I left quickly and rejoined the bike path, which provided a pleasant ride all the way into Manhattan. I had to leave the path eventually, which meant battling NYC's special brand of constantly-honking city traffic. At one point I was almost hit by two men on a moped blazing down the sidewalk, where I was standing because I specifically wanted to be out of the way while checking directions. The driver was shouting into a cell phone in what sounded like an African language while the passenger balanced on an important-looking box.
My destination was a friend's apartment in Manhattan, east of Central Park. Traffic became more chaotic as I got closer, but like in any city, there's a pattern to the chaos when you don't have to wonder who will cut you off. Everyone will, so plan for it, and you'll be fine. I spotted a bike courier cutting her way gracefully through the congestion and fell into her wake for a while. My sweaty T-shirt and mountain bike with fat panniers and a giant sleeping roll felt pretty rough and clunky compared to her aerodynamic jersey and sleek road bike, but I managed to keep up and achieve kind of a state of flow flitting through the mess. If she knew I was there, she never acknowledged it.
I made it to my friend's apartment, but one challenge still remained: her unit was up five very narrow flights of stairs. After a few attempts to lug my entire rig up in one go, I admitted defeat and brought my gear up in several trips while she stood guard below. She introduced me to her partner and her gerbil before returning to the lab she worked in to do sciencey things. I used the combination laundry room / bomb shelter beneath the building and slacked off on my computer for the rest of the day. I failed to establish whether the gerbil had any YouTube preferences. He also wouldn't stay still for pictures.
The traffic didn't leave a lot of room for photo ops today.
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