Over the River XCVIII
September 3, 2025
Highlights and lowlights from my 98th two-wheeled trek to the Great State of New York:
1. En route to catch the regional bus downtown, I stopped on Carlton to pick up a quarter and a dime someone had left on the street. After pocketing the coins, a passer-by asked, “Lose some money?” “No,” I answered. “Someone else did. I brake for cash.”
2. No longer having to serve that pesky Fairview Mall stop, the driver of the #45 route had enough layover time at the outlet mall to do a couple of laps around the parking lot while listening to some sports talk show on his phone. Thanks again Niagara Transit for “simplifying my ride.”
3. Cart full o’goodies left on the street near the Main & Ferry hub in Niagara Falls (Canada) . . .
4. While heading to the US, the driver of an SUV from Pennsylvania decided to stop in the middle of the bridge and put on his four-way flashers, presumably to take a picture of the flags and/or plaque marking the international boundary line. As officers on both sides of the border have noted, the Rainbow Bridge is not a tourist attraction.
5. While I was waiting for the #40 Buffalo-bound bus on Rainbow Boulevard, one of the employees who works at the Niagara USA Visitor Center got out of her car. She proceeded to dig out a rainbow-colored tote bag, the kind they sell at Ikea, which she carried with her as she passed by on the sidewalk. Now how do you suppose she got her job?
6. Dear Operator 7732: Allow me to congratulate you on landing that job with the NFTA. Even though they’re always looking for drivers and the standards don’t seem to be much higher than having a pulse, you still have to feel good about it all and I hope it will be a great step forward in your career, wherever it may lead. I felt so honored to be among your first passengers on this, your first day. I can understand that you’d probably have been embarrassed to admit that it was your first day if a passenger like me had asked, so I’ll just keep that little detail between us.
Please also allow me to congratulate you on your very recent acquisition of a New York State driver’s license. After all the road tests you must have failed spectacularly, finally getting an examiner who didn’t take you around curves, have you exit an off-ramp or make you navigate a roundabout had to have been a tremendous relief. It must have been your lucky day. As you struggled through the lengthy and arduous process, you must have also been relieved when you learned that the DMV doesn’t have a limit on the number of times you can take a road test before they write you off as a lost cause. True, there are extra costs involved, but in the long run, it’s a small price to pay.
I’m sure in the coming years, you’ll get the hang of this driving thing. Not being a driver myself, I can’t imagine how difficult it must be to negotiate a curve while behind the wheel of a big bus. It’s no wonder you had such trouble and why you crawled all the way through the exits you took. It’s probably also why you came to an abrupt stop as you changed lanes when taking that exit onto River Road. You can never be too careful, and though I’m forever grateful for your prudence, I have to admit it was one of the many instances during the hour-long ride that I was a little concerned we were about to be rear-ended. Please forgive me for being a bit of a nervous Nellie. Those roundabouts can be a little tricky as well. I don’t blame you for exercising extreme caution, though when I looked out the window, I thought I saw a slug outpacing the bus as you took us through that roundabout on Grand Island.
In any event, it was a pleasure riding with you and I can only hope to again have you as my driver in a future trip.
7. Just past the Scajaquada, boarding was a guy wearing a T-shirt with the message, “School is important, but hockey is importanter.”
8. A few blocks farther south was a mural which read, “Better days are coming . . . never mind.”
9. Closer to downtown, an older guy got on and asked the driver of a bus with a big lighted sign out front which read, “40 BUFFALO” if she was going to Buffalo. After she said yes, the guy asked, “So I got to go across the street to get the one going to Niagara Falls?”
10. While at the sink inside the washroom at the Metropolitan Transportation Center, a guy walked in and asked me, “What’s up, boss?”
11. Inside the stall at the far end of the washroom was a guy with his bike. Once finished doing his business, he got on his bike and tried to ride it backwards past the urinals toward the sink.
12. Words to live by for those with a drinking problem . . .
13. Inside the Wonder Coffeehouse, I listened as a black woman and a white guy seated nearby were involved in a conversation. She told the guy she has three daughters, the oldest being 20 and currently studying engineering at Canisius College. She said her daughter is very smart and was the valedictorian for her high school class. The woman is currently a project manager managing properties and oversees all her employer’s buildings. A ton of infrastructure work, she said. Putting in water lines and sewer lines. Her previous employer wanted to send her to Florida on a job, but then she applied with her current employer, who hired her right away. She didn’t want to go to Florida because she has a lot of family in the Buffalo area. She went on to say that she had originally trained as a cosmetologist in her 20s and, currently 40, she’s not ready to retire yet.
He, on the other hand, started a coworking space and cut his teeth with that. He got a big break later on and eventually redid Seneca One. He said he was really proud of that, but he continues to learn from everybody around him. He’s currently doing a job in Syracuse and is five months into the project. She said she has a lot of connections in Syracuse as well.
14. One of many interesting scenes inside the place . . .
15. Interesting slogan facing those squatting on the toilet . . .
16. Must be a Democrat voter . . .
17. Another flower bike . . .
18. How welcoming and inclusive of the people at Canalside . . .
19. As I stopped for a picture near the MTC, who should be crossing the street but Erika Schwibs, the self-proclaimed “Prophet of God” who was on the bus when I was last in Buffalo. “It’s a Satanic cult . . . it’s a Satanic cult,” she kept muttering while crossing the street. Spotting the “with genius” on her sign, I wondered if she had business cards to that effect, like Wile E. Coyote on the cartoons. Perhaps I should have asked. Maybe next time.
20. While waiting with others for the overdue Falls-bound #40 bus, a black guy smoking dope came up to us and said, “The Bills, man. They got a raw deal. Star defensive player just got hurt and he’s out for the season. Out for the season.”
“It’s all politics, man,” he went on to say. “It’s all rigged. They’re not going to let the Bills win the Super Bowl until they get to their new stadium. Let the Pegulas make their money back.”
21. When returning to Ostdeutschland Canada, I had a longer wait at the toll booth than I did with both customs inspections combined as, for some reason, they had only one open lane.
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