The camping at Middleport is near to the police station. There's a reasonable suggested contribution of $20 - for which you get decent canalside grass to sleep on and toilets\showers that are open 24hrs and which do have a plug you could use to get a boost for your phone, etc. Attitudes to gasoline are odd - a police car ran its engine for an hour or two with no-one in the car (I think the cars have computers in them for police use so perhaps it's that they want to keep charged up?). And a boat sat idling with no-one in it for perhaps 30 mins. This is not unusual - gasoline is $3.50 per US gallon. Climate change seems still an open debate (hey USA, the debate's over, solving it is the thing now) here. Living with a paper bag over your head, haha! Middleports shops have mostly left but there is a Dollar General which gave us Little Debbie cinnamon and apple donuts as we left. Only to be eaten if you are about to cycle 60+ miles. The towpath was shut at Middleport so we reached it at Gasport and hurtled to Lockport - where we were stunned by the American version of Bingley's five rise locks. Sort of double or triple size. Water cascading to the left, to the right. A big rise with boat going down the locks as we arrived. But on to Pekin then the bridge to Canada to the north of Niagara - carefully avoided so we took the 104 south which allowed us to get onto a greenway that gave us views over the Niagara River and eventually the falls. A friendly cyclist who arranged big local bike rides (Buffalo to Albany - a serious big ride) ruminated on the difficulties of finding cheap motels or camping in Buffalo. A brief photo or two at the falls, very impressive but then I am amazed more by Houdini doing them in a barrel, then a google maps assisted journey to Tonawanda and the mouth of the Erie Canal. Then Buffalo and an increasingly difficult search for cheapish lodgings. It's the 4th July tomorrow so places are pretty full and my USA sim was not presenting me with data so the map didn't show motels. A black lady helpfully directed us downtown where the hotels are, warning us that this was not a city for safely trying to wildcamp, a white man begged us for money for 'a drink' even though he told us he had a drink problem. Right in the middle of the area by the naval base we found a patch of the city's free wifi. I had just phoned the Hilton and asked if they knew of anywhere cheaper nearby (they did not respond well to this request). The wifi saved us from a night with no bed - google maps could now show some cheaper motels and hotels. So we booked a $109 Best Western that was $125 for two with tax. Well, we can afford that if we camp 90+% of the time.... So we have just cycled through a rather down and out area, mostly black in population, with poor roads and poor shops (and a crazy youth cycling full pelt straight at me on the wrong side of the road, just swerved enough), through to this motel. We have free tea and a bath, cycling makes you immensely grateful for small things! It perhaps reminds us of some important truths. Don't worry about having a big car or staying in posh hotels, be grateful you can sleep on a comfy bed, indoors, and didn't bump into anything or anyone while getting there! And our transam route is only about a mile away, hurray!