Thoughts on Riding in a Cemetery

I’ll tell you where I am with it and am looking for community input to see how many are aligned with my thinking. I found an article that touches on the subject, and thought it addressed both sides of the issue nicely, having like thoughts to both viewpoints myself. Check it out then read on….

Recently a couple of coworkers and myself have been taking our walks at lunch for our silly dollar that isn’t really a dollar on our health insurance plan. Prior to them joining me, I used to walk at a park across the highway about 10 minutes away. They started walking with me there and I missed a day somewhere along the way. They went to the cemetery less than a minute away from the office. I saw it and next day I asked about going there. It had never occurred to me to go there to walk and the initial thought of it made me think it was disrespectful somehow as described in the first viewpoint of the article. Well, after a couple of months of it now we are like a fixture there it seems. All of the employees and grounds keepers are super friendly and started smiling and waving to us a couple of weeks into it. I feel we are respectful of services being held and people who seem like they are having a hard time mourning by not speaking and kind of tip toeing past, wave if looked at, but try not to stare. What I have seen so far is 90% of people genuinely smile and wave at us. 5% look at us like they are confused as to what we are doing there, and the remaining 5% seem angry that we are there. We have come across a couple dozen groups of people hanging out smoking weed and they are pretty cool for the most part, others there to play Pokeman. Last weekend was the weekend they celebrated day of the dead and there were all kinds of people out there tailgaiting barbecuing kids playing around as described later on in the article. All of this has made me feel more like the second viewpoint of the article is the right one, and has me questioning why I felt/still feel the first point has validity to it. Which finally, brings me to the point of this entirely long winded story. I want to ride my bike there!!! There are so many sweet 2 and 3 step stair steps to bunny hop, curbs to skinny on, probably 5+ miles of roads and another 5 of sidewalks. The place seems safer than the only park I felt somewhat safe at around there and as somewhere right by the shop is the really only realistic place I have to go to everyday and not miss too much work. (This is a 30 minute deal) I’ve seen shootings at some of the other parks and get mad looks at others so I steer clear of most of them around. Now I am back to feeling viewpoint 1 feelings about riding the bike there, and if so, more so about riding the sidewalks for those stairs. Personally I wouldn’t go down one if someone there, and steer clear of services, if not walk the bike past them if have to go by. I ran for the first time there today, walked when passing a small group of people and got the same smiles and waves as usual. 🤔 So, what’s the consensus, disrespectful or not to ride here?

by Zac-O-235