My daughter's closest friend is visiting us this week and we have been doing different things to entertain the two girls. On Saturday we had planned on going into the New York to look around. My daughter's friend has only been in the City once before and that was the last time she came to visit us.
Since they are both teenage girls they like to stay up late and sleep in so I was able to get a quick bike ride in before we left (21 miles thanks to my new computer). We took the 12:25 PM NJ Transit Jersey Coast Line from Middletown, NJ. The video above is of the train arriving in the station. The trip by train on the weekends is about 1.5 hours since only local trains run on Saturday and Sunday.
Our first stop was going to be the Dylan's Candy Bar and I wanted to give my daughter's friend the whole NY experience by riding the NYC Subway system. My Metro pass had expired since I have not commuted in to NY for a project since August 2006. I knew I had about $50 on the card but I found out that I can trade it in for a new card and not loose any of the value. During the week the subway can be the fastest way to get around the city but on the weekends is not nearly as reliable. Every train we got on either stopped for long periods in the tunnels or was taken out of service before we got to our destination. I finally gave up and started using cabs. At least we tried and got some adventure out of it.
Going to Dylan's Candy Bar gave me a chance to do a little sight seeing of my own. I have never been to Togabikes in NY. Toga is also Gotham Bikes which I think is a Specialized Concept Dealer and I wanted to stop in and see what the store looked like. Dylans Candy Bar is on 3rd and 60 Street and Toga is on 63 and 1st. I thought it would be nice to walk over the the park along the East River. 
Toga had a 52 Langster in Silver on the sales floor. I like the look of the Silver. It is a little less street looking than the copper one that I own. I noticed that graphics were different between the two colors.
The rest of the day was spent going around the city doing random things such as walking through Central Park and taking time to sit on the swings in one of many nice playgrounds in the park. We ended up heading down to Little Italy to eat dinner. The girls wanted to have desert at Rice to Riches since it was featured in the movie Hitch.
I was expecting to see a lot of Fixed/Single Gear riders while I did see a some it is not as many as I would have saw in San Francisco. Of course it is a weekend in the summer so a lot of the messengers may have stayed away from the city on their days off. I did see a Fixie rider in Central Park on a really nice custom bike but I did not get my camera out in time (I am not a very good reporter). Most of the riders I saw were in Little Italy and I did get one picture of one rider walking with a woman. I should have asked if I could take a picture but instead I tried to sneak a couple of pictures.
I am going to get a ride in today (Sunday). I wanted to watch the Tour this morning since today is the big climbing day. I was wondering what Michael Rasmussen was up to since he has won the last two King of the Mountain competions. What a climber this guy is.
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