Squid on Wheels: Roosevelt Island

We took off today with the intention for riding around 30 miles in about 4 hours. Our route was to be: Eighth Avenue to Central Park, Central Park Drive to 90th Street, 90th Street to Carl Shurz Park and the East River Promenade, East River Promenade to the bridge to Ward / Randall's Island, Triboro Bridge to Queens, various streets to the Roosevelt Island Bridge, RIB to Roosevelt Island, Circumnavigate Roosevelt Island, back over the bridge to Queens, various water frontish streets to the Kosiuzko Bridge to Brooklyn, various streets to the Fairway Market in Red Hook for lunch, and then the usual routes home.

This was the plan.

You know what they say about plans ...

Lighthouse on Roosevelt Island
Ruins on Roosevelt Island

We got as far as circumnavigating Roosevelt Island.

As we climbed up to the pedestrian part of the bridge to go back to Queens, Mike hit an expansion joint badly and his front wheel sank into the joint. He staggered and caught his balance (he was practically walking the bike at the time) and pulled his wheel out of the gap. In his almost-fall, his weight had caused the wheel to bend just enough to make it unrideable. After some discussion we decided that he would take the subway back into Manhattan and the kids and I would cut our ride short and ride back over the Queenboro Bridge.

Sculpture at the south end of Central ParkSite of Geocache

And so it went. We rode back ino our own boro, stopped briefly in Central Park to munch on some baked goods purchased on Roosevelt Island, grabbed a geocache on 57th Street and then pedaled down Broadway to where the path disappears in Times Square.

The path is lovely up until that point - there, it dumps one into either having to walk through the pedestrian plazas for a few blocks or, to to battle the traffic on 7th Avenue. Unfortunately, the path ends at a west-bound street, which forces the rider to either go out to 9th Avenue or, to walk or ride east the wrong way for half a block to get to 7th Avenue. Yo! City Planners! How about adding an east-bound path on that block to make things a bit safer for those of us who choose to not polute!

Total ride: 22 miles.

We are rather short of last years' total and will probably not come close. The kids have been opting to spend the weekends with their friends instead of riding with their parents. Had to happen sooner or later.

This evening I took Little Squid and three of his friends to see the new Harry Potter movie and then out for pizza. Squidette oined me and we sat a few rows back from the boys so they could see it without "adult supervision." Squidette then abandoned me and went home for leftover pizza instead of getting the good, fresh stuff with the boys. *grin*

Tomorrow we have more big riding plans ... lets see what the fates have in store for us. (Mike will be riding his "road" bike which usually functions as our stationary trainer.)