Niagara Falls to Cleveland - Lighthousing

One leg of a 6,600 mile six week trip being planned for this summer will take my son Chris and I from Niagara Falls to Cleveland.

Any route suggestions and lighthouse tips along that part of our journey will be appreciated.

Another leg will be from Tallahassee FL to Galveston TX. Also looking for lights along that shoreline route.

From Niagara Falls to Cleveland, I would follow I-190 to Buffalo. Get on Buffalo Skyway (route 5) to reach the Coast Guard station there to see the Buffalo Main and other lights in that area. South Buffalo light is about 2-3 miles south along Route 5. I would follow Route 5, also called Lake Shore Drive, south to Dunkirk to see the lighthouse and museum. Then to Barcelona, Erie PA. Continue on 5 until it becomes 20 and then 531 in Ohio to see the Conneaut light and Ashtabula lighthouse. You'll end up back on 20 to get to Fairport Harbor and the lights there. Then you might as well get on I-90 to Cleveland.

If you have the Penrose Guide to Eastern Great Lakes lighthouses, take it as a guide. It's very good.

I cannot help with the other leg of your trip as I haven't been lighthousing on the Gulf of Mexico.

I think I saw 7 lighthouse in Buffalo in an hour. There's also another one on the other side.

Still looking for guidance on the Gulf Coast leg... Must be some of our friends from along that coast can make suggestions. Thanks for the help with the Lake Erie leg.

Here's the tentative route:
6,800 miles, on the road 42 days
Overnights in 16 different cities
Average 425 miles per travel day
20 States + 1 Province
Visiting 13 State Capitals
Still have to count the lighthouses

If you want to see lighthouses, you will not make 425 miles in a day.

After viewing you map, I thought I would suggest the Crazy horse monument, it is not to far from Mount Rushmore, It is much larger than Rushmore and very much a work in progress

http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org/

Another thought, Devils Tower is not far off I-90 in WY.
http://www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm

Also, If you are going to Fort Niagara. I would recommend crossing the border at the Lewiston crossing on I-190/Ont 405 unless your going to backtrack to the Canadian side of Niagara falls. The traffic is much lighter at Lewiston and the crossing is always been quicker in my experience.

You're probably right-on. I'm allowing about 30 minutes per lighthouse -- just to take some photos and move on. My son's not much interested in them.

unless one of your numbers is wrong or your staying in some places multiple days,
6800 miles divided by 42 days is only about 162 miles per day.

Certain stretches like Lincoln,Ne to Chicago could be done in one day, it is pretty much flat land and not a whole lot to see in between.

Are you going to visit the Nasa facility in Huntsville ?

Louisville, KY. Louisville Slugger bat factory and museum, very cool if your a baseball fan, I think they just updated the museum in the last year or so.
http://www.sluggermuseum.org/

Thanks, Mark.

I added the Devil's Tower and Crazy Horse Memorial.

16 overnight stops -- one of them 3 weeks long, a few 2 or 3 nights.

I was stationed at Redstone Arsenal - Missile & Munitions School in 1966. NASA had displays of lots of rockets. Hope they still do. Also going to visit Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Louisville - looking for ideas. Not a baseball fan, though. Maybe visit the racetrack.

NASA Huntsville is where space camp is, It looks like a museum when you drive by, Lots of rockets and a space shuttle (It looks like a real shuttle, it may be a simulated shuttle though but it looks like the real thing) but I have never stopped.

And another thought, I don't know if you have ever stopped at the Welland canal but from the 405 your right on lake Ontario at the very bottom of the canal It's quite a sight to look up the canal and (if your lucky) see a number of ships at various heights in and out of the locks, I think you can see 3 or 4 locks from there. and not out of your way at all.

John,
While in Louisville check out the Labrot and Graham distillery. That's where they make Woodford Reserve bourbon. It's the oldest distillery in Kentucky. It's rather small, a stone building with a couple of copper pot stills and a stone warehouse to match. Even if you're not a bourbon drinker it's a tour worth taking. And the drive there is gorgeous as you are travelling alongside a number of race horse farms.
Also, if you're a zoo fan, the Louisville zoo isn't bad. Not huge, but it's a good time.

Thanks, Roland. Bourbon and baseball bats aren't generally part of my mindset. But you got me thinking about searching for "What To Do In..." for different places we'll be passing through.

Most communities seem to have some sort of list. I just did Niagara Falls and found references to:

The Erie Canal
Thirty Mile Point Lighthouse
Tiffany Stained Glass windows in a church in Lockport
Underground Railroad Interpretive Center
Daredevil Museum
Maid of the Mist

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, I have not been there yet, but I have been told you could spend two days there.

Do NOT waste your time or gas to see fort Knox (not to far from Louisville) there are no tours, no signs, just a building with signs saying no stopping, they will run you off if you try to stop. A single picture from the internet is equal to driving by it (IMHO)

The R&RHOF was an interesting visit. You can spend 3 hours or 3 days there. I believe the latest temporary exhibit is Women In Rock.

There was a nice Bruce Springsteen exhibit when we were there in 9-10.

However I'll add this - as nice as the place is there is little substance to most of the exhibits. I enjoyed the Seattle museum the Experience Music Project bankrolled by the "other" Microsoft honcho - Paul Allen- much more.

Dennis

I've been to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame; taking Chris whose goal in life would be to become a disc jockey.

Fort Knox is a stop not for the gold depository but because I was last there for Basic Training. Nostalgia for me.

There's a spot along the Erie Canal that a road actually runs under the canal. A tunnel. I thought it was pretty interesting. We stopped there on the way from Niagara Falls on the way back to Brockport.

http://www.tug44.org/canal.history/medina-culvert/