Riverdale Ave / Clarkson Ave

July came to a close with another trip to East New York on the 3 train, but this time I got off before the end of the line. Instead of Livonia, I went one block south to Riverdaale and walked down to the "L" train boundary with Brownsville. After a detour to the bridge over the tracks, I completed that avenue and crossed over to Clarkson Ave -- which I didn't take to the end because I had someplace else to go! But I'm getting ahead of myself!

My trip started at the Van Siclen Ave station, which is one block north from the intersection of Van Siclen, New Lots Ave, and Riverdale Ave. Once at the intersection, I hung a right and went west like the young men of yore, although I only passed a few young men along the way. That's the benefit of traveling so early in the morning.

The street running along the east side of the railroad tracks is Van Sinderen Ave. This particular block wasn't too creepy to walk, but it was a bit deserted. The block beyond it looked a little shadier ... and not in a summertime way.

I didn't photograph the crossover bridge again but I came down on the Junius Street and took a pic of the open gate that led right to the freight line tracks. No free entry to the "L" train though.

Back on Riverdale, walking to the end. There was a brief stop at Thafford Ave, which did not go through to Livonia. There wasn't even an entrance to the parking lot of whichever supermarket was on the other side of the fence. Before you knew it, I was at E98 Street.

Quick story: about the only people I passed were in a group of four (three guys and one youngwoman), all dressed nice, but dressed more for an evening out than for going to work. And then I noticed the number of drinks on the parked car beside them. Ah ... they were on their way home from a night out ... except they weren't on the way home yet. I didn't exchange pleasantries or even glances because they paid me no attention at all.

Walking up E 98 Street brought me to Clarkson Ave, which starts at the same place as Kings Highway. Both run southwest, but Kings Highway goes more south southwest. Also, Clarkson breaks and Remsen Ave, and then picks up again going west almost, but not quite, parallel with Riverdale.

Clarkson is one long strip of sidewalk down to New York Ave with only Albany Ave cutting through. (Note: I should've walked that block when I did either Winthrop or this one. Oh well.)

The one interesting spot was a gate that looked like it should be for a driveway, but there were just large slabs of stone on the other side, almost like steps of the beginning of a path. Maybe something was there a long time ago? I don't know, and I wouldn't know what to search.

And now, the final detour. Besides having one block of Parkside Ave to walk to get to Nostrand and the 2/5 train back to Atlantic Ave, I had an additional half block or so to walk toward Rogers. If you check my overall map, you'll see that there is a walk I took from these doors all the way along the park, past the Fort Hamilton Parkway stop on the F train (which I couldn't locate the entrance) and ended at the Fort Hamilton Parkway stop on the D train (because I selected the wrong thing from Google Maps!). I dont' remember why I was there -- was it a job interview or some kind of professional development? Either way, I took a photo of those doors before doing a 180 and going back to the 2.

And that's it for this trip. Come back soon. I'm almost up to AUGUST! I hope to get there before November!

MY NEWEST BOOK IS AVAILABLE NOW! Burke's Lore Briefs: Yesterday's Villains, the following to Tomorrow's Heroes is now available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited. If Heroes who don't die live long enough to become the villain, what happens to Villains who live long enough? When do schemes of global conquest become dreams of a quiet place away from all those annoying people you once wanted to subjugate? And does anyone really want to rule over the world's ashes if it means we can't have nice things?
My older books include three more books in my Burke's Lore Briefs series, and the anthologies A Bucket Full of Moonlight and In A Flash 2020. Vampires, werewolves, angels, demons, used-car salesmen, fairies, superheroes, space and time travel, and little gray aliens talking to rock creatures and living plants. Plus pirates, spies, horror, and kindergarten noir! If you enjoy my books, please consider leaving a rating or review on Amazon or on Good Reads. Thank you!