Erie Canal bike ride: A crisis on our first day along the way from Buffalo to Medina

It was shaping up to be a perfect day. Until a piece of metal broke.

It was shaping up to be a perfect day: sunny, warm enough for a sleeveless bike jersey, chocolate cake for breakfast… because why not?

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Erie Canal bike ride: Exploring Buffalo

So much to see in Buffalo! Spend a day here before heading out on the Erie Canal trail.

We took a day at the start of this week-long bike ride along the Erie Canal to get a feel for Buffalo: the wealth from a century ago when industrialists were building their mansions along Delaware Avenue with the profits from their grain silos, from when the Pan-American Exhibition that showed off the promises of the new century was marred by a presidential assassination, and when Art Deco became the fashion.

Actually, there wasn’t enough time to see everything.

So if you have to pick one thing, my recommendation is Buffalo River History Tours and its boat and walking tour of Silo City, an abandoned collection of grain elevators stretching up to 10 stories tall as well as a couple of adjacent buildings that are slowly being turned into housing.

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