Lockport New York- June 20

There is a downside in experiencing spring for about four months; all the way from Texas,Florida,Virginia, over to Missouri and then in the northern states of Michigan and New York. The downside has been the rain. And we had another heavy day of rain today. This campground now has more lakes than I can count(they seemed to have increased since yesterday). And as if we have not seen enough water, we took a took a boat ride on the Erie Canal today. John especially wanted to have the experience of going through the Lockport Locks on the canal. The first picture here is of John watching our boat rise in the first lock. You may notice the dark water line on the wall of the canal- that is how far up the boat has to rise before it is moved out of the first lock. In the next lock it is raised another 25 feet(total of 50 feet). Coming back through the locks the opposite happens. The rain was down to a drizzle while we took the boat tour. But we got dripped on quite heavily when we took a cave tour after the boat ride. The cave actually was made by man in the 1800s, and is located alongside the Erie canal. It was blasted out with the gun powder left over from the war of 1812. The idea was to divert the water from the canal to provide water power to three industries. One of the industries made fire hydrants, another made bran dusters, and the third produced wooden bowls and buckets. Eventually these industries closed and the Hydraulic Tunnel was turned into a cave for tourists. The picture I have posted here is of the entrance to the large pipe of the tunnel (called a penstock). And that is our tour guide in the picture. It was necessary to take a boat through part of the tunnel. What was especially fascinating on this tour was to see the cave formations which are at their early stages of development.