Day 2-232 to Middleport, NY in very strong winds

Around this part of the Erie Canal, it seems that the name of most every town ends with "port".
In the past three days we have stayed at Fairport, Brockport and now, Middleport, where we are spending the night on the town wall. Tomorrow we will pass through Gasport and Lockport on our way to North Tonawanda, NY, where the Erie Canal ends.

We did see a number of interesting sights today, such as this giant apple in Medina, NY. It is dedicated to New York fruit growers, and we did pass a lot of orchards today. This picture is actually looking back east and shows a line of dark clouds accompanying a cold front that had just passed us. After this line of clouds, the sky had only scattered clouds until we reached our final destination for today. The front also brought strong southwest winds of around 25 mph. Since we were headed generally west at about 7 mpg, this meant that the winds were effectively about 32 mph, which was not very comfortable. Fortunately, the Admiral had put up the front of the flybridge enclosure for protection from the wind and possible rain.

In the last several posts I have mentioned the large number of bridges that we have passed under. Today we passed a "bridge to nowhere"... The bridge itself appeared to be in good condition, but it really was not connected at this one end???

Another bridge oddity was when the canal was actually a (very short) bridge over a road. The road in the center of the picture at the right actually goes under the Erie Canal.

Okay, for all of the scientists and engineers out there... Lucky Us weighs about 44,000 pounds fully loaded. Were we in any danger of causing the bridge to collapse (and why or why not)?

Sorry, there is no prize for the first correct answer.

We reached our destination of Middleport, NY about 12:30 pm. We could have gone further, but the weather prediction was for possible afternoon thunderstorms along with the strong winds associated with the cold front. So, we decided to quit for the day while the weather was still good.

Middleport is doing a good job of being boater friendly. The wall mural in the picture at the left  reflects on some of the heritage of Middleport as a canal city. The city provides a free dock wall on both sides of the canal along with free electricity. This is quite a rare and generous deal. However, the sign did say that we could make a "donation" for these services by simply going to the police department office. I took the hint and went there and made a small "donation".

The next picture (on the right) was taken by the Admiral during a late afternoon stroll through the downtown. The stroll did not take long since the old downtown was only about  a block and a half long. As for the picture, I will let discretion be the better part of valor and not comment on the sign...

The last picture for today (at left) shows Lucky Us moored on the canal wall. Indeed, we are the only boat spending the night in this very nice little town.