colleen c

I feel crappy about this and a little weird. I'm not sure if I should have done it or not. For those who felt I was at fault, please don't mock me for this. I still got some learning to do when I am out and about. Please give me some slack but I do appreciate your honest thoughts.

You know how sometimes you end up taking unexpected detour from a plan route? Well, that pretty much what happen to me last weekend and I ended up at the most unexpected place. I was 5 miles out of 30miles in a leisure ride when I realised that I will be passing an area that I needed to do a much needed overdue visit. So I went into a flower shop and bought some flower and placed it into my backpack and rode another mile. When I arrived at my unexpected route, I thought of locking my bike along the highway and walking in, but there was no real practical place or thing for me to really lock my bike. So I walked into the Cemetary to visit my dad. As I walked toward the Mausoleum, there was gathering of people and I silently walk pass them with my bike and my helmet off. Lucky for me, I was wearing regular street clothe and I don't think those people noticed me that much. Went in the Mausoleum, did my stuff and left silently.

I felt kind of weird to show up at a Cemetary with a bike although I know that for some of us, a bike is our main form of transportation. Still, there is also those non bike riding folks who associate biking as a recreation and may have thought that I was dis-respectful for showing up in a Cemetary with a bike. If anything, perhaps I should have not detour there and visit my dad another day? Dunno, do you think I was disrepectful for what I did?

bigvegan

You did fine. You went to place flowers at your father's grave. It doesn't get much more respectful than that.

I_bRAD

I'm sure many people would agree that biking is a great way to end up in a cemetery!

Seriously though. who cares. walk, bike or drive there it's not their concern.

Bat22

I regularily cut thru a cemetary to and from work. With the care takers' permission.
Kinda nice how some graves get decorated.

rubic

I can understand that you felt crappy about this and a little weird about visiting your dad at his cemetery resting spot. But you should not feel this way so throw away you feelings of guilt. You did the right thing respectively.

adaminlc

I don't see any problem. There are a huge number of people who can't afford a car and ride a bike as an alternative. The inability own a car does not preclude someone from visiting a loved one in a cometary. Don't feel bad.

no1mad 

You didn't do anything wrong, so don't feel ashamed/guilty. You were paying respects to your father.

Artkansas 

Disrespectful? Heavens no. You showed up to pay honor to your Dad. If anything it showed even more respect that you took all the extra effort that bicycling requires to get from point A to point B and still went to see him.

I go past a graveyard twice a day. No one visits those folks. They probably enjoyed the company.

Now if you used the roads in the cemetary to practice for time trials, then that would be disrespectful.

RVD72

I don't think it's disrespectful. My father-in-law's grave is along one of my rides and I regularly go in there with my bike and pay my respects and ride on. It's also a nice ride because the cemetery has hills and overlooks the city, etc. I don't think anyone seems to mind.

RVD.

dynodonn 

Colleen, I and several of my family members ride our bikes into our local cemetery regularly, we even bring our bikes into the large public mausoleum. I see no disrespect at all in visiting one's deceased family members by bicycle, and no one has even mentioned anything to my family members or I about our mode of transportation into the cemetery.

Arcanum

I certainly hope not. Over the summer a recreational cycling group I was riding with rode through a local cemetery just too see it. Granted, Mount Hope Cemetery is beautiful and half tourist attraction, complete with brochure pointing out the most interesting/historically relevant sites....

Anyway, I say don't worry about it.

thirdgenbird

i think my dad wants to be buried with his bike...

prathmann

One member of my bike club had his cemetery plot already prepared, complete with a tombstone just missing the final date. We'd take club rides out there every once in a while and have a little picnic on his future home. I don't see anything disrespectful about visiting a cemetery in any type of conveyance as long as it's not done in a way that bothers others.

colleen c

Thanks everyone!!! I feel so much better and relieve now. I feel like I just confess a sin or something like that! I just felt awkward that day because I've personally never seen anyone with a bike in a cemetary before. It was even more discomforting for me to try to find a post to lock it up in the parking lot and wondering if it was the right thing to do. However when I did past the outdoor site and got to the indoor Mausoleum, their was a Caretaker who saw me from the distant and kindly open the door for me. Usually it is an open place, but they had some vandalism lately. He told me to go ahead and place my bike in this little corner area reseve for those cart thing that raises and lower. He was a quiet fellow and I was not sure was he mad or not. He did mention that it was safe where it was and I can go up to the second floor to do my visitation. I wanted to ask him about this but was a little scare to find the truth. I must admit that this was the strangest place I bought my bike to. Good thing is that I now feel better for the next time I past that area if I happen to be riding and I can visit my Dad

colleen c

Funny you mention this. When I left that day. I had to cross the street to get back the other side. There was a light to allow Ped to cross and to stop car that travel at 45-55 mph speed. As I riding across, this car turning left did not want to slow down and cut in front. I was thinking how Ironic that can be since it just so happen that I have a space already bought out for me at that cemetary. Truth is, if I did DOA, they still have to sent me to a hospital than back to the cemetary.......procedures and rules (gotta love it).

Grillparzer

Men are respectable only as they respect.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Respect for ones parents is the highest duty of civil life.
Chinese Proverb

Ka_Jun

+1

wunderkind

Ridiculous! Absolutely floored at the very thought of this! In many parts of the world where cycling is not considered a sport but a very viable mode of transportation, bicycle is seen in any areas and that includes cemeteries! Heck I've been to funerals where visitors came by bikes and was part of the funeral procession to the final cemeteries. There is nothing wrong with what you did.

akohekohe

Where I live the access road to the National Cemetery of the Pacific (inside Punchbowl crater) has signs prohibiting bicycles.

exile

As long as you didn't park your bike over someones grave (hopefully you didn't) I don't see anything you did as wrong. People pay there respects in their own way

Sixty Fiver

I would hope that very few cars show up at my funeral and that everyone comes by bike... we won't need a hearse as I would like to be cremated and carrying an urn would be easy.

illdoittomorrow

In Calgary, one of the bike paths goes right through a cemetary (Queen's Park Cemetary, off of 4th St. N.). I've ridden through once or twice as a funeral procession came in- I just stopped and kept my distance.

Tequila Joe

My parents are in the Queens Park Cemetary, I visit my parents more often by bike than by car.

chephy

A large cemetery near my house has bike paths and is part of city's official bike routes.

mr geeker

if it was wrong, then it was no more wrong than doing the same with a car.