Hi everyone! Today was officially our first riding day of the trip. Yay! Our route started at the Central Park in NYC, so first challenge of the day was riding our bikes through Manhattan from our stayover to the starting location. An important lesson we all learned is that New York drivers have no patience and they WILL honk at you and try to pass you no matter what like their life depends on it.
Ready to roll to Central Park
Our first bumps in the road appeared even before we got to Central Park, with Vikram getting a flat tire and Mercedes’s bike chain snapping. Of course that only slowed us down but did not stop us from keeping our spirits high and our outlook positive.
Talking about positive things, we had an amazing send off from one of our other beneficiary organizations - the B+ foundation. Carly, the foundation representative, told us about the history of their foundation and a story about one of the families their foundation helped, giving us all yet another extra bit of motivation for the upcoming ride.
Next came our first official miles of the ride. We enjoyed a beautiful riverside bike trail leading all the way to the Washington Bridge and than the view of the river and Manhattan’s impressive skyline from the bridge itself.
View of the city from the Washington Bridge
The rest of the day we rode through various towns and neighborhoods of New Jersey. We reached our first hills, getting just a small taste of the ascends awaiting us in the future. Many of us had to walk up the hills partially, but all of us gave it their best.
First PB&J lunch of many
Our Clinton stayover for tonight is the Clinton United Methodist Church. They were very generous in providing us with an absolutely delicious dinner and will also provide breakfast for us tomorrow. Huge thank you to them!
Day 1 - Complete, on to day 2 and more hills, more views, and less flats (hopefully).
-Valerie