Saturday was a perfect day in Manhattan. It was the first real day of Spring that I could actually enjoy — so naturally I took my bike out of storage, pumped up the tires and went for a joy ride.
Every time I go bike riding I try to explore something new. Saturday was certainly no exception so I wanted to share some of my firsts with you. While this is mostly off-topic from the purpose of my blog, it is largely about how old technology impacts the human experience, so I think it’s worth mentioning here.
List of Firsts:
- 1st time in Riverside Park during the day
- 1st time biking on the Upper West Side
- 1st time hitting a human with my bike
- 1st time being knocked over, completely sideways, onto the concrete
- 1st time having a crowd of people come to my aid in NYC
- 1st time fixing the gears on my bike by myself
- 1st time getting right back up on the bike after I’ve fallen off (been pushed off!)
- 1st time biking through a Central Park transverse (crossing the park from 5th Avenue to Central Park West and vice versa)
- 1st time biking on the Upper East Side
- 1st time biking down 5th Avenue
- 1st time riding my bike with no hands in the middle of New York City
- 1st time running into a crowd waiting for the pope
- 1st time biking down Park Avenue
- 1st time being inconvenienced by riding my bike — couldn’t cross to the west side because of the pope!
- 1st time disobeying the police on my bike
- 1st time crossing Midtown traffic on my bike
- 1st time being honked by a semi while on my bike
- 1st bike ride in NYC longer than 10 miles (14.25 to be exact!)
It was an amazing experience. I wasn’t tired or burnt at the end of the day. I had only brought one bottle of water but it had been enough. The temperature was perfect, the wind was calm, and the changing scenes I saw throughout the city were remarkable.
You can see my entire bike route plotted with the wonderful Google Maps Pedometer.
Here’s what the Hudson River Park Greenway looked like on Saturday:
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You are brave! Bike riding in NYC looks scary. It’s been ace to be back home so I can ride my bike too. Way quicker than the bus to get to work.
Biking is pretty normal in my country :-)
http://www.behr.nl/Amsterdam/Images/foto.0.01.jpg
looks scarry all the incidents you allready had