080524 A Discussion with Mia and Abby

These photos are from the Childswork parent's night, but they were the most recent that would work with this posting.   On Abby's birthday Abby told us that she wants the Urbaniks to move next door to us.
She wanted this so she could go over and take them a piece of her dragon cake.
 
Mia said: I am going to drink it all gone and then have some of that too (milk and then
juice which Abby had).
 

Breakfast in Westmoreland with Selman

We biked over to Fat Albert's (about a mile) away to have breakfast with Selman. It is one of the restaurants that made us want to live in our neighborhood. It is always packed, although it seems they just recently raised the price and that was keeping the line down a bit.  
We enjoyed Selman's company during breakfast and the girls behaved themselves marginally well. Selman took these pictures of us, I rode the kid pusher and puller bike which includes the Bobike seat and the trail-a-bike. It is a pretty good setup, but not quite as good as a bakfietsen.  

Abby Turns 5!

What a great birthday cake. Nana made the dragon from  

Abby at the Zoo

 

Rainy Day at the Zoo

Once upon a time when I went to the zoo the first thing I wanted to see was the dinosaurs. I saw a hammerhead asaurus and a T Rex and I saw some little raptors. It was a little rainy at the zoo, but we didn't mind getting wet because I had a rain coat and my hood was on my head.  
My favorite was the brachiosaurus. We also saw some dinosaur eggs and we also saw a dinosaur eating another dinosaur, which was kind of sad. We knew that it wasn't really eating it, it was just pretend eating it. It was a heenyasaurus.   After the dinosaurs, saw the bats and the giraffe.

My name is Abby.

The End!

Brooklyn, Bronx, Queens, and Staten, from the Battery to the top of Manhattan!   The ride festival wasn't the official end, but it how would you have a party for 30,000 in Manhattan? The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge was the last connection into Staten Island and we were happy to get to the finish line!
  A bike has the price of gas as a placard. Is this an advertisement or a statement?
 
Susan at the Festival with the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge in the background.

 

Kevin and Heather taking photos!

Approaching the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge

  The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge is approaching. It was a great view coming down the highway. I can see why they call it a scenic byway. You can see the multimodal path on the right hand side of the picture, I guess they figured we had a few too many people to use that 12 foot wide facility. I think that was a wise choice since some of the speeds at this point were pretty high.
 

We weren't supposed to take pictures on the bridge, but people were, so I joined in. They had police cars on the structure and when there was someone stopping for a photo, the cop reversed his vehicle slowly and put on his microphone. I know they want to protect the bridge, but I can't see how they can stop folks driving on it from snapping a few digital pictures as they go. In the interest of national security...

Gowanus Expressway into Brooklyn

  We had crossed the Pulaski Bridge and were cruising right along. There were really great connections through Queens and Brooklyn until we got caught up in traffic on the Gowanus Expressway. There were a few cycling crashes which caused quite a backup. It was sort of sad and also ironic, the vehicular traffic in the other direction was crawling along too and folks in their cars were taking pictures of us.
  A lot of the time we were clear sailing though. At times, we were cooking along and pulling out my little point and shoot camera was a little ominous. Then you have Kevin with his Nikon having no problems using his camera to click like crazy.
  Susan and Kevin are making good time as we head towards Staten Island. THe next roadway is Interstate 278 which you can see on the right hand sign.
 

The last photo is a family and I thought about Abby and Amelia and bringing them on this ride. Susan has concerns about safety, but I think it would be okay. Maybe when they are a little older.

Manhattan from Queens

 
This is the sort of picture that we made the trip for! What a view of the Big Apple. ON bikes no less!

Susan on the Queensboro Bridge

 
I wish this would have come out a little sharper, because I can't recall a picture when Susan looked like she was having this much fun! I snapped another before that and the second one came out like this.

Bike Traffic on the Queensboro Bridge

I thought this was a bike ride, not a walk!   Recreational bike rides would be a great opportunity to research the riding styles of various populations. There are some pretty terrific lapses of attention to detail when you think about the merging and when you think about it cycling requires quite an amazing array of human characteristics of balance for carrying it out.
  Stopping on the bridge did give us a good chance to get some fun photos of the group and the people stacked on the bridge. It seemed like we were making good time except for these little delays that occurred all too often. We were 2 1/2 hours into the ride and 14 miles complete. I guess that isn't too good after all, but what do you expect with all the rest areas and traffic :)
 

Upper Eastside Freeway Riding

  We were cruising down the road on our way to the QueensBoro Bridge and the rest stop fueled us up with Larabars and Snapple20, the best stuff in NYC. At this point, it seemed like we were going to get away without rain on us as they had predicted clearing up throughout the day.
  I guess all those positive sun thoughts had worked.
 

Third Avenue Bridge

 
 
Leaving the Bronx quickly on the Third Avenue Bridge, about 10 miles into the ride and the legs are just starting to get warmed up!

Madison Avenue Bridge

 

At about Mile 9, we crossed our first bridge which crossed us into the Bronx. Our stay in the Bronx would be short, I was happy to be free from Yankee territory (being a Red Sox Fan!).

  We pulled into Central Park just before 9:00 AM and right before had just come out of a big bike jam as we entered the park. With all group rides, it is impossible to stop and start the group and expect to have any ability to limit delays. The stops and starts are exacerbated by clipless pedals that folks seem to latch into even when they should'nt.
  Susan looks confident as she cruises in the pack. We lost Kevin and Heather at the intersection, or at least we thought we did. We caught up to them at the first rest stop in Harlem.
 

Five Boro Ride, 8:26 AM

 
We were making okay time as we kept on 6th Ave at 31st Street. The bicycle signal on the left wasn't all that important to the mass of cyclists cruising the street this morning. The buildings make our group look small, but we overwhelmed the streets.

Five Boro Ride, 8:01:40 AM

 
We started our 42-mile ride through New York City's boroughs walking behind the mass of people huddled on 6th Ave. It was an awesome site. The morning was cold and misty with thick fog that is common in New York. The chance of rain was 40%, so we thought we were going to get wet, little did we know what an awesome day there was in store for us!