The Lady J: Our Journey has begun

We have begun our Journey on the Lady J. On Monday morning at 11:00 a.m. Mike and Gary contacted us ladies and told us that the weather for cruising was great and they were going to press on to Buffalo from Erie instead of the original destination of Dunkirk, NY. We (Christy and I) decided to leave within the hour to meet them in Buffalo instead of waiting another day. Yes, we missed them just a little.

Christy and I arrived in Buffalo around 6:00 p.m. to more fog than I had ever seen before. We were surprised to see that the guys were able to make it into the marina seeing that the fog was as thick as pea soup. But there they were waiting for us. They had traveled 72 miles in 9-1/2 hours. I know, I know that sounds like a long time for a little amount of miles but on our boat that only goes 7 knots that’s “cruising baby”.

Birth place of the Buffalo Wing.

Enjoying our first night out.

These are the best chicken wings.

After moving our bags on board we decided to make a visit to the birth place of the buffalo chicken wing, the Anchor Bar. We enjoyed an amazing dinner and a wonderful evening. We returned back to the boat to catch up and turned in early. What you will notice from the photos Buffalo was pretty much completely fogged in and the location where our boat was docked made it rock and roll like a barrel going over niagara falls.

My brother Gary and his wife Christy.
Love these folks so much

We awoke to more fog on Tuesday morning. Gary made us a yummy breakfast of french toast. After a quick trip to West Marine and the grocery store we said our good-byes and Mike and I were on our way.

I want to take a minute here to just thank again my brother Gary for starting this journey with Mike and getting the Lady J across Lake Erie. And for Christy allowing me to hang out at their house and then driving me up to Buffalo to join Mike. As I told them both I would never be where I am today without their love and support. Mike and I are so very blessed to have them in our lives and to be able to call them family.

The fog wasn't too bad in this picture but it hid many of the building downtown.

So with still a bit of fog lingering around WE WERE OFF on our journey. It was hard to believe that after 4 years of hard work and a lot of blood, sweat, tears and laughter we were finally on our way. We started our journey up the Blue Rock Canal, the first bridge we arrived at was the Ferry Street Bridge after hailing the bridge tender to raise the bridge he finally replied only to let us know they were having mechanical problems and would not be able to raise the bridge for quite a while but if we thought we could get under it we were welcome to continue. So remembering back to our trip last year that this was the one bridge we went under without it being raised and barely fit, we decided to go ahead. We quickly took down all the canvas and lowered the bimini. We approached the bridge slowly and Mike was able to maneuver the boat under the bridge with 3 inches of clearance. Whew!

Right smack in the middle.

Then on to our first lock, one of many to come. We were the only ones in the lock so the lock master told us that we didn’t have to tie off on the side but could hang out in the middle while the lock lowered the boat. This was our first time to do this and Mike was diligent at keeping the boat in place.

On our way

Such a small sign for such an amazing place.

The Lady J docked in N. Tonawanda.

One happy Captain.

We then continued on to our first stop, North Tonawanda. We docked at 2:00 p.m. Mike worked on getting the boat settled on the outside while I worked on the inside. Also had to get some laundry done. The laundry facilities were on the other side of the canal, so down the street and over the bridge we went. After about 6 trips back and forth the laundry was finally finished (only two loads). Remember doing laundry is not as easy to do out here as it is in your own home. But even doing laundry we had a great time. Our evening ended with a quick dinner and soon off to bed. First day in the books.