52 Town Pickup - Writing on the Wall

Last night I stayed in Batavia and had dinner at Denny's. Being solo I ended up getting up pretty early considering my first picture was at 8:11AM. Nothing special about this picture or place other than it cover A in the Z to A towns and anchors the beginning of this story.

Next town was Attica where the famous prison is. While this has no town sign on it, I liked the building just because it was there. I think I picked up Attica Wastewater Treatment plant as the town.



Heading due west heading toward Lake Erie, stopped in Lackawanna. As I was riding to my destination I came across Our Lady of Victory National Shrine and Basilica. In 1916 St Patrick's Church burned destroying the spire on the church and assembly area.. Father Baker ordered the church repaired, however held off on the spire. In May of 1921 the church was dismantled to make way for a new building, knowing full well the did not have all the funds in place for the building. Emile Ulrich a graduate of the Academy of Paris landed the job and designed a magnificent Beaux Arts basilica. The basilica was completed by 1925 and was completely paid for.





Not quite as interesting as the basilica, the Lackawanna Public Library was built from funds donated by Andrew Carnegie, the steel magnate. Funny part of this is Carnegie was bought out by JP Morgan which created US Steel. Lackawanna also had a steel mill in town which was owned by US Steel's biggest competitor Bethlehem Steel.



Keeping with yesterdays movie theater unplanned theme picked this up in Angola, NY. The theater opened in 1924 as a silent movie theater. In 1929 it was converted with the addition of sound to accommodate the new format called the Talkies. The theater was closed in 1995 and fell into disrepair. In 2002 it reopened as a new attraction to the folks in Angola, a population of 2,127. Seeing that it is 2013 (2014 as of this writing) it must be successful.



I liked this place just because it reminded me of my childhood. This type of building was fairly typical of hardware stores back in the day.




I ended up in a cemetery just so I could get a picture of Lake Erie to say I had been there on this trip. Pretty lame pic.



In Fredonia spent a little more time picking up some the historic sites.







Laona, which is just outside Fredonia was on my hit list and had problems finding a sign.




Made my way down the coast of Lake Erie picking up more Z to A towns. In Mayville, which does not start with Z or end in A this wood carving place was must stop.

In Panama made the turn to head back east towards Massachusetts. Grabbed Cuba.

This is in Cuba as well.



Angelica, NY

Odessa, NY



I drove thru Watkins Glen and tried to get a room there for the night. Wow pricey. I never did seek out the race course and I didn't take any pictures in the Glen. Headed for Ithaca for the night. Grabbed Odessa, NY. The pictures at this point are purely get the town and head for the next place.



One last town was Cayuta, NY and found a great little motel in Ithaca called the Meadow Court Inn. Prices were very reasonable and comfortable. I met 3 other riders from Canada, who invited me to diner with them. I was tempted but declined. Something inside me said if you go out with these guys there might be some drinking involved, which would not mix with the ride home. Stupid reason but a reason.

Todays tally is 24 towns for the Z to A tour. A total of 43 towns between yesterday and today.