🏷️ bikes

The three of us had an amazing early summer day riding around all the harbors. It was ridiculous how bumping it was. A carnival at canalside, people everywhere in the marina, even the outer harbor was busy.

Near Wilkenson point, they have a week long exhibit of lit up inflatable castles. We didn't go in it because of the line, but I've heard it's cool on the inside.

They now added a snack and beer stand along with rentable kayaks and games around the point. Acrobatic yoga was happening too. On one hand I'm glad to see it used, on the other hand, does every public space now need to be constantly commercialized? I prefer the outer habor more natural and all the commercial stuff near the canal.

On the way back, we got clams for @paul at the hatch and rode home. Riding up north Pearl street by the carnival, I passed what I thought were two kids wrestling around on the sidewalk. When I saw @paul and @terry stop, I rode back and saw that it was a woman (I don't want to even call her a mother) uppercutting her young (10-12ish?) year old kid, screaming at him and everyone trying to intervene.

There was an older guy that stepped in between them and confronted her and she just lost her shit - something like "You can't fucking tell me what to do with my kid fucking asshole", all the while still trying to swing at her kid. WTF. I got a picture and short video if needed (no way am I going to post that).

@paul tried to call 911, but no dice, they wouldn't do anything without a specific location. 911 is next to useless. So I rode back down to Marine Drive and got a police officer with some other lady.

The police came over and pulled away the woman away and she's still yelling and swinging, telling the kid it's to look at what he did, how he's still gonna get it. The boy is screaming and crying, the crowd is gawking, I can't imagine anything worse for these kids.

The part I feel the most terrible about is what happens to after this? Does woman gets off with this (and probably beats the kid twice as hard in private considering what she does in public) or does she goes to jail, and probably throw her family's life into chaos?

Public violence seriously stresses me out and depresses me. Lady, I don't know your story, but from what I saw today you're a human bag of shit.

Thursday night rides are my favorites.

We rode with Deacon, Robbob and Ashley down to the seneca bluffs at Seneca and the Buffalo River. It was a good night. We finished up with some pool at Marinara's.

Down on Seneca there is the Hahvahd of psychic schools. I wonder what tuition is.

Was awesome. We woke up at 8:30 (we were supposed to check in at 7:30), got to the park at 9, and rolled up just when the ride was leaving. Obviously if everyone did that it wouldn't work but it worked out for us.

The day before I volunteered and spray painted the markers on the road.

It was warm and not sunny. The ride was 26 miles long, and for the most part good.

I really hate the car culture slow rollers who stop at every stop sign and give way to every car. I'm not riding 26 miles with you clucking at me about yielding to cars, it's an event for building a bike culture.

Spring night rides are best rides.

When @paul and @terry went to a work party for @paul, they got all decked out for hob-knobbing at a fancy Saturn Club party.

I went out on the Black Rock King Rollers ride, which went out to Hot Mama's. Claudia and I whooped ass at shuffleboard - 23-11. She claimed to have never played. I think she's a shark.



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I wrote an advertisement for (e:strip) up on the board at Essex. I don't know if it's actually the first blog site but nobody fact checks bathroom chalk boards.

Terry and I went on the Thursday ride. There was bridge climbing, South Buffalo shuffle board and pizza. What a good night.

We rode up to North Tonawanda via the Riverwalk for lunch. The total length of the ride was 25 miles. It was perfect weather for a long ride.





First we went down to Canalside - I saw this QR code from Dug's Dive in the ground. I never encounter QR codes in real life so I didn't have an app to see where it led to.


On the way up the Riverwalk you pass this old dock and crumbling shack. Is this part of the old Erie Canal? If so I think they should build historical replicas down in Canalside ;)

The Army Corps closed the bridge over the 190. It seems kind of ridiculous to close anoverpass to the other side of the path. Instead you're forced to ride up Niagara Street all the way up to Ontario Street.


Asphalt dog park at Black Rock Park.


Once you get into Tonawanda, they have a marker advertising a historical site off in the woods. It's a cruisey clearing where part of the original canal went through. You can see a small hill along the side which I think was the towpath, and a few rocks from the canal wall sticking through the dirt.


The Tonawanda bike path is still very industrial and smelly, but a lot less so without Tonawanda Coke and Huntley. Thanks Clean Air Coalition!

Once we got up to the end of Riverwalk, we were hungry, so we ate at Yummy Thai in North Tonawanda. The food and prices were terrible but the waiter was super cute. They did have a sweet Thai iced tea though.












In North Tonawanda there's the start of the Erie Canal trail. Ride to go visit @uchina, anyone?


On the way home, I almost got into a fight with another freaking car. At Sheridan Drive and Delaware Road, a giant tank of an SUV starts honking at us, yelling at us to get off the road. I start yelling back, they start flipping us off, and this guy in the back of the car starts hanging out the window saying he was going to kill us. I pulled off on the sidewalk to ride back and yell at them after they pulled off - but I called the police first since we were right near the Tonawanda station. @paul talked to them, and said they said they were afraid they were going to hit and kill us. Seriously? They saw us - how hard is it to not run into cyclists and kill them? I couldn't freaking believe it. If you haven't heard, I fucking hate cars.

It seems all I do is post about bike rides. I've been packing them in before the summer ends.

While @paul napped on Saturday, @terry and I took a trip around South Buffalo. This time we took a different route involving Elk Street and a lot of the old industrial areas.

We took a peak at this abandoned factory that I've never seen before, by the rail tracks between Elk and South Park. It turns out it belonged to the Buffalo Color Corporation - . You can view pictures of the factory before it was completely gutted. The site was a superfund site since producing indigo dye is highly toxic.

The windows are all gone and the building is ripe for exploring. it looks like it might be demolished soon









While in South Buffalo we saw this church with actual bells ringing. I thought they were all speakers now but apparently not.


Speaking of churches, we rode through Caz Park and heard these religious nutjobs ranting about abortion. Why are they allowed to use a public resource to scream their brand of crazy?


The creek


Before we got home, we stopped for an iced coffee at Grindhaus Cafe on Allen. The menu is limited to a few sandwiches (almost all vegan) and pour over coffee, but they have an amazing chia pudding. We brought home one for @paul. My cup tells me I'm str8t now.

The Black Rock Rollers ride went down this week to Valle de Mexico on South Park. I didn't like it before but this time was amazing. @joe #59217

There were 10 of us on the ride. The owner was so excited to have a bike group there - he kept taking pictures of us for the restaurant Instagram.

He even gave us all shots of his homemade mescale - an agave liquor. I don't really do shots but it was interesting.

After we ate, he moved the tables, cranked the music and asked us to all dance with him and his wife. It was crazy fun getting down to all this 80's Spanish music. The weirdest part was that Claudia told us most of the songs were about cheating and affairs. One of them had a chorus that went something like

Honey, I love you, and I love our 8 kids. But only the black one is yours.

I finally made the Wednesday and Thursday night rides this past week.

The Wednesday ride played kickball at Lasalle Park. I thought it was going to be too cool for me but it was awesome - @KeithT was there.

The rest of the night was another ride for me. It's so luxurious on the new repaved and painted s-curves, and the butter-smooth Richmond Avenue lanes.