Home Sweet Home

It took awhile to write another blog post because I became a bit brain dead after being in NYC for so long. After about a week I was ready to head back home. What overwhelmed me the most was dealing with the people-the sheer amount of people everywhere as well as those who shove, those who try to get your money, and those that can't understand what you are saying. Every time we went out we were solicited over and over again by the homeless, by people selling tickets to the bus tours, and by people just selling anything. I know that a family walking together through New York must have a huge stamp that says, "try and take their money" but it was tiring. I was torn between trying to go see some landmarks in the city and trying to just find some quiet corners. It was the tourist areas where it was the worst. We did learn how to kind of split up and not all walk together and other little tricks to keep some of it at bay. The next thing that kind of put me over the top was the amount of rats everywhere at night. One night Russ and I were walking back home at about midnight and I was about a foot away from the garbage put on the sidewalk for pick up when one of the bags moved. I jumped a mile and screamed like a little girl. I know I am a wimp when it comes to these things, but I will take our little field mice over a big, nasty rat any day.

A sample of the amount of riders out on the 9W in
NJ on a Sunday morning.

Now, with that all out of my system, I can say the cycling community is a beacon of light in any city. I contacted my new NYC cycling friend, John, to see if I could join in on a group ride and he was nice enough to put together a ride with some other local cyclists on Sunday. It was a nice ride through Palisades Parkway in New Jersey, which runs along the Hudson River. There were actual nature type things to see-like a little waterfall. It was really nice. No rats spotted. We also headed up the 9W, a highway that is among the most traveled by cyclists in the U.S.  I haven't seen so many cyclists out just riding recreationally on a road before. They kind of just dominate the road and make the cars figure out how to get past them all. There were four rows of bike racks at the coffee shop we stopped at in Piermont, and they were all chock full of bikes. New Yorkers do like their bikes, so I guess they all can't be that bad.

I did a few more Central Park rides, but mainly looked forward to returning and cycling at home. My first full day back I took out the mountain bike and did a fun ride on the VASA trail, just taking a meandering route through some single track and the main pathway. It felt great to be in the woods again. I keep looking around at our beautiful beaches and our downtown area with clear, rat free sidewalks and breathe a deep sigh of relief that I am home again.