Our trip, this day, is only 20 miles to the quaint town of Fairport. While we could have traveled further and knocked off more miles, our goal is to stop and explore different areas along the way.
We pass through 2 locks today, 29 and 30. To be honest, locking is getting tiresome and I will be happy to be done with all locks. While we haven’t had any issues, they do slow your travel.
We arrive to the small town of Fairport. It is one of the more popular places along the Erie Canal and the number of boats tied up to the village wall proves this point. They log 2,000 nightly boat stays annually. We sandwich Prime 11 between two boats and are thankful we arrived early in the afternoon to claim our spot.
The nightly rate for boats over 40′ is $17.00. This includes electric and water hookup. The dockmaster comes and collects our fee and also provides us with a welcome bag with Fairport maps, information, a magnet, and a free book!
We take a walk across the famous Main Street Lift Bridge. The Main Street Lift Bridge is the only lift bridge in the world built on an incline (according to Ripley’s Believe it or Not). The bridge is an irregular decagon, having no 2 angles the same and no square corners. It was built in 1913 for $75,000. It clears the water by 6′ in the down position and when lifted, by 15′. The deck of the bridge has sidewalks, accessible by pedestrians when it is in the down position AND when it is in the up position. In 1987, the bridge controls were replaced by computer controls at a cost of $2.2 million, many times the cost of building the bridge!
We also notice two unique canal boats docked along the wall. We have been told to be wary of these canal boats as they are charter rentals and the experience level of each operator can very dramatically. 😱
We enjoy exploring Fairport for the day and all the unique sights we find.
We have wine at an outdoor venue, listening to a guitarist, and follow up with dinner at the Porterhouse Steak Scotch and Seafood (how can Captain Tom resist that place?).
