cranky old dude

This monthly contribution is kind of morphing into a journal with some pictures. One might call it a small slice of life of a guy who likes bikes, a lot. It’s a long read and I’m hoping it’s not too boring.

April 1st
I’m a gatherer, a collector of sorts. That being said, I’m very fascinated by toy Hess Trucks. I believe that they’ve been around from 1964 through present. One of the more interesting trucks in the collection, for me anyway, is the Training Van from 1980. I know that the earlier Hess toy Trucks were modeled after actual vehicles that had been in use by Hess but I had never actually seen any oil company’s Training Van in real life, that is until this morning on my ride home from work. Imagine the awe that I felt as I gazed at this colorful monster. The pic is blurry as I didn’t have a tripod or suitable surface to set the camera on, but it’s certainly discernable.



April 9th
It’s my day off, the sun is shining, it’s 48* outside….pinch me, I must be dreaming!!!

I started today off by taking my dear bride out to breakfast and I made it a point to get myself well fueled up. After devouring a Ham & Cheese omelet that covered half a platter and an order of home fries that covered the rest of the platter I was ready to face the day. As I scurried about the house preparing to go out for a ride I thought I could hear a little voice calling out….take me too…take me too. Then I glanced over and spied Fred perched on our file cabinet, his winter home. I grabbed him up and we headed out back to the garage. For those who don’t remember Fred from last season, here’s a pic of my riding mascot / buddy. His riding season perch is up in the handlebar bag on the Tour Easy.




So yes, the bike of choice today is the Tour Easy. Before I even got out of the garage I decided I might just as well air out Roger too. So Fred’s perched up on the bow, Roger’s hanging out near the stern and I’ll be stuck in the engine room!!



As usual, I headed north along the Genesee River trail to the mouth of the Genesee. I didn’t have to ride very far before I remembered why I rode so much last year. I just can’t put into words the childlike exhilaration that the T.E. provides me.

Here’s a nice view of the Charlotte Light at the harbor. It’s been around for quite awhile. It has been lovingly restored and is open to the public for tours. There’s also an interesting museum in the Keeper’s House.







Around the corner from the lighthouse, here’s the old Bathhouse at Charlotte Beach. This view from the East shows what was the Men’s Restroom. Behind the restroom was an enclosed courtyard with rows of lockers for changing from street clothes to bathing suits. Entrance to the beach was then down underneath the main building and out onto the sand through some showers.



Here’s another view showing some of the portion of the building that faces the lake.



Looking from Beach Ave., here’s the main building with what remains of the Ladies locker area and restroom to the left of the two-story bathhouse.



Built in 1931, I think this is a great looking building….




The middle portion of the building is used as a control center or base station by many organizations during several public events in the park. The upstairs can also be rented for receptions, parties and meetings. The old locker open-air courtyards have been converted to basketball courts. The old access tunnel from the basement to the sand has been long ago closed and no sign of it is visible from the outside.

cranky old dude

Now don’t let that pretty blue sky fool you. Though this is the first ride this season without my ears covered against the cold it’s still not warm. Just check out all these picnic tables huddled together trying to stay warm!!



From here I roamed in a westerly direction along the lakeshore…

Here’s that cottage that’s being renovated, it looks like they’re making good progress…..



And a nice place across the street from him…



Hey, who wants to buy a coal fired power plant? This one’s just sitting around doing nothing. There is a bank of windows around the corner, way up at the top of the main structure that looks out over the lake, the view must be breath taking.



It would make a great place for a paintball battle!! I wonder if we could ride our mountain bikes down those conveyer shafts?!?

O.K., I got onto the Lake Ontario State Parkway trail (LOSP Trail) and continued west. Here’s a little more history for you (just in case you haven’t been bored to tears already). This long gray building on Dewey Avenue, across from Ling Road used to be a ship building plant. Behind it is Round Pond, which empties into Lake Ontario. Arial images of the area still show the channel leading directly to the north end of the building! Way cool to look at on Google maps or something similar. So this boring picture is the old Odenbach ship building plant as seen from Dewey Avenue.



And here’s an image from the LOSP trail as it passes to the south of the plant.



