I’m Lucy, a recent arrival in Buffalo from the UK. When I got here in September, basically I had an apartment, two suitcases and that was it! I live in Elmwood Village, in a beautiful 3rd floor apartment with so many original old features it makes me feel quite at home – like historic England….I came to Buffalo for my job at Buff State in the Art Conservation Department and have been here for two months. Considering that until about 8 months ago I had no idea where in the world Buffalo was, I’ve made the transition quickly and feel pretty settled in. Buffalo is a big city though, and not so easy to get around without transportation.
Within the first week of getting here I had discovered ‘GO Bike’ and was in the workshop for the next few weeks constructing a bicycle – from the bare bones upwards. Thanks to the patient instruction of Tristan and Henry in the shop I managed to turn a collection of rusty, bashed-up old bits of metal into a very decent means of transport.
I now have a stylish sky-blue road bike with blue taped handlebars, turquoise cables (sorry, I’m a girl, so getting the colours co-ordinated right is very important!) and the skinniest tires on any bike I’ve ever owned.
Mostly ‘Sky’ and I just travel back and forth to work which is only a mile away but I have taken her out on a few longer trips.
Last Friday evening I set out with my friends Cynthia and Vince on their tandem bicycle, along the Niagara River path to a restaurant called ‘Old Man River’. It was gorgeous to pedal along in the frosty evening, watching the sun going down over the reeds on the riverbank. Unfortunately the restaurant was closed when we got there so we turned around and cycled the 10 miles back in the dark. We were pretty hungry by this stage so tied up our bikes and ate a very exotic meal at an Ethiopian restaurant on Grant street, appropriately called ‘Lucy’.
Right now I don’t have any other vehicle to get around on. I would like to see more of America while I am here so will probably buy a car at some point. For now though I will keep on riding Sky for as long as the notoriously snowy Buffalo winters will let me!