Leaving Erie, it was only 25 minutes before I exited Pennsylvania into New York State. It's in New York State that I stopped in the tiny village of Barcelona to visit my 10th NY State lighthouse, the Barcelona Lighthouse.

Barcelona sprung up here because of a portage leading from Lake Erie along the Chautauqua River to Chautauqua Lake, where Chautauqua Lake then connects to the Allegheny and onwards to Pittsburgh.

With the need for a lighthouse marking this harbour, congress approved moneys for the purchase of land ($50) and the construction of a lighthouse and keeper's house ($3,460) to guide vessels into port.

Constructed from fieldstone in 1829, the Barcelona Lighthouse is interesting in that it was the first lighthouse (and one of the first U.S. buildings) powered by natural gas.

Ever since the first settlers came to Barcelona, they were aware of a spot along Lake Erie where a spring of flammable gas came out of the hillside. The residents noted that they could light the gasses on fire, but then moved along as there was no apparent use of value. This changed though when news came from the village of Fredonia, that local gunsmith W.A. Hart had harvested gasses on Fredonia's Canadaway Creek in a way to channel them to the taverns and shops of Fredonia, thus replacing their old oil lamps.

At Barcelona, a 50-foot wide and three-foot deep well was dug atop the area of highest gas concentrations. A fieldstone cone was then placed atop this well, where a pipe was installed at the base and further pipe ran 1200 ft to the lighthouse. This provided gas to the custom light that crafty W.A. Hart had shown up and fabricated.

The custom light featured seven lamps in the upper tier and six lamps in the lower tier, fitted with stopcocks to adjust the gas levels and reflectors to amplify the light. It is said this light "when viewed from the lake at night, the whole tower represented one complete, constant and unwavering blaze."

The Barcelona Lighthouse was decommissioned way back in 1859 and auctioned off in 1872. One family bloodline, the Patterson Family, then kept the lighthouse in their possession all the way from 1872 to 1998. This surely helped with keeping the site in a shape that New York State was able to acquire the building in 2007 for use as a historic site. The renovation by owners Ann and Bruce Mulkin from 1998 to 2007 also obviously helped.

A 2024 renovation project is visible in the Google StreetView. This project was completed in May of 2025 and those who visit the lighthouse during more conventional times of the year than January, are now able to climb the tower and peer out over Lake Erie. I will have to come back one day.

Noticing I was only 10 minutes from the county seat of Chautauqua County, it was an easy decision to follow that old portage inland to the village of Mayville. This worked out well, as I was handsomely rewarded with the fine, Classical Revival 1907 Chautauqua County Courthouse.

Also, as much as I harp on snow, I was enjoying it right now as the wet mix wasn't a threat to driving, but gross enough to make this morning memorable.

Another reason I was okay with the snow was that I wasn't riding today.

The nearest high quality skatepark was in Jamestown and I don't really know how to feel about somewhere replacing an abandoned building with a skatepark, lol.

Speaking of snow, I liked Mayville's annual snowfall scoreboard.

I should build one of these in my front yard.

Lunch was mediocre pizza at the Crosby's gas station across the street from the courthouse.

Only thirty minutes away, I was excited to get two more New York State lighthouses in the city of Dunkirk, especially as one of them was the impressive 1875 Dunkirk Lighthouse.

The only problem was pulling up to a locked gate and serious fence guarding the property.

The Dunkirk Lighthouse, grounds, and keeper's house are now a museum that gives tours, but only during warmer months. I had taken their website statement that "There is no fee to walk the grounds to take pictures of the lighthouse" to mean I could see it today, but their statement's clearly only true from May to October.

I sized up going around the fence, but there was little to no space to maneuvre along the beach in order to reach the (hopefully) unfenced backside.

While I pondered this, the Dunkirk Generating Station dominated the view outside the car.

Getting back on the road for another hour of driving, I happily cruised over to Buffalo, Orchard Park, Hamburg NY, in order to rest up for this evening's visit to Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills.

As the Bills stadium is one of those old school setups out in the middle of nowhere, the motel/hotel options are limited. Near the stadium there were only two or three motels and they were either priced absurdly or looked horrendous. I briefly thought of dealing with the hassle and cost of staying up in Buffalo, but ultimately decided against that. Eventually I settled on the knockoff Hamburg Hotel, situated along I-90 amongst the usual chains. Price: $79 USD, taxes in. And it was only an hour and a half walk to the stadium!

The remainder of the day was going to be cold, so one thing I needed to do was head to the nearby Dollar General to pick up their finest gloves and a sweet pair of camo long johns.

Going to the Dollar General with the sun out wasn't too bad, but as I unpacked my car and the sun disappeared, it was one of those afternoons where you're aware of the night's coming cold.

Entering my dark motel room around 1:30pm, the kickoff was at 4:25 and I wanted to get there early to tailgate. This, coupled with growingly unpleasant cold and wind, made me decide against hoofing it to the stadium.

