I’m 36 years old, I grew up in New York, and I just went to western New York for the first time in my life.
When you grow up on Long Island, you call literally everything north of the Bronx “upstate New York.” You kinda just lump together anything not Long Island or “the city” into one huge entity. Like, it’s just one big ass farm and everyone from Long Island picks a different section to go to college.
Our buddy Jack (born and raised in the Buffalo area) was in town for some family business the exact same time we were rolling through, so we coordinated the campsite and met up on Tuesday evening. Ate some barbecue, drank some beers, met some of the family, and made plans to head out to Buffalo the next day.
Bright and early at 11am we headed out. Not before the kitties apparently questioned their entire existence when Jack sat in my recliner for some coffee.
Like I said, I had never been to western NY, and as much as I hate touristy crap, some things just need to be crossed off the list. So, Niagara Falls was the first stop. Learned that the better view is from the Canadian side, which was obviously a no-go for us. Also learned that the town of Niagara Falls, NY is far s**tier than the town of Niagara Falls, Canada. Didn’t get to see the Canada side, but having driven through the US side… yeah… yeah, I’d believe it.
Next we drove back to Buffalo, and walked along the Buffalo River through Canalside. There are a couple of battleships docked there for no particular reason, but they were pretty cool. Stopped at Liberty Hound for some drinks and to absolutely BAKE in the sun.
After that we drove over to Buffalo Riverworks on the other side of the river. And this place… was… AWESOME. First off, it’s in this grain manufacturing part of town so it’s got a cool industrial vibe. Second, it’s f**king TREMENDOUS, and all I could think about was how cool it would be to play in a band there. Like Xfinity Live in Philly. Or a place up in Connecticut I played once or twice that I don’t remember the name. I want to say Toad’s, but that feels wrong. “Big ass music venue in Connecticut.” We’ll run with that.
EDIT: Tuxedo Junction… I remembered!!! It was in Danbury, CT and closed in 2013. I can’t explain to you how f**king happy I am right now, that would have driven me insane.
Third, the patio is right on the little canal so we were able to watch everyone coming up and down on their jetskis / yachts / kayaks / canoes / whatevers. So we sat out there and had a few drinks. The craft beer was… meh. Our second round was a downshift to Labatt Blue Light and I have no regrets.
There was a single guy and his dog just going up and down in his boat just begging for attention… like the combo of his oozing sex appeal, cute dog, and motorboat was going to make the hot women rip their clothes off and jump in the water to chase him down. Note: that did not happen.
There was a boat full of like 15 very f**kboy looking guys with no shirts on and about 3 women. Then you figure two of the women were probably dating guys on the boat, so it’s just 10+ horny men and one poor woman dealing with idiot guys all goddamn day.
Million dollar yachts… and some guy who just revved his engine for about 20 minutes because he didn’t get hugged as a kid and desperately needed everyone at the bar to look at him and his large penis boat. Who needs live music when you have rich people showing off how much better than you they think they are!?! All the entertainment you need.
After all that, we headed back to the campsite for dinner and bedtime where we caught sunset across Lake Erie.
So now we’re in northern Michigan, and it’s been… interesting. Full story will be our next post, plus an interesting stop on the way up. But for now, it’s suffice to say living in the section of the country that was the epicenter of a pandemic and then moving to a county that has had 8 cases has been wildly confusing.
