Friday, August 8, 2008
Welcome to our "road trip"!
Here is our "blog" of our Atlanta --> Baseball Hall of Fame --> Niagara Falls --> Pro Football Hall of Fame --> Atlanta road trip. Stay tuned for picture updates...most likely starting around August 22!
Map of The Road Trip
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
The Equipment
Driving Cost of The Trip
Southern Man in "Yankee" Territory
Famous Footsteps
Pete Rose IS in the Baseball Hall of Fame!!
Niagara Falls / Whirlpool Rapids (US Side)
The "Whirlpool Rapids" from the Whirlpool State Park vantage point. Here, the Niagara River makes a 90° right turn as it heads towards Lake Ontario. With the volume of water running through the gorge, the river generates a massive "whirlpool" here so that it can make its "hard right turn". The Falls are about 3 miles south (towards the LEFT of the picture) from this point.
The Rainbow Bridge
The Maid of the Mist
The "American Falls" as seen from the tour boat "The Maid of the Mist". The "smallest" part of the American Falls is called the "Bridal Veil Falls". They have a tour called the "Cave of the Winds" whereby you can literally walk up to the base of the Bridal Veil Falls (see highlighted picture). And yes...you will see pictures from the "Cave of the Winds" soon!
The Horseshoe Falls
Takin' Pictures
Goat Island, NY
The "Cave of the Winds" Tour
The current version of the "Cave of the Winds" tour opened in 1924, bringing visitors to the front of the American "Bridal Veil" falls on a series of decks and walkways. Tropical storm-like conditions can be experienced on the "Hurricane Deck", as winds can reach up to 68 mph (109 km/h) literally just in front of the Bridal Veil falls. An elevator takes people from Goat Island down to the level of the Niagara River right between the American Falls and the Canadian "Horseshoe" Falls. A series of redwood steps, decks and platforms allow sightseers to walk right up to the base of the Bridal Veil falls with water crashing down right in front of them and flowing beneath the decking.
The decking is removed each fall and re-installed each spring for sightseers to enjoy the experience. Tragically, I did not take the "underwater" digital camera with me, so the pictures that follow are few.
The Welland Canal in Canada
The Welland Canal is a ship canal that runs 27 miles (42 km) from Port Colborne, Ontario on Lake Erie to Port Weller, Ontario on Lake Ontario. As part of the "St. Lawrence Seaway", the canal allows ships to avoid Niagara Falls by traversing the Niagara Escarpment.
Approximately 40,000,000 tons of cargo is carried through the Welland Canal annually by over 3,000 ocean-going and lake-going vessels. The original canal and its successors allowed goods from Thunder Bay, Detroit, Cleveland and other heavily industrialized areas of the United States and Canada to be shipped to the Port of Montreal where they were reloaded onto ocean-going vessels for international shipping.
The canal's southern terminus at Lock 8/Port Colborne on Lake Erie is 326 1/2 feet (99.5 m) higher in elevation than the northern terminus at Lock 1/Port Weller on Lake Ontario. The canal comprises eight lift locks, each 80 feet (24.4 m) wide by 766 feet (233.5 m) long. Due to the "Garden City Skyway", which carries the "Queen Elizabeth Way" superhighway connecting Toronto and Buffalo, the maximum ship height allowed is 116 1/2 feet (35.5 m) high. All other highway crossings are either moveable bridges or tunnels. The maximum permissible vessel length is 740 feet (225.5 m). It takes ships an average of 11 hours to traverse the canal's length in either direction.
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