Welcome to NY: Where Dreams are Made Of

Hello there.

For most of us, New York is kind of a bucket list item. Seeing the Statue of Liberty, the Freedom Tower, Times Square, Central Park, and the list could go on and on. As a cyclist, or even as a non-cyclist, riding the approximately 6 mile long loop around Central Park on a Citi Bike is definitely on the bucket list.

Now, the past week for me was spent in Mahwah, NJ for work meetings, and Mahwah is about an hour outside of New York City. And given the fact that I am widely considered the world’s worst bike blogger, and that I receive absolutely no compensation for said blogulations, I decided to shirk my actual work responsibilities for which I do receive compensation in favor of that bucket list ride in Central Park. I figure I owe it to my readers (hi, babe!).

The Ride

Without wasting any more words, let me tell you about the ride.

The taxi dropped me near Times Square and Central Park. During the trip to the city, I downloaded the Citi Bike app from the iTunes store, for free. The app installed in less than a minute. I selected the $12 daily pass option. Then off I went. I must say, the entire Citi Bike system worked flawlessly.

I was soon emerged into a sea of hundreds, or thousands, of New Yorkers blissfully smiling and riding through Central Park. Much to my surprise, Citi Bike was very widely used, and not just by tourists. There were many other users, most of whom appeared to be out for a leisurely ride or on their way home from work. It was Friday afternoon on a perfect May day, with the sun peeking out from behind a few sparse clouds and a gentle breeze blowing through the air.

Instead of getting caught up by the stress of being in the city, confined to streets barricaded by skyscrapers and filled with angry motorists honking violently at one another, I was transferred into tranquility. Here in the middle of Manhattan, I was surrounded by fellow cyclists, pedestrians, and joggers in a setting of beautiful blooming flowers, trees, and lush green vegetation.

The terrain was gentle and rolling, and I was swept away in the moment – giddy with excitement and with a constant smile like that of a child. If you prefer, we can call it my “bike face.”

Before I knew it, I had covered the full 6 miles. Despite my desire for more, I had a plane to catch. So I said a brief goodbye and re-docked my Citi Bike as I was grimly and abruptly welcomed back to reality.

As much as I enjoy long rides with thousands of feet of elevation, I must say this was a first class ride, worthy of any bucket list.

The Reality

At least that is how I pictured my day happening.

The above story is really just a novel work of fiction. Here’s what really happened:

Our team meetings wrapped up around 2pm as planned. So I didn’t actually skip any work because I’m not really that cool. My flight wasn’t leaving from Newark / EWR until 9:30pm. That gave me about a 7 hour window to get to the city, ride a quick loop, then go to the airport.

So I hopped in a taxi with a few other co-workers to go down to Times Square / Central Park. As one of my co-workers had a hotel in this area for the night, we could drop our bags at the hotel and go from there.

We departed by 2:15 or 2:30pm. The taxi was slightly warm at the time of our entrance, so we requested some A/C. And that is right about when the traffic hit. 1 hour passed, then 1.5 hours, then close to 2 hours later we arrived in the city at our destination. By this time, my fingers were completely numb due to the frigid AC temperatures, and my bladder was on the verge of spontaneous combustion.

Nevertheless, we made it to the hotel with dry pants, and dropped our bags. Just in case you are wondering, $250/night in New York City gets you a bed, and that's basically it. I'd estimate the hotel costs start right around $1 per square foot.

Unfortunately, one of our other co-workers was continuing on the taxi journey to JFK airport, for which the driver quoted a time of approximately 25 minutes, but no more than 2 hours…we’re still not sure how the rest of that journey went.

By now, we had enough time to get coffee (ok…Carmel Macchiato) at Starbucks, then a quick drink and dinner prior to picking up our bags and heading to the airport. To be exact(ly), I had a Carmel Macchiato, a wheat beer, and buffalo wings…if that sounds like an odd combination, it is. But more on my bad judgement later.

We wrapped up dinner and headed back to the hotel to pick up our bags. Then it was back out to the concrete jungle to revel in the experience of hailing a cab in New York City.

No bike ride. No Central Park. Not this time.

As I left the hotel, I asked the front desk if they could call a cab for me to Newark airport. They said their rates were about $95 for a cab, but that I could just use Uber, right? 

Of course I nodded along, smugly, giving off sort of a chuckle before heading out to the streets. But they did not realize they were speaking to a 68 year old, stuck in a 31 year old's body. And despite my many adventures and travels, I have thus far in my life refused to participate in the Uber business. 

So I hit the streets. I assumed Friday at rush hour wouldn't be the easiest time to catch a cab, but there seemed to be plenty of them buzzing around the streets. So there I stood, hailing away unsuccessfully for at least 15 minutes. To me, this experience was about as comfortable as most people find sitting on a bike seat for the first time.

So I gave up. Not only did I give up, I completely abandoned my value system. So there I was, one out of millions of people in New York City, standing next to my baggage in the bus lane, searching for Uber on the app store. 

