Over the River LXXIX
June 28, 2024
Highlights and lowlights from my 79th two-wheeled trek to the Great State of New York:
1. Welcome to Justin Trudeau’s Canada, where MAID has spiraled so far out of control . . .
2. While waiting at the Fairview Mall bus stop, a black woman got off a #312 St. Catharines bus and made her way to the Presto machine. After spending a few minutes there, she approached me.
“Do you have a Presto card?” she asked.
“Yes.”
“Can you buy me a ticket? I didn’t think it was so expensive.”
“You can’t buy tickets with Presto.”
Nor would I have taken money out of my wallet for her either. And as far as the cost is concerned, the GO fares haven’t gone up since I’ve been in this part of the world. All in all, it’s a pretty good deal, if you ask me.
She went back to the machine, fiddled about for a while, then approached me again.
“How much money comes off your Presto card when you tap?”
“$3.70.”
“Do you have five dollars?”
“No.”
Well, I did. But not for her. I also noticed that though she apparently didn’t have $5 for bus fare, she did have money for the hairdresser who did her dreadlocks, the Guess purse on her arm and the Black Lives Matter earrings she was wearing.
She then made her way down the platform to try to find someone else who might have been inclined to chip in for her bus fare. She found no takers, including the driver of a #305 St. Catharines bus who was forced to listen to her whining for several minutes during a layover.
I only wished I could have found out what happened when the GO bus came, but alas, my regional bus came and I wasn’t about to hang around and find out.
2. New at the Niagara College stop is a Presto machine. Just like at Stoney Creek, it’s long overdue. If Metrolinx isn’t going to accept cash on buses anymore, then they need to put machines at every stop. Even Beamsville.
3. After an hour-long wait at U.S. Customs, the CBP officer asked me, “Where are we going today?” Funny, I didn’t know he was planning to come with me. After telling him, he asked, “How long have we been biking?” He was rather taken aback when I said I had purchased that bike in 2006 and have since put over 24,000 miles on it.
4. While at the cash register at the store inside the Western New York Welcome Center on Grand Island, I listened as a woman was asking one of the clerks behind the counter if she had any information on Niagara Falls, Canada. Not surprisingly, she didn’t, so I offered to help. We sat down at a nearby table and I spent the next 10 minutes or so answering all of her questions on the many attractions on the Canadian side. She thought it was stupid that they wouldn’t have any information on the Canadian attractions there, but as I explained, the Welcome Center is funded by NYS taxpayers to promote products and services within the state. Every item in the store, in fact, comes from a NYS vendor.
4a. I’ve noted previously that there are times I think Metrolinx should offer me a part-time position as a customer care representative. Same goes with Niagara Parks.
5. Scenes in and around the WNY Welcome Center:
6. One kid posing for a selfie was wearing a T-shirt with the message, “Climate change is real.” I wonder if he also believes in Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy.
7. Welcome to Grand Island . . .
8. Uncle Sam and a buffalo . . .
9. I went to use the washroom at LaSalle Waterfront Park, only to find the door locked. Some dude who was blasting loud music from a boom box that he was hauling in his bike’s trailer walked over and told me that “punk-ass kids” broke the sinks twice, so they shut the washroom down.
10. In front of me in line at the toll booth at the Rainbow Bridge was someone with a bumper sticker that read, “CANINE FEMINIST.”
11. For the second time in my travels, the CBP was doing outbound inspections, though they weren’t stopping every car.
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