One Year

September 13, 2007

This morning saw us leaving Seekook, MA, traveling west on I95, pulling off soon after entering Connecticut to visit Mystic Seaport. Terry knew this area well as a young man in the Navy. It seemed nice but at $17.50 to see the tall ships and walk around in their recreated village, just not nice enough. The one picture of the water was interesting if only for the fish that kept on circling and jumping out of the water, apparently under attack by larger fish feeding on them.

We spent the next several hours seeking out and finding an old friend of Terry's. It was well worth the time spent, if only for the opportunity of two very old friends to have rediscovered one another. There are delightful, nurturing souls who walk this earth. It was my good fortune to meet one today.

At 1:20pm we decided to try and get into NYC to visit Levi. I had forgotten what it is to drive in the CT/NY/NJ I95 corridor. My suggestion .. don't do this on a bike. I believe both Terry and I lost 1 year of our lives in breathing the fumes and noxious odors, in the stress of dealing with drivers who are certifiably insane and/or intent on running us over (even at 75mph).

We reached the outlining area of NYC when the traffic came to a standstill. There were several instances where we rode the side of the highway, just to keep the bikes from overheating. There reached a point where the traffic was so slow moving, that we became concerned regarding our engines, so we pulled off the highway, into, what turned out to be the Bronx .. or it could have been Harlem (173 street and Bronx Highway). I can assure you that we were the talk of the neighborhood, especially to the young fellows who started to pretend they were holding handlebars. I called Levi for instructions which would have taken us into the city put that proved to be too vexing. Enough ... we decided to get back onto I95 for it seemed to be moving, although slowly. I think New York drivers get points for getting with inches of bikes so it proved to be a stressful experience. Nonetheless, abandoning the thought of seeing Levi today, we rode on to New Jersey, mixed in the with dozens of fast moving truckers and speeding SUVs.

We were still intent on making it to Atlantic City but gave that up when nearing 6pm, we had reached Long Branch off the Garden State Parkway. Tomorrow we'll ride the Jersey shore, then back onto the Parkway, passing Atlantic City enroute to Cape May where we'll take the ferry to Lewes, Deleware. From there, we'll take 13 into Norfolk.