Lockport Caves

Yesterday we went to Lockport Caves, a man-made tunnel built in the 1850's that used surplus water from the Eric Canal to provide hydraulic energy to power three factories. The tour guide told us the tunnel was blasted from solid rock, in basketball-sized increments and they hired kids, nicknamed "blast monkeys," to light the fuses on the explosives, then run back out of the caves before the blast (you know, because where better for a kid to spend his formative years than a tunnel full of explosives, rubble and the potential to develop black lung).

It's advertised as an underground boat ride so I thought the boat ride part would be longer, but it was mostly a walking tour with a 15 minute boat ride at the end. It was still a neat mini-adventure and Lockport is only an hour and a half drive from Rochester. Walking through one of the old water pipes to get to the cave was cool. And the boat ride reminded me of going to Penn's Cave as a kid. I'd like to go back there sometime.

Lyric of the moment: "But I don't tend to worry 'bout the things that other people say. And I'm learning that I wouldn't want it any other way..."

We're on a boat, for some reason looking like drunken sailors.