshoe Falls from Terrapin Point (one of the most popular places to view the falls), but we could also see another level below where people were viewing. The difference was that they all had to wear waterproof ponchos or raincoats because they were getting completely drenched from the platform! There was also a cruise boat sailing along the Niagara River, approaching Horseshoe Falls slowly, but just as surely getting all the passengers drenched! Niagara Falls is definitely an awesome, awe-inspiring place to visit, and it's incredible to see the sheer, nonstop power of the falls.
Other Sights in Niagara
Niagara Falls is also a city in New York, and besides the falls, we also checked out the quirkiest and most colorful house here, called the Prophet Isaiah's Second Coming House. While the house has a religious purpose and message, it looked almost like a gingerbread house that you'd see and read about in a fairytale!
By the time we arrived at the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center, a museum dedicated to the underground railroad, it was closed. It's within the Amtrak Niagara Falls Station traveling across the country. So it was quiet when we got there, but worth a stop for us to take photos of some of the lovely murals across the street, which looked like they were by local artists, including some uplifting messages. Because it was late in the day, we also weren't able to visit Niagara Power Vista (although it may be better to book a tour in advance), where visitors can get behind the scenes of New York's renewable hydropower. We did drive past it though and saw all the massive generators and transmission lines--it looked awesome! Unfortunately there was nowhere for us to stop the RV along the road, so we'll have to remember seeing this with our memories!
Another Peaceful Stop
In the evening, we powered (get it?) past Niagara Falls, passing through a charming Amish community to finally arrive at Yates Town Park, a local park overlooking the Great Lake Ontario. There was only one couple wandering around the park when we got there, and the last folks arrived and parked directly behind us around 11pm, but they didn't end up staying overnight. It's a really pretty and clean park for people to walk around--when we were there the trees had all their beautiful autumnal leaves, and there's a walkway leading up to the lake viewing area. Another peaceful and gorgeous place to stop and rest!