Here’s a link to the Plant’s history along with a list of most of the vessels built and launched here… https://shipbuildinghistory.com/histo...l/odenbach.htm

Continuing west I couldn’t help but chuckle as I spied these markings in the parking lot of the Braddock Bay Marina. It seems that you can park way down at the very end of the lot for free, which is nice because there is a public area along the lake right near the end of the lot. I guess if you want to be close to the marina facilities but only have four dollars you could park like this.



So as I worked my way back homeward I heard the whirring of a small engine while cutting through a church parking lot. I’ve never gotten involved with radio-controlled toys but this guy looked like he knew what he was doing. From what some folks have told me, it doesn’t get much harder than this….



It was a good day and I managed to roll along for 41 miles. Yippee!!

cranky old dude

April 10th
55* and overcast today.

I opted to spend a little wrench time with my Raleigh Marathon out in the garage. I had put a rack on the back of it last year but I gave my rear light adapter to my daughter when she left for NYC. So today I “Garbaged up” that beautiful machine a bit by mounting an adapter to the rack for my Planet Bike Superflash. I also added an inexpensive bell and a Mirrycle mirror to the handlebar.

Well golly! After adding stuff to any bike one must take the obligatory test ride, right? Yes, that’s what I thought too…so without any hesitation I loaded my Topeak Trunk Bag onto the rack and took a spin. (I am in the process of mounting a rack onto each bike in my fleet. On the rack I will be carrying my trunk bag loaded with essential tools, tubes, and pump. Since my bride can no longer drive I need to be totally self reliant when I’m on my bikes.)

After 10 .7 miles I knew that the upgrades were worth the minimal cost and effort. I expect I’ll get quite a few enjoyable rides out of this venerable old warrior.

Here she is…..



….simplicity rules the day here. Nice steel frame, stem mounted friction shift, side pull brakes. Oh yeah, and it’s fun to ride!!

April 11th
It’s 70+ degrees outside!! Of course the wind is coming out of the SSW @ 25+ mph, but at least it’s not raining.

Just a little 15 miler today. I took the Volae out on an errand to the LBS. It seemed like a good idea as the Volae is my summer commuter and I have yet to ride it more than a couple of miles this season. I bought it some fresh brake pads, (and some fresh skewers for “The Beast”, my ’88 Trek, as the original 22-year-old ones are awfully rusty).



That milk crate on the rear rack is the plastic bottom type. Once I find an all steel milk crate I’ll mount it in place of the current one. The all steel crate will be the framework for a nice streamlined yellow tail box complete with a hinged top. I’ve kinda-sorta got a design scheme in the back of my head somewhere.


April 14th
Cool day, about 45* with a bitter cold breeze coming in off of the lake.

I wanted to ride down to the lake along Buck pond to survey the fire damage from the fire of the 12th but my body just did not want to cooperate today. I rode the Sun EZ Sport through the cemetery



and down along the river trail and watched as the sun rapidly disappeared behind thick, gloomy clouds.

On a positive note, a pair of swans chose to set up housekeeping extremely close to the Turning Basin Bridge on the MUP. It’ll be fun watching for when the eggs hatch. I wonder if the proximity of the bridge will help protect the cygnets from the ever-present hawks?

Here they are, Mr. & Mrs. Swan.



I’ve nicknamed this little beauty Gloria (as in Gloria Swanson). Well, it makes me chuckle anyway. This Gloria will most likely have one hubby though, instead of six!! Here she is on some eggs. I can definitely see two, and possibly a third or maybe it’s just some down.



From the river I high tailed it over to the post office, stopping along the way to visit with a school bus driver taking a break in the park. It turns out he was retired from the neighboring building that used to provide the batches and blends that we coated onto the film at my previous Kodak job. He mentioned that the school bus job was great…until he has to let the kids onto the bus.

Off I go to the Post Office…Mamma’s mail has been dropped off and this surprisingly tired old feller is heading home. Total ride…12.08 miles.

In another 20 minutes I’ll jump (laboriously climb, actually) onto the Volae and head into work for my first of two consecutive 12.5-hour shifts. Oh, and the Sun is out again!!

April 17th
This has been the ugliest April I can remember. It’s consistently cold and the wind just won’t stop howling. Our earlier foray into warm weather was but a cruel teaser. We are stuck with high winds, excessive amounts of precipitation, and temperatures more than twenty degrees below normal.

I took the Volae to work a couple days ago and I was just plain old miserable both riding to work and home. I nearly froze and the wind blew me all over the place.