Then, out of nowhere, a cab pulls up next to me and asks me where I am going. So there you have it - the best way to hail a cab in New York City is to basically stand in the road with your bags, while staring mindlessly at your phone. 

I told the cabbie I was headed to Newark. He told me to jump in and quoted me a cool $130. At this point, I was in no position to bargain. And I just rode along assuming this was an absolute rip off. Like I said, not my best day in the wise judgement department. But I was finally on my way home. Despite missing out on my bike ride, I was glad to finally be heading out of the city and to the airport. 

So there you have it: I paid $315 for round-trip airfare from Grand Rapids, MI to Newark, NJ. And I just spent the same amount of money getting into New York City and out of New York City to the airport. But if you think about it, the cab rides basically took up the same amount of time, and I must admit it was much more comfortable being sprawled out in the back of a Lincoln by myself than jammed into a sardine can with a sweaty middle-aged man, who I can only hope is not looking over my shoulder as I recap my day. Plus, I didn't have to put away my large electronics or put my phone in airplane mode for the ride. 

At least I managed to take a nice selfie while I was in the city:

 - Clay

Friday Rainy Day Giveaway

Welcome to the weekend (almost)!

I know I started a Commuter Series a while back, and I promise to get back to that eventually. Just in case someone may have actually found it useful.

For those who missed it, I also posted about my dad recently. It's a little more on the serious, non-cycling related, note. But it's out there if you want to follow along with my life.

Earlier this week, I made an appointment to take our automobile in to the shop for some routine business. I made the appointment this week, because next week I have to travel to the awful(est) state of New Jersey for work. And being the nice husband I am, I wanted to make sure the car was running blissfully for my wonderful wife during my absence. My wife has requested that I mention her at least once in all my posts, so there you go, babe :)

Now, I made the appointment for Friday because I typically work from home on Friday's, and there wasn't anything on my calendar at the time. I say there wasn't anything on my calendar at the time, because apparently I didn't actually check my calendar. Had I checked my calendar, I would have discovered that I am getting things straightened out with the Chiropractor this very morning. Then, my presence is required at work since we are bringing someone into the office for an interview. So now my day looks like this:

- Wake up as usual around 5am
- Sit around reading the news until 5:30am
- Fold some laundry and pack work clothes until 6am
- Make breakfast, eat breakfast, and devotional reading until 7am
- Write a terrible blog post about my day, in advance
- Drive car to the shop around 8am
- Ride bike to the Chiro at 8:45am
- Ride bike to work 9:30am...ish. Yes, that's amish time.
- Drink coffee
- Interview some guy from Egypt, that married some girl in Otsego, MI, and now wants to work at Stryker about why he is from Egypt and then married some girl in Otsego and now wants to work at Stryker.
- Work like an idiot until 4:30pm (because it's Friday, and I came in late, so I'm leaving early)
- Ride bike to get the car
- Drive car home
- Do something fun with my family

And I should also mention, the weather looks like this:

But at least I'm not doing anything crazy like re-roofing my house this weekend (that one's for the Bergren's, if you happen to be reading this):

And finally, to make you totally jealous that I work for an employer that cares about my health and well being, I was recently rewarded with a $200 gift card. As such, I would like to pay it forward, in the form of a $10 Starbucks gift card. I don't actually have the gift card yet, but I plan to purchase a pack of them soon for future giveaways. Or more likely my wife and I will keep them for ourselves:

Here are the rules: It's Friday, it's raining, post a comment, any comment, the funnier, the better. It can be about your day, a bike-related incident, or really anything. Since it is my blog, I will choose the winner at random, or depending on who I can get a gift card to the easiest, or who makes me laugh the most...or something like that.

That's all for now - have a great weekend - hug your Mom and tell her you love her. Talk to you again soon.

-Clay

Dear Dad

Hello everyone...is anyone out there? Hello...is this thing on?!?

Well, anyway, welcome to May, which is better known as National Bike Month. And just in time, things are really beginning to heat up out there. Yesterday was downright hot (is it too early to start complaining?).

Now, the increase in temperature is directly related to the number of miles cycled. However, the number of miles cycled is inversely related to the quality of writing in this blog. Therefore, as the weather gets warmer, you should expect a significant decline in the quality of writing.

I know what you are thinking..."the quality of writing in this blog was already very poor."

But here's the thing: I don't care.

I also don't care that this is apparently a blog about cycling. Because I'm here today to share a few things that are somewhat unrelated to cycling. I say "somewhat unrelated" because in fact they are related in that doing them results in less cycling...or something like that. Everything is ultimately related to cycling in some way, we all know that. So now we can move on.

Raised Garden Beds

This past weekend was spent mostly building raised garden beds. Because cyclists need to eat carbs, and apparently vegetables are a good source of carbs. Similar to white bread.

I am beginning to get a little skeptical that we will be successful in growing any vegetables, though. This is because the kids seem to love playing in their newly constructed dirt-boxes (pictured below).

The neighbors think they look great, so I guess it's a success either way. At least that's what they told me.

