Thursday, June 26th 2008 – New York, NY… It’s called by many names: The city that never sleeps, The Big Apple, Gotham, or The greatest city on earth. And now I get to find out for myself a little about this city. One thing is for certain is that it is crowded… crowded with cars, crowded with buildings, crowded with people.

As I drive closer to the city, the traffic starts to build and build. Soon I’m back to stop and go traffic and my bike is overheating again. There are only a few ways to get onto Manhattan and they are all backed up. I end up choosing the Lincoln tunnel because my GPS is pushing me that direction.

The tunnel is two lanes heading into the city right now, and going soooo slow. By the time I get to the tunnel entrance I know I won’t make it through without destroying my bike through overheating. I ask the toll booth attendant what I can do, and she calls over a cop. He suggests I park it and wait for it to cool down, then try to get through.

So my first adventure in New York is sitting in the center of traffic, relaxing on my bike while hundreds of cars roll by slowly gawking at me. While I wait there is some type of security issue and the traffic controllers stop all from entering the tunnel and 2 cop cars and 3 unmarked black suburbans fly through at top speed. They held up traffic for probably 20 minutes. This is my chance!! I figure when they start letting people through again that it will be a quick run through the tunnel and I’ll make it.

When I see him flag the first car to go, I quickly scoot over into the lines and start traveling through. It’s backed up in there anyway, and the stench of car exhaust is overwhelming, but I make it through just as the red light comes on again on my bike.

I’m in the City!! Now what? …. I have no plan, no place lined up to stay, no idea even what I want to do here.

Follow the yellow brick road I guess. Riding around the city, looking at things and avoiding traffic as I can gets old quick, so I pull over in Greenwich Village and try to come up with a plan.

I call up Rickey in Spokane and he gives me a pep talk to stay in New York a day or two because I’m there and when will I ever get back. It was just the advise that I needed at the time.

Using my newly acquired Crackberry, I pull up Google maps and search for a hotel. Calling around I find a decent hotel on the Upper West Side (which for non NYers means the area on the west side of Central Park) that is right near the park.

I go check in, park my bike, and get my gear up the the room. One great thing about motorcycles is that you only need about 3 feet of curb space to park with. I had free parking right out front of the hotel. Can’t get any better than that.

My room is tiny. Probably only 8′ x10′ plus a bathroom. That’s not a problem for me at all though. I love small and simple. But can you imagine ma and pa from middle America staying in this room?

After taking a shower, it’s time to go explore. This isn’t a small town in Costa Rica though! I walk for a few miles but hardly covered any ground compared to the amount there is to cover.

One of my discoveries is Gray’s Papaya. It’s a hotdog stand giving you 2 hot-dogs (with kraut or other) and a fruit drink for $3.50. I had the coconut champagne which tastes like a pina colada without the rum. I’m not usually a hot-dog eater because of all the unknowns going into them, but when you’re traveling and hungry on a budget you must make do.

The next morning, I head out to the Museum of Natural History that is only a few blocks from my hotel. This is the museum from “Night at the Museum” although it’s completely different inside than from the movie.

I didn’t have many expectations for what I’d see, but was looking forward to seeing some history. Much to my surprise the museum catered directly to my sensibilities… As far back as I can remember the tiny models people would build to show how a structure was laid out has always stimulated me like no other. I especially loved it when part of the building would be cut away to reveal the inside areas. This love of 3D models was so strong that for the longest time I wanted to become an architect so that I could build those models.

Well, this is the theme at the Museum of Natural History. There are scale models everywhere of how people lived, various scenes of life, and full size scenes of animals in their environment. I was drawn so deeply into checking out everything there that I ended up spending about 6 hours walking through the museum.

I so deeply wanted to be able to touch the models. To be able to lift off a roof and see inside a building, hoping that the full extent of the daily life was represented inside. A hundred times more information than a picture or simple artifact can give you.

After many hours I’d seen it all. A quick bite to eat, then out across the street to wander a bit in Central Park.

I ended up wandering to a rock jutting into a lake. It’s a bright sunny day and feels fabulous to just sit up on the rock watching the rowers in their boats, the birds flittering about, the turtles popping out of the water, and the clouds floating by. Although Central Park can’t compare to the real outdoors; a clear mountain stream, unfettered woods, or a lush meadow… I’m sure it is a welcome respite from the concrete dominated landscape of the rest of the city for New York residents. But it’s just not the same. There is no truth or peace in it for me.

On a whim, a friend and I spent the whole night walking around downtown Manhattan. We visited almost all the neighborhoods like Soho, Greenwich village, Chinatown and more. Just wandering and talking. I never felt unsafe nor weird at any time even in the middle of the night. It’s just a city, and at least it’s cleaner than Bangkok where I did something similar… just wandering and looking.

My impression of New York is it’s a lively city to visit. You could find something to do no matter what the hour and has enough to keep anyone busy. Living there day in and day out would be a strain on me though.

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