Escape from New York?
After a while I decided I wanted to go to the city "for a day". So I packed up my stuff and left full of excitement, it is the big NYC after all. In my mind New York was mainly that, the city. Not really knowing how long it would take to get there, I left in the afternoon. Which was far to late. I took the expressway all the way there, what a boring ride. After the boring ride I made it to the outskirts, I had neglected to think about the fact the city itself is actually huge and complex with many many bridges and islands. I neglected to look at a map and the roads here were the most complicated road system I had ever been on. All I wanted to do was get to Manhattan. As I was riding along in the heavy traffic the roads made me nervous, if I were to break down here there is not even anywhere to pull my bike off into. The cars behind me would have to stop, what if I blow a tire or cant move my bike. All this when the sun was starting to set and I was not even at the island yet. There is one thing that can transform a city into a foreboding mass and thats nightfall. In my mind at least, the sketchy places in all the other places I had been paled in comparison to here. Its the same kind of feeling of being alone that you get in the middle of the desert or woods. Its very strange. All I could do was try and follow the roads. After much fret I finally got on the island and was in the bronx. How I did this I could honestly not tell you. I had lost all sense of direction. Even now, while looking at a map, I still don't have my bearings of that place. I thought it would be straight forward but it was far from it. I filtered up the roads and eventually found myself along side central park. For the second time it hit me, "What the hell now". It was getting dark and I really wanted to be out of there already. Where do I go now?
Riding with the traffic in NYC is an experience. The taxi cabs and traffic weaving in and out. Slamming on your brakes and then making a dash for a small opening between two cars. I was in love for the next hour I just ran up and down the main roads on either side of central park that run the length of Manhattan. Its amazing the rush of activity on the road and then the lights as far down the road as you can see all turn red and all the cars freeze. Then masses of people flow across the street then vanish as the light turns green, then its the cars turn to burst back on their way. I finally stopped and took this photo with my film camera (only one I had on me) before it got too dark. I was so lost and the clock was ticking as the sun set. What it was ticking down to I have no idea. I did not really even get a chance to walk around because I was worried about all my stuff on my bike. I wanted to stay the night in the city so bad. I thought about trying my luck with some people, but what would work with the girls in the small towns I doubt would work here. The people here seem to all be busy and in a hurry. There was this constant flood of people, making any one person seem almost unapproachable. I did not even know where to start. It reminded me of the tactics herd animals use against predators. So I laughed about it.
50iso film is a pain.
It was getting dark and I decided I needed to get the hell out of there and so it began. To make matters worse as I was stopped at a light and looking behind me I saw smoke shooting out of my #1 pipe. Blue smoke, the bad smoke as far as I was concerned. Not ten minutes later my bike started making a noise, it sounding like maybe my chain rubbing my engine case but my chain was not loose. Pressing on the cover with my foot I could not "feel" it hitting so It must have been coming from something else. This was all happening while I was navigating the freeways, lost and fighting with the traffic. The drivers there are insane. Worse yet again the roads them self were horrible, I would hit bump that would cause my rear tire to bottom out on my fender and then pogo the rear end of my bike. A lot of the roads were soaked and barriered off from construction with no way to get out of the way of the cars barreling along. There was huge cracks and mismatches in the pavement which I had to avoid like land mines. Once I hit a patch and my rear pogo'ed, it seemed inches. I felt like everything went into slow motion as I looked down at an angle because of the rear of my bike being in the air. It drifted to the right a little bit and when it came down it gave me a minor tank slap. All these thing happening at the same time was making for an intense ride on a 30 year old bike and I imagine would even on a new bike. I was working at full capacity just trying to not get killed while going freeway speeds. I had no more toll money so that farther limited my options. I had completely lost any direction and what little understanding of the area I did have, using Manhattan as a reference point was wrong (My north south was switched) This went on for I have no idea how long, too long, and got to the point where my body was letting out some adrenaline. I had to backtrack a few times and make split second decisions on where to go and was worried I would run out of gas. As Keith code would put it, I must have been a few hundred bucks in debt. I ended up east of the island, breathing heavy but out of the chaos. I had long lost trusting the directions on the freeway signs and even though it said east all I cared was that it took me away from the city. I figured it cant really go east because of the ocean! I got maybe 20 minutes out into the big island that reaches out east. When I realize after checking my map, that I was heading into a dead end and that the only way out was back pass the city I fought so hard to escape from. It then hit me that it was Freezing, too. I rested for a little in the parking lot of some hige building. Then headed right back into the city.
Its worth noting that when I was resting I wrote a little in my notes. And by "a little" I mean I wrote "SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT" only with more I's.
On the way back I got pretty lucky and took the queens midtown tunnel? and it spit me out back on the island and it was easy to get across to the other side of Manhattan and follow road (9A)? to the far side of the island and up to the 95 and I ended up on the 80. With only the cold to fight with. It was not exactly how I envisioned my visit to be, which of course meant I would have to go back again. The cold was horrible about an hour or two later I had to stop to let myself warm up. I stopped at a rest stop and walked inside and turned out the hand dryer and put my cuff around it so it blew directly into my jacket. After that I tried to warm up my legs with it but it was no use. They were chilled all the way through and it would take a few hours to warm them back up. As I walked out 2 pretty girls walked by and I smiled and turned my head as they past. Probably a bit older than me I thought.
I got back to my bike and stood there shivering, it was cold even out of the wind. I saw a man fast approaching and its pretty easy to describe him, he was almost a dead match for the kind of characters that Dave Mann drew. I mean down to the vest, jeans and beard and combed back hair. The only difference was he was quite tall and thinner.
oh god, I hope its not the father of those girls father Lucky for me he had come up to me to talk about my bike. (it turned out they WERE his daughters) He had been a biker all his life and used to build bikes for a shop in the city. I noticed he had tattoos of bikes on his arms, but none of them were harleys, one was a Guzzi and one was an MV Agusta race bike. He told me about all these tricks that he used to do back when "they would go out on runs". One being putting newspaper in your jacket and another being wearing womens stockings to keep your legs warm
He said a lot of the cops used to do that too back in the day and that "I shouldn't crash and die while wearing them because then people will think stuff" We talked for a while and when his daughters came back out they all got in their car and left, as he was leaving he was telling me good careers that make a lot of money as he leaned out his window and was then gone. The cold was horrible but I got back to Syracuse at about 5am and thought, "Well that did not go as planned".
To be continued
