Today's Bike Ride

It's so strange being retired....there's nooo pressure. So even though I was up relatively early at 9 am, I didn't set out on my bike ride until 12 noon! Meandered around the house, setting up this new blog, reading email, futzing some more with the computer, breakfasting, putting on sun block. Yeah, my dermatologist removed a skin cancer from under my right eye a few days ago and, though superficial, warned me about sun exposure. Like I didn't know already,right? But I knew about my teeth and gums also and didn't floss regularly until I lost a few (teeth) and was warned more severely by the dentist...so now I floss. And now I cover myself with sun block. Such is human nature I guess.

Anyway, it was after 12 by the time I wheeled my bike down my front steps and started out on my beautiful spring-day ride. A few blocks into my ride I run into my brother Lee who is chatting with his neigbor, John. We talked for a while and discussed the giant new house being built next to his as it is rising way above the other houses on the block.

I left Lee and John and pedalled across Sheepshead Bay. It looked beautiful, shimmering in the bright sunlight; swans and ducks doing their thing. But on closer look: lots of brown, sewage on the surface of the water: the byproduct of the heavy rains and NY's antiquated combined sewer overflo which empties household waste when the processing plant gets overloaded by heavy rains from the street sewers. Basically, the brown scum on the water after the rains is garbage and human feces. Quite disgusting.


Sheepshead Bay, swans and Lundys
on a beautiful, spring day.

I've done this ride a hundred times already but never tire of it. I decided a long time ago that I'm an urban cyclist. Please don't misunderstand me: an idyllic ride in the countryside is lovely. But I get my greatest pleasure from cycling through and around city streets: neighborhood to neighborhood. I'm an explorer: I like to find new stores, buildings, streets; observe people in their coming and going; And New York is just great for that: five boroughs that you cycle from one to the other and often to do that, one must cross some of its great bridges. The views of the city, my city, are spectacular.


Horseman guarding
the entrance to Brooklyn's Prospect Park.

I cut straight north through New York's most populous borough and my home: Brooklyn. Through its magnificent park: Prospect. I slice through the park on the car-free drives to the Park's top and then hook around and to the 3rd Street exit and coast all the way down the "Slope" (Park Slope), across the Gowanus Canal and into Cobble Hill for lunch at my favorite little restaurant; Cafe LuLuc.


At least 10 degrees cooler in the shade of
Prospect Park's beautiful, old trees.

So now where to go...home to the paperwork that always beckons? Or some more biking? It's such a lovely day so it's not hard to figure out. I head further downtown and start crossing my favorite NYC bridge: the Brooklyn. Even though I could use the Manhattan or Williamsburg, it's the Brooklyn Bridge I adore, despite the crowds of tourists. The view, the architecture, the height; I love being up there.


The view of the harbor from
my favorite bridge.

When I reach the Manhattan side, a dilemma: head north (our usual route up to Soho or the Village) or south (to Wall Street, the Battery, etc.) Today, it's south. I imagine myself hanging out in the shade of a big tree in Battery park and read the Times in the shade of a big old tree.

Not so quick, my rest, I quickly develop shpilkes and call my friend, Bob Heisler, who is setting up a new restaurant in Soho: The Gulf Coast Cafe on Mcdougal. I've been dying to see what's going on there so he tells me to come over and I do. I head up the west side bike path along Battery Park City. So beautiful: the Hudson, the gardens, the young girls... Um, I digress.

As I turn off the bike path and head up Chambers Street, I'm greeted with a lovely view of the Municipal Building. Quite striking. Just last week I was crossing the East River on the Manhattan Bridge and got another lovely view of that very lovely old city government building.


The view from the far West Side up Chambers street to the Municipal Building


From last week's bike ride on the Manhattan Bridge,
I spy the Municipal Building down East Broadway.

Bob's new restaurant is an exciting event. It's on a lovely and quiet residential street in the west of Soho. He's doing this with a couple of partners and there's a lot of experience in one of them, a very nice fellow, Stan, who I meet. You need some imagination to see what it's going to look like right now (it's in the construction stage) but opening is to be sometime in June. Stay tuned for my review. Here's the website. (It's "under construction.")


Bob in front of his work-in-progress, the Gulf Coast Cafe
(with my bike leaning).


Proposed logo from the new restaurant.

The three of us shared some wine next door at a cute little French bistro and I asked Bob to have dinner with me. We biked back down to Battery Park and met Elizabeth, Bob's fiance for a lovely dinner at Steamer's Landing. We ate outside on their patio and a thunder storm which threatend us just blew right over. A lovely time and an even more beautiful ride back at sunset across the Brooklyn Bridge and home through Brooklyn. Total mileage: 32. Yep, I was tired and slept well!


I shared some wine at the bistro next door to Bob's new cafe.


Elizabeth and Bob at Steamer's Landing


The Hudson River and Jersey City as I left for my bike ride home.