I instead enjoyed relaxing at my motel for a bit longer before calling a cab.

Tailgating didn't go as planned - mostly because I'm just not the type of guy to get over that awkwardness and strike up conversation. Thinking about it as I wandered through the lots people watching, I should have grabbed a 40 or wore a Chiefs toque or something like that, where someone else could strike up conversation if they wanted to talk about drinking 40s or break balls about how they think the Bills are better than the Chiefs (lol, yeah right).

One guy had a pretty big tailgating setup with a whole portable tent, impressive flat-top grill, and speakers blaring some old school Kurupt. So I did the thing I used to do when barhopping, where I stand around and hope things magically work out, but just like during barhopping, nothing happened as I stood on my own and I left on my own.

Thankfully I didn't go home. Instead it was time to get out of the cold and inside to some football!

The Bills were started by Detroit businessman Ralph Wilson as an American Football League (AFL) franchise in 1960, playing out of Buffalo's WPA-funded (1938) War Memorial Stadium. When the AFL and NFL merged in 1970, the NFL stipulated that home stadiums must sit 50,000 people and War Memorial Stadium was stuck at 47,000 without anywhere obvious to expand (they had already grafted 10,000 seats on to the old stadium in 1965). War Memorial Stadium was apparently pretty rundown by this point too, as evidenced by Sports Illustrated's Brock Yates description of "an arena that looked as if whatever war it was a memorial to had been fought within its confines."

The involved parties still considered the work that would be needed to expand War Memorial Stadium, or the option of tearing down the stadium entirely and building new at that location. Neither options were well received though, due to a lack of parking and the public's opinion of War Memorial Stadium's rough east side location. The same Brock Yates referred to the location as "situated in the heart of Buffalo’s substantial ghetto, an area that was racked by riots in 1967."

The Bills almost played in a dome because pro baseball promised to come to town if Buffalo built a dome, and they also weighed playing at the current site of the Buffalo Sabres arena - but by January of 1971, Ralph Wilson had visited Seattle and publicly announced, "the climate for a suitable new stadium in the immediate future does not exist in Buffalo. This leaves the Bills no alternative but to move."

Only four months later, county officials scrambled to approve a stadium at a site they had on hand - a parcel out in Orchard Park that had been earmarked for a new community college. As this place is legendary for how it is affected by lake effect snow, it's funny that the location seems to have been randomly picked because they were in a rush and its where they had land.

Opened with 71,870 seats and an AstroTurf surface, Buffalo's new stadium was named Rich Stadium - named for food products company Rich Products of Buffalo, who were one of the first companies to pay for stadium naming rights. It could have been even worse too, but Ralph Wilson fought against them paying to name it Coffee Rich Park.

The capacity of the stadium ballooned to 80,290 during its 1984 renovation, which also brought an addition of 16 suites. 24 more suites were added in 1992. Glass-encased clubs were added in 1994, along with 14 more suites. The stadium's first jumbotron came in 1994 at a cost of $9.1 million for the 41.5 x 31.5 foot screen, which was the largest in the US at the time. 1998 brought a lease renewal with the county and taxpayers spending $57 million on enlarging the seats, while also adding more suites and luxury seats (bringing the capacity down to 74,000).

A new LED board came in 2007, the current HD Mitsubishi LED 88.8 x 32.5-foot board. This was also when they installed 1000 feet of ribbon boards. As an aside, I had no idea ribbon boards have existed for over 18 years, probably because they used to be not as obnoxious as today's ribbon boards.

In 2011, the Bills updated their AstroTurf a third time, this time to A-Turf Titan, a playing surface product only used by the Bills (it's a Western NY product). In 2012, a new 10-year lease agreement brought $130 million in further upgrades as the entrance gates were enlarged, two new HD video boards were installed, concessions were expanded, a new team store opened, and the areas around the stadium's entrance areas and plazas were redesigned. Hilariously enough, these taxpayer dollars also paid for new advertisement boards to the side of the Mitsubishi LED board, plus more advertisements boards at the tunnel end of the stadium. Gotta love paying taxes to get hit in the face more soundly by DraftKings!

When Ralph Wilson died in 2014, I thought a new Bills stadium would come within three years, but was pleasantly surprised when the new owners stated they had no new stadium plans. Politicians decided to step in though and committees were formed to plan for a new stadium. Of course with Buffalo being the second smallest market in the NFL - after Green Bay - there's always the fear that San Antonio, Toronto or London England is going to come along and steal the Bills from poor Buffalo.

The new owners didn't last in my good graces for long though, as 2021 brought them threatening to move to Austin Texas unless taxpayers ponied up $1.5 billion. $1.1 billion of that was for a new Bills stadium and a cool, fun little extra $0.4 billion was for upgrades to the Buffalo Sabres arena that the Pegulas also own.