Dear Dad

Moving on to what was originally the main topic of this post...my Dad. For those of you who may not know, my Dad has Frontotemporal Dementia. And if you don't know what that is...below is an article from 2014 that we found recently that I thought was helpful, and accurately portrays the behavior of someone with this disease.

Here is the article: https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/01/a-lesser-known-dementia-that-steals-personality/282661/

It's a fairly long read, so I don't anticipate most of you to read it all. Here are a few snippets:

It took many months, and some Internet research, for the family to get a diagnosis. Her mother’s change in behavior was caused by a little-known disease called frontotemporal dementia, a neurological disorder centered in the frontal lobe of the brain, the part responsible for our behavior and emotions. While Alzheimer’s usually affects older people, and is detected as a person begins to lose memory, frontotemporal dementia causes people to lose their personalities first, and usually hits in the prime of their lives — the 30s, 40s, and 50s.

Frontotemporal dementia patients with the greatest deterioration in the “affiliation network,” (involved in motivating a person to connect with others and generating rewarding feelings during social interactions) exhibited the most severe social and emotional detachment, and patients with the greatest damage to the “aversion network” (involved in detecting and avoiding untrustworthy or threatening individuals) became more willing to trust strangers, and in some cases gave away private personal information despite negative consequences.

There are moments now when all Nicole can do is laugh at how simultaneously tragic and hilarious her mother’s illness is. She sees absurdity in situations that her mother can no longer grasp. Lately, Kathy has been obsessed with opening people’s mailboxes. “We keep telling her it’s a federal offense,” said Nicole.

Then, Kathy will open another. 

“Mom what is that?” 

“Federal offense,” she will reply in a monotone. “Federal offense.” 

Oddly enough, Dad did the exact same thing - opening mail boxes while he was out on a walk or bike ride. Or there was the time I took him out to Subway and he asked the lady in line next to us if she worked out, then asked where she lived, and then told her that Clay (who's Clay?) went to Notre Dame. Then there was the time, I think it was for Mom's birthday a while back that we went out to Texas Corral, that on his way back from the bathroom he sat down in a booth with a younger couple and refused to leave. That is, until my lovely and creative wife said, "Hey Dad, we have cookies at home if you want to go get some!" And upon hearing that, he popped right up out of the booth and we were on our way.

As the article points out, these are laughable memories that are simultaneously tragic and hilarious. It's been a couple years, at least, since those memories. And it's hard to believe that it's probably been close to 10 years since the whole thing started, when we started noticing differences in Dad's behavior. Sometimes, it's difficult to remember back to when Dad was "normal."

So anyway, my beautiful wife sent me this newsletter recently, and the paragraph below really stuck out to me, and spurred on all these thoughts:

Beloved author and professor, Dr. Howard Hendricks, once asked his grown children what they remembered most fondly from their childhood. Was it the vacations they took or the trips to theme parks or the zoo? "No," they answered. It was when Dad got on the floor and wrestled with them. That's the way children think. It is especially the way boys think. The most meaningful activities in the family are often those simple interactions that build lasting connections between generations. 

Now, here's the thing - my brother, Caleb, has always had an impeccable memory. He seems to remember every detail of our childhood(s), vacations, family outings, etc. I shall submit to you one example: We had arrived under the cover of darkness to a cabin in TN that we had previously rented with our Uncle & Aunt & cousins. The adults were struggling to locate the cabin on the mountain road, so much so that my Dad and Uncle had gotten out of the car and were searching for any signs of the road / driveway leading to the cabin. This is when Caleb chimes in from the back of the car, saying something like, "Isn't it just right over there?" Pointing off into the distance...It's also important to note that it had been at least a year or two since our prior visit. Nevertheless, Caleb was of course correct, and totally saved the day.

Then there's me...I'm a pretty simple guy, with a more average (ok...below average) memory. But that's why that paragraph above really stuck out to me, because here is what I remember most about Dad: I remember him laying on the floor when we were kids so we could climb and jump over him, I remember him chasing us around the house and wrestling, I remember him taking us out as a family almost every Saturday for lunch, I remember watching Notre Dame games and playing catch for hours, I remember him coaching my basketball team in high school, and I remember that he hand wrote letters to us every week in college - often with newspaper clippings from the local paper, and $10, always $10. Yes, that's right, a hand written letter, every week from 2005-2009.

There are also great memories from our childhood vacations. Like the time Dad was calling out waves when we were boogie boarding (yes, it's a thing...) saying, "Here it comes, babe-oh!" However, he grossly miss timed one wave and all he got out was "Here it comes, b!#$%#%!!" (Gurgle, gurgle...)

But, as the article points out, it's those simple - daily, regular, weekly - interactions that I remember most. And I think the reason I enjoy doing the same things with my kids, and why it comes naturally for me, is because of Dad.

So, other than ripping at your heart strings with this incredibly serious post on a mostly non-serious "cycling" blog, I guess I've just been thinking a lot about that lately and wanted to write down those memories before I forget.

And mostly, I just want to say - thanks, Dad. We love you.

Clay