We are really getting to see the fall colors here in the Allegheny National Forest Region in north western corner of Pennsylvania. The weather is still dripping on us but we are still enjoying ourselves.
We want to welcome three new families to our Blog today. Betty Kelley and Rick Updike who hail from this corner of Pennsylvania welcomed us when we arrived. Paul and Robyn Casillo from Akron, NY are some new friends that we made in Niagara Falls. Paul and Clary Burgwardt run a fantastic museum dedicated to bicycles in Orchard Park NY.
I want to write a little about this museum. In a direct communiquĂ© to Ray Scholl in St. Helens, Oregon. Buddy you have to make up an excuse to get here. Find a volkswalk or something around Buffalo or Niagara Falls and make the stop at this museum. They have an original of about any vintage bicycle you can name from hobby horses to bone shakers to velocipedes. They have Ordinaries, high wheel safety bicycles followed by the early diamond frame bicycles. They have tricycles, dicycles and fat tire models from our youth. They have wood wheels, steel wheels, hard rubber and sew-ups. Fat tires, skinny tires and lots of flat tires. They have direct drive, shaft drive, leather belt treadle drive, orbital gears, hub gears, eccentric drives and one French bicycle with two speeds where you pedal backwards for low gear and forward for high. They have headlights, (kerosene and carbide,) tail lights, horns and bells. They have just about every kind of bicycle memorabilia you can name and a few you can’t. All of that and I didn’t find a single bicycle that looked like our tandem. Here is a link that you can look at the museum website. (Pedaling History Bicycle Museum). Also check below to see a picture of Judy riding an Ordinary. Well maybe she isn’t exactly riding it. It was bolted firmly to the ground. But it is not hard to imagine yourself hopping along behind the bike with your left foot on the peg getting up enough speed to boost your rump onto that saddle that is eyeball high while still maintaining your balance. By the way the instructions suggest that when you are descending a hill at speed you should drape your legs over the handlebars so you can leap free if you start to do a header.
Carl and Clary were wonderful hosts. We opened the museum at eleven and I was still crawling around inspecting every odd gearing system at five. The Burgwardt’s have collected all of these fantastic machines over the years and I understand they have had this museum open for about fifteen years now. Many of you have asked me if I have tried to patent our tandem. My stock answer is, “I don’t believe there is anything truly unique about any part of my design.” I am even more convinced of that now.
From here we are going to make our way to the Piper Aircraft Museum in Lockport PA and then we hope to catch up with our mail again in Gettysburg. Yes I couldn’t resist it. Our “Gettysburg Address” for one day only early next week will be:
Gary Dinsmore
General Delivery
Gettysburg PA, 17325
Oh Yes! To answer last weeks questionsÂ… Indeed we stuck to our scruples and Path carried us safely and I might add, dryly too, around Niagara Falls on both the American and Canadian sides of the river.
Well it is time to send our greetings to all of our friends and relations.
Love to all from Gary and Judy.