I decided to take a little ride again today hoping I would cope with these relentless unfavorable elements a little better. Wow! I started in sunshine with the wind coming out of the WSW at a consistent 26mph with gusts up to 40+mph. I rode down the River Trail to see what Gloria was up to. Smart girl…she was tucked in tight.



I noticed another nesting swan in another part of the turning basin today so it could turn into an interesting Spring.

I only rode 10 miles today, but that was enough to get bathed in sunshine, rained on, poured on, hailed on, and finally snowed on in a squall so intense I could barely see across the road. As I sit here recounting my day it is snowing great big fluffy flakes of snow yet again! All those buds that popped out last week have apparently gone dormant again.

I didn’t particularly enjoy this ride either.

April 19th
My poor bride has so much patience with me these days. Not only does she put up with my incessant complaining about the rotten weather pattern we’re stuck in, but the house is littered with all sorts of bike accessories and replacement parts. I refuse to go out in the unheated, detached garage to do any wrenching until we get at least above 45 or 50 degree temperatures. I don’t derive much pleasure from wrenching when I can’t feel my fingers due to cold parts and tools. It snowed here yesterday and again this morning. I was preparing to ride my foul weather bike to work tomorrow, but the forecast is for up to 1.75 inches of rain between midnight tonight and noon tomorrow. I’m taking the car instead.

This is very rapidly looking to become the coldest April in recent history. For a month that started out with so much promise and joy, it sure turned out to be gloomy and depressing instead.

April 21st
I took a Vacation day today ‘cause I’m really, really hating being at work! After taking the bride out to breakfast (I wanted to write “out for breakfast”, but we didn’t cook the dear girl) I dropped her car off at the repair shop for repair as it has been dripping power steering fluid from the steering rack. Since the wife was feeling pretty good today we took a walk on my favorite MUP, the Genesee River Trail. We went down into the turning basin to watch some marshland wildlife for a spell.

Now I need to tell you that it was still quite cold out, in fact the temperature is barely above freezing and we had a 45 minute long snow fall after breakfast! The water is very cold and murky but the waterfowl were quite active. My wife was thrilled by all the activity.

I took her to Gloria’s nest and we patiently watched as she and her mate added some more reeds to the nest. I guess it takes two swans to maintain a secure, high quality nest.




But, it only takes one swan to keep the eggs nice and warm…




I guess egg sitting is tiring work though…




So I guess now it’s time for Mama to go foraging. Ooooo, six eggs! As soon as she left the nest, up jumped Papa swan to protect the family.

cranky old dude

Like I said, all the waterfowl were active. Here’s a Heron fishing over by the bank…



There were also several Ducks and Canadian Geese swimming about (sorry...no duck or goose pics). All in all, it was a great little walk. My bride is anxious to come back again and maybe see some freshly hatched cygnets and hopefully, if the water clears a bit, some turtles.

When we got back home my sweetheart took a nap and I re-acquainted myself with the Tour Easy for a slow 23-mile ride. It was 37* with a WNW wind of 19mph with gusts up to 31mph, but eventually the sun managed to make an appearance. Roger is waving at you….



I posted this a bit early this month as the next week will be very busy so until next time, bye bye!!

Ridinmurray

Thanks for the tour, nice pics. The riding country looks inviting.

cyclinfool

Great Journal for April. I really like the design of the Sun EZ Sport, it almost looks like the frame is it's own suspension, spring like.
Of course the Tour Easy is a regular.
I've heard from those who have tried - the radio controlled choppers are almost impossible to fly.

nmichell

Nice pictures, and a nice collection of bikes, too. Pity about the weather ...

I had a friend who used to flu radio-controlled choppers until the expense of continually fixing them up after each crash convinced him to give it up :-)

xizangstan

Interesting seeing all the old buildings. Closed ship building yard. Closed power plant. It kinda represents America, doesn't it? So much of American industry is history and all we do anymore is process data. We've successfully taxed and regulated most of America's production out of the country. My interpretation? This country is toast. Pity.

Nice collection of bikes. I've been thinking about getting another bike. But everytime I do, I end up giving it to a girlfriend so she can ride along. Then we break up, and I'm minus a bike. Either I stop getting second bikes or I stop getting girlfriends...

Beverly

You have such wonderful places to ride. I love the journals

jppe

You were looking at the conveyors and I was looking at the golf course.......