30 Aug - Coast Guard Station, Lighthouse Park, Military and Naval Museum

30 Aug
Doreen identified several lighthouses in the Buffalo NY area so we drove there via Highway 20A.  We had contemplated driving this way to get to I-90 when we leave Letchworth as it would save us several miles.  Whoo, glad we drove it in advance.  VERY hilly and height-restricted around Warsaw, in fact we would have either had to detour significantly or turned back.

We would have caught this before we took off with the RV as we cross-check our routes with a Truckers Atlas while planning our next route, but nice to know now.  I have talked with many campers along the way and most driving the bigger rigs use an RV GPS or Truckers GPS where you can program in your vehicles parameters such as weight, length and height etc and it will route you around the problem areas.  It's on my "to buy" list when we get home.

So driving through the countryside we saw a wide variety of crops:  Peaches, cherrys, apples, grapes, pears, potatoes, brocolli, wheat, corn, etc.  The further north we traveled towards Lake Ontario, fruit was the main crop and a lot of wine is produced.  We passed the turn-off for Attica prison.  We also saw a lot of dairy farming - huge dairy farms.

We made our way through Buffalo without issue and to the first lighthouse which we thought was on the Coast Guard station.

They also had an exchange (BX/PX) so we used our ID cards to gain access and picked up a snack in the well stocked but small exchange.  Come to find out the best light house access is on the outside of the fence, so we parked and walked around to Lighthouse Point Park, where the 1833 Main Lighthouse is located

A beautiful Chris Craft boat motoring around Buffalo harbor

Anchors and other marine items on display in the park.  This device warns mariners by a clanging bell.

The centerpiece of the park is the 1833 Buffalo Light.  Although you cannot access it inside, it is well-preserved and accessible since the Coast Guard station reconfigured their perimeter a few years ago.  It was rehabilitated in 1961.

Also located at the park is the North Bottle Light, a strange looking one for sure.

Doreen and the North Bottle Light

Visible from here but out in the harbor are three others:

Buffalo Water Intake Crib Light

The location of the North Reef Light

The South Buffalo Light

 We then traveled across the harbor to the Naval and Military Park.  They have a museum area, two ships and a submarine on display along with a couple airplanes and a nice memorial park.

With the dog back in the RV we did not spend as much time there as we could have, but we thoroughly toured the museum and the USS Sullivans, named after the five Sullivan brothers from Waterloo Iowa who were on the same ship, the USS Juneau, and all killed at the same time in WWII.

Many shipboard items on display

Signal light

USS Little Rock, guided missile light cruiser from a distance

USS Little Rock from the destroyer USS Sullivans

Comm equipment aboard the USS Sullivans

The Sullivan Brothers

Various compartment displays

Bunk room

Office area

Ships store

Hedgehog anti-submarine weapon

Part of the bridge

Twin anti-aircraft guns

Device used to transfer between ships

The submarine USS Croaker, a hunter/killer diesel/electric submarine.  You can tour it also but we ran out of time.

These are a couple of the many monuments in the memorial park.  A very nice area

Tomorrow we plan to go to Niagara Falls and view the lighthouses on the shore of Lake Ontario