Massena NY & Niagara Falls NY

FRI August 27th

Massena is a town in northern NY State and is nicknamed "The Gateway to the Fourth Coast". The population was 13,121 at the 2000 census. The town of Massena contains a village also called Massena. The town and its village are named after a hero of the Napoleonic Wars.

Drove over to Massena NY and to the Saint Lawrence Seaway and the Eisenhower Lock where Dad had a job in 1957-1959 as Marine Superintendent. They only had half-day school in Massena at that time because of the large influx of workers for the Seaway and Mom said I needed the benefits of full-day school so off to Denver I was sent for my last 2-years of high school. [And the recent 50th anniversary celebration was a hoot!]

The Seaway was/is a big engineering feat and unfortunately ocean cargo carrying ships have gotten larger and larger and so now only the smaller ships and ships specially designed for the Great Lakes use it; but still a lot of tonnage pass through its locks.

Forgot, on my way to Massena, I drove over the Erie Canal, another example of how important moving material by water is.

There are a lot of hippies in northern NY, long hair & headbands, clothes right out of the 60s with the women in peasant blouses.

Listening to the radio you don’t want a DUI conviction in NY State. The announcement on the radio said if convicted, every car you owned, or drove, had to be equipped with installed breathalizer connected with a no-go switch for the car’s ignition; passed the breathalizer and you can turn the car on and drive, don’t pass and you can’t start the car. Plus you are subject to random checks and at anytime you are found in non-compliance it is back to court. Don’t drink and drive in NY.

From Massena drove southwest to Niagara Falls roughly paralleling the St Lawrence River and through the Thousand Island area, very pretty but I also saw lots of firewood stacked for the winter.

Niagara Falls was pretty awesome also; lots of water and the noise broadcast the power and might of the moving river.

It has been cool with off/on showers the last two days but luckily the showers have been when I was asleep or driving the car.

When passing through Buffalo NY I noticed figures of Buffalo at the Interstate exit to the airport and I remembered the Bronco statue at the Denver airport. Is this a thing that I am not aware of re the NFL teams or is it just these two cities? And what came first, the chicken [Buffalo] or the egg [Bronco]?

SAT 8/28. Shawn, in Columbus OH on I-270W about Exit 17B there is a big Cardinal Health building; in case you need that information.