Andrew Cuomo, then New York governor, resisted stadium donations to billionaires, but sexual harassment allegations sent him packing. Stadium donation-loving Kathy Hochul then stepped in as governor. Without any public say, an agreement for a $1.7-billion new stadium was drawn up, where Erie County pays $250 million, while the State of New York pays $600 million upfront, $100 million over the next 15 years for maintenance, plus $6 million a year for upgrades. At the time, it was the largest taxpayer gift ever awarded to a North American franchise (since passed by the new Tennessee Titans stadium).

At least they kept the new stadium open to the elements. In a time where every second-rate town (Nashville, Cleveland) is building a domed stadium to hopefully attract Taylor Swift and exactly one Super Bowl, Buffalo acknowledged that weather plays into their identity, while also accepting that they just don't have the infrastructure required for 100,000 Swifties showing up to town. This means the new stadium will also never host a Super Bowl because that's a new fun thing the NFL has stipulated (that Super Bowls have to be in domes in cold climates).

New Highmark Stadium opens in August of 2026 and the last game at the current stadium will be Jan 3, 2026 against the New York Jets.

As much as I hate new stadiums replacing old stadiums, there is already one fun tidbit related to New Highmark Stadium. Near the start of construction, someone hopped the fence and fell 30 feet into the pit being excavated for the seating bowl. The Bills won that day though, which led to some fans believing it was because they "fed the pit". The Bills would win their next six home games, while these same fans believed that someone must've hopped the construction fence each time to "feed the pit".

It's never been confirmed that six additional people "fed the pit", but it was enough to force the Bills to increase security around the new stadium site before the 2023-24 Chiefs-Bills AFC divisional match.

As someone who gets really worked up when people complain about football weather and when they insist every modern fan wants the comfort of domes, I was damn excited with the weather forecast ahead of this game. The air temperature would only drop slightly as night fell, but obviously 19°F (-7.2°C) and sunny breaks feels much different than 18°F (-7.7°C) at night. The big kicker here was the forecasted gusty winds for game time. 20 to 30 mph (32 to 48kph) winds meant windchills down to 5°F (-15°C).

I giddily texted this to friends along with lots of exclamation marks showing my enthusiasm for being out in the elements. Climbing up to my seat in Section 317 though, the reality set in as those cold Lake Erie winds nipped at my bits not protected well enough by the Dollar General clothing. I also questioned the slushy 24oz cold beer in my hands, which left me dreaming about any hot chocolate on offer.

There are times when I visit endangered or terminal sporting venues and the place is so cool, that I'm left hoping for a return to the city sometime before the stadium goes away. Trois-Rivières, Sudbury, and Oakland are prime examples.

Buffalo was different. I wasn't that impressed by the stadium or have much longing to go back this final season. Sure, I'd like more freedom to explore the stadium in non-Covid times, but the things that make Buffalo legendary are people getting thrown thru tables in the parking lot, snow/wind tormenting the players and coaches, blue collar knowledgeable fans and how this stadium is out in the sticks. New Highmark will look like Tottenham's stadium, but it'll still have most of these things. The only one it'll sort of miss is that they're reducing the capacity to 48000, making each game more of a high brow event with fewer real fans up in the nosebleeds.

I'm in no rush to go to the gaudy new palaces in Las Vegas, Dallas or Nashville, but I'll likely make the trek back to Buffalo at some point in the early 2030s.

As for the game, the AFC East was still up for grabs with Buffalo controlling their own destiny in this week 18 matchup. New England ended up losing their game anyway, but since it was being played at the same time, Buffalo still needed to show up today.

Well, they only sort of needed to show up because they were playing the hapless Jets who set a franchise record for the fewest first downs in NYJ history (4) and fewest yards (53). This meant lots of punting, and comical punting with the gusty winds resulting in a couple of them only going 21 and 23 yards.

It was a close one though, until the Bills turned it on in the 4th quarter with a couple of Devin Singletary touchdowns. Final: 27-10 Bills over the Jets.

I thought I could capture some of the Bills fandom I missed earlier by heading to one of the nearby restaurants or bars post game.

Except with how much Ralph Wilson Stadium is out in the county, the handful of nearby places to eat were all jammed to capacity. If I was going to limit how much I walked around an open air concourse because of Covid, I wasn't about to squeeze into an old house-turned bar with throngs of rowdy fans.

It you walked just a short distance from the stadium, it felt like you were out in rural Essex County in some place like Woodslee or Ruscom. I loved it. If you're going to build your stadium out in the middle of nowhere, it will get points from me for being out in undeveloped land. If instead your "out in the middle of nowhere" means it's surrounded by nothing but strip malls and chain restaurants, not so much.

I was ready to just order a pizza to my motel room, but then I noticed nearby EJ's Bar & Grill open on Google Maps. Hoofing it twenty minutes down the road in the brutal cold, the waitress was nice, the food was good, they had the SNF game on and it felt like how I imagined a post Bills game bar should feel. I was pleased with how this worked out.

Anyway, tomorrow the plan was to return west but maybe meander a bit.

Continue to Part 4...