Over the River XCVII
August 23, 2025
Highlights and lowlights from my 97th two-wheeled trek to the Great State of New York:
1. Unlike the case in my last trip, the #45 regional bus did show up, but oddly, it was completely empty. Usually, there are a bunch of regulars, including a guy who works at Fallsview, and more than half the seats are taken.
2. One of the many bums at Main & Ferry in Niagara Falls (Canada) was plucking the petals off the flowers in the planter one by one. She loves me, she loves me not . . .
3. This message, complete with a phone number, was written inside one of the stalls in the washroom at Niagara Falls State Park. Get paid to poop.
4. Just like it is here, state-sanctioned murder is still a thing in the Great State of New York . . .
5. My inaugural visit to Dunkin’ Donuts didn’t exactly warrant a five-star review. After waiting a couple of minutes while listening to the non-English chatter behind the counter, I had a hard time finding a table that wasn’t littered with crumbs. I was relieved that I opted for something that came in a sealed container.
6. I noted “gum arabic” among the long list of ingredients of the Dole lemonade I had. Gum that came from a Muslim country? I wondered.
7. I wasn’t the only Canadian in the place, as I noticed several Ontario plates in the parking lot. One of them belonged to a family who took a seat nearby. A member of their group had problems checking her email. “Maybe it’s because I’m in the States,” she said. She went on to say, “They have different stores here, like Tops.”
8. On the news show being played on TV screen near the front counter was a segment on reducing road salt. It could not have been a local channel, I thought, since the mere suggestion of such a thing on either side of the river would trigger panic attacks among locals.
9. I smiled when I spotted a green pickup truck from Ontario on Niagara Falls Boulevard with a Trump bumper sticker.
10. Passing me in the opposite direction on Buffalo Avenue was a car with Manitoba plates. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again–that place keeps following me around.
11. A cross-border tribute to our former mayor, who frequently used the word “compassion™” for his own political gain . . .
12. A visiting German teddy bear in the state park . . .
13. The driver of the GO bus that took me back to St. Catharines didn’t look old enough to have a license. He handled the bus fine and all, but he was by far the youngest driver I’ve ever had on any mode of public transportation.
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