A taste of Buffalo

A couple of weeks ago, when we crossed over the Peace Bridge into Buffalo, we didn't really ride through the city. Instead, we followed the beginning of the Erie Canal bike trail along the Niagara River.

Today, we rode through Buffalo, sampling various neighborhoods. It's fascinating to see how the character of a neighborhood can change completely in a couple of blocks. Residential to commercial, dilapidated to affluent, white to black, old to new.

A new Vietnamese Buddhist cultural center.

One neighborhood appeared to be gentrifying, or maybe it was just bulk trash pickup day on that street. Almost every house had a big pile of debris in front of it - old furniture and scraps of wood and plaster as if interior rooms had been gutted.

There are lots of old fire stations in Buffalo that once served small neighborhoods. Many look like they are no longer serving as fire stations.

This fire station had a "for rent" sign.

Tesla is making batteries, not cars, in Buffalo.

Botanical garden in Buffalo's South Park.

When we stopped for a break at a 7-eleven, I noticed a security flaw. They had some kind of machine set up where you could insert cash to make purchases. They had the key to the machine cleverly hidden behind the machine. The flaw in the plan was that the back of the machine faced the front window of the store.

The secret key hidden in back of the machine, in plain view from the parking lot in front of the store.

Once we passed through Buffalo, we followed the shore of Lake Erie. Because there was a stiff wind blowing off of the lake, we sometimes opted to ride a bit further away from the lake.

There are only a few beaches on this part of Lake Erie.

We are now in wine country, or at least in grape country. Some of the grapes end up in wine, some go to Welch's for grape juice and grape jelly.

Future jelly. The 2018 vintage goes well with peanut butter.

A religious building serving as a retirement center.

We ended up in the town of Dunkirk, NY. The street names seemed to have a small mammal theme. We passed, among others, Rabbit St., Caracal St., Serval St., Oscelot St., Jerboa St., Pangolin St., Armadillo St., Lemming St., Ermine St. and Beaver St.

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