March 15th…..Well it certainly was a long spell between ‘Peaceful Weather Days’!! O.K, I finished work at 05:30 a.m. this morning, unlocked ‘The Beast’ from the bike rack, wiped the morning frost from the saddle and handgrips, and High Tailed it straight home. I needed to squeeze in a little nap before taking a long awaited ride.

11:00 a.m. and I’m jumping (well, crawling maybe) out of bed and as I rushed to the window I was greeted with glorious sunshine! The weather dude must have been right when he predicted sunny and near 50*!! Oh joy!! Having been fooled on occasion in the past I decided to play it safe and turn on the weather station as I eagerly get dressed. 33*!! You’ve gotta be kidding!! The weather dude’s a weather dud!! No matter, I decided to just pile on one more layer and ride anyway and it was a good choice as the temp did rise up to about 44* by the end of the ride. That North wind coming in off the lake was what kept us cooler than what was predicted.

Today’s bike of choice was the Sun EZ Sport, LWB Recumbent. It’s comfortable, versatile, and very easy to ride which is a key point as I’ve only been riding my upright Mtn. bike since November and I like to transition into recumbent season on an easy to ride machine. I was surprised to see that the 100psi tires were only down to 75psi. By 11:15 I was merrily rolling down my driveway with my trusty Canon A580 digital camera strapped over my shoulder and around my waist. Funny thing happened during the winter, the waist strap seemed to have shrunk!?!?

One of my weaknesses is Architecture. I have a habit of loosing track of everything around me and just gazing at all the different styles of buildings that abound in the area where I live. We have buildings that date back to the late 1800’s, buildings that were built last year and everything in between. I tend to like the older buildings and newer ones that resemble old buildings. My house was built in 1926 and still retains many of its original features such as ¾ inch wide hardwood floors (red oak), leaded glass windows, gumwood trim. Of course many upgrades have taken place too. The old wood shingled roof is now asphalt, the coal furnace was converted to an oil furnace and then replaced by a natural gas furnace. The ice box is gone as is the ice door and the milk box door. I told you I liked this kind of stuff.

So now, who can guess what today’s photo theme is going to be? Yep.

This is a view of what used to be St. Bernard’s Seminary, built in the late 1800’s. That little structure in the foreground is a covered bus stop. Lake Avenue is just on the other side of the stone wall running between the building complex and the little bus stop. When I was just a little guy I can remember looking out the car windows as we traveled down Lake Ave. and almost always seeing young men waiting for the bus. My mother always spoke very highly of whoever they were simply because they chose to study for and eventually enter the priesthood.



I wish I could see the inside of that building complex as it was back then. I can only imagine some of the building materials I might have encountered. It’s since been a business park and now an apartment complex and I have no desire what so ever to wander through it now. I can’t imagine that there’s much of the original interior left.

Down the road a piece is the entrance to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. I imagine this little structure sitting at the gate was some sort of security building or gatehouse, though I really don’t have a clue. There’s a smaller and slightly less ornate building just across the driveway from this one and a nice iron gate that gets closed during off hours. Here is the building as seen from the street….



…and from inside the cemetery….



I’ve occasionally wondered if it would be worth seeking a retirement job as a grounds keeper just to get an opportunity to explore the inside of these little buildings.

Here’s a picture of the cemetery’s chapel. This is probably my favorite of all the little chapels I’ve seen. I photograph it often and sooner or later, just like a blind squirrel finds a nut, I’ll get a good picture of it.



Here is another angle…



Let’s wander from architecture for a moment and look at something that I know less than nothing about, sculpture. I’ve ridden past this piece several times a year for the past several years and all I ever noticed was a big ring. I never took the time to stop and actually look at this thing until today. Now I’m far from a religious type of person but once I stopped and saw what was in front of me I finally realized what it actually was depicting.



As you can see, the hill with the three crosses in the background didn’t escape my gaze or my camera. Draw your own conclusions as symbolism is not a strong point for me. I did learn however that I need to pay more attention to those sculptures that I run across every so often in my travels both near and far.

I was thrilled to see that all the snow and ice had melted from the Genesee River trail. I traveled it from the cemetery to the park at the mouth of the river. As you can see from this next picture, the ravages of Winter have yet to be thoroughly cleaned up.



Now here’s an advantage to riding a recumbent that doesn’t come up very often, I actually was able to ride under that downed tree without ducking down!!

As you can imagine from its name, Beach Avenue runs along the lake shore. There is a lot of history in this area, which again can be seen in the architecture. Here’s an example of an old Lake Cottage. These structures have all been converted to year round residences now and they are quite close to each other. I’m anxious to see this renovation project when it’s complete.



A lot of these cottages have been altered so much that they’re no longer recognizable. Many of the porches have been walled in to gain much need living space and most of them have had several major additions built onto them. Notice the white house in this picture, it’s had some additions and the porch has been walled-in but it’s still recognizable as an old lake cottage.



A few doors down sits this example of a similar Lake Cottage that’s been very nicely renovated.



So that wraps up another 25-mile ride around my little slice of Paradise. I was surprised to feel my legs were quite tired at the end of this ride. I moved at a very leisurely pace, but then again this was my first recumbent ride since early November. Also of note, though I rode my Trek throughout the winter I did not rack up all that many miles and my riding was kind of sporadic. Oh well…the weather is getting nicer so I’ll get more rides in, more often I guess.

MARCH 17th…..today I basically did a repeat of the same ride with the same bike, you can just review the previous pics or continue reading as I didn’t take any pictures today.

I did cross paths with a gentleman who I see around quite often. He rides a Sun trike and we know each other very casually and pretty much by name only. We visited along the Genesee River Trail for quite a spell and before long we were joined by a third frequent cyclist of this area of the trail. Now this gent was riding a mountain bike, but he also rides a Rans V-Rex and with his wife a Rans Screamer. After a nice chat about bikes, accessories and repairs we parted company and continued on our separate ways.

It had been a sunny day and when I left the house the temp was around 40*, but it was a very mild 60* by the time I completed my 28 mile ride. We seem to be slipping farther and farther away from Winter. The commutes to and from work will be becoming more enjoyable now that the weather is changing.