bike trip

Hello, 2009! On New Year's Day, I walked to Central Park with Jolly. The street that goes all the way around the park was closed, and I noticed how empty it was and how much space the cyclists had. That's when it hit me that I ought to get a bike. The boy has a bike (actually, he has two, but one is in pieces at the moment, to be fixed up) and often gets to work by it, but I never felt comfortable riding in the city, until I really, really wanted a bike!


I tried in vain to find a used bike on craigslist, but as I am not even a half inch over five feet tall, it was tough (and tough not to buy from a sketchy dealer, too.) So yesterday we went to Metro Bicycles and I got a brand new Giant bike that was on sale, in my price range.

Today we rode down the East river to the Roosevelt Island tram and took it over to the island we see every day from the dog run. In all, we biked a little over 6 miles, and boy are my out of shape thighs feeling it!




A bunch more photos from today are on my Flickr here.

I should mention that on the island itself, there isn't actually much that's there. Decades ago the island was home to several psychiatric wards, I believe, and now it is mostly families in high rises. There is one main street with a grocery store, a diner, two mini-marts, a pizza place, a video/hardware store (odd combo!), a salon, a Chinese take-out, a drug store, etc. Most of it has this eerie quiet, industrial feel, or at least it does to me hopping over from such a busy, larger island. I took a few photos while we were biking around there, mostly at the lighthouse, but by the time we got to Main street it was too dark. If you want to know more about Roosevelt Island, might I point you to the Wikipedia entry.

Tomorrow it's back to school for me for winter session. Have you done anything interesting this holiday week?