I awoke on Day 6 with two rather unpleasant thoughts on my mind. First, why on earth did I stay up so late having champagne and cigars at Papa J's? Second, our destination for Day 6 was Midtown Manhattan, New York City.
According to my map, greater NYC resembles a big bowl of blue spaghetti. There are bypasses, interchanges and thruways looped over one another in one big jumbled-up mess. New York traffic is notoriously unforgiving, and Stewbert and I would be driving our motorcycles directly into the heart of New York City. With a couple thumbs-up we grabbed I-95 just west of Bangor, and proceeded south.
From Bangor, Maine, to New York City, traffic flew right past such urban sprawls as Boston, Providence and Hartford - we averaged 80 mph, even reaching 90 mph in certain stretches, just to keep up with the East Coast flow.
Just outside NYC, traffic grounded to a halt. In the sunny heat I quickly cooked in my padded road gear as we inched forward. Cresting an incline I could see it - the skyline of Manhattan. We were only four miles away!
Brilliantly, the exits in Manhattan do not correlate to what is marked on my map, and Stewbert and I found ourselves on the west side of the island, exactly opposite to where we wanted to be. This detour cost an extra 45 minutes, but now we have the honor of saying that we took the scenic route around Manhattan - right along the Hudson River, past the WTC site, Battery Park with the Statue of Liberty at our right, underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, finally exiting FDR Drive at 34th Street East.
From there it was three simple turns into a parking garage, directly across from my friend Chris's apartment. We parked our bikes, accepting the $36 per day charge, and met up with Chris and my sister. I must have looked ragged; Chris noted, "You look like you need a drink." Touché, my friend, touché.
- Dan Wegmueller writes a weekly column for the Times, and an annual journal from his summer motorcycle trip. He can be reached at dwegs@tds.net.
According to my map, greater NYC resembles a big bowl of blue spaghetti. There are bypasses, interchanges and thruways looped over one another in one big jumbled-up mess. New York traffic is notoriously unforgiving, and Stewbert and I would be driving our motorcycles directly into the heart of New York City. With a couple thumbs-up we grabbed I-95 just west of Bangor, and proceeded south.
From Bangor, Maine, to New York City, traffic flew right past such urban sprawls as Boston, Providence and Hartford - we averaged 80 mph, even reaching 90 mph in certain stretches, just to keep up with the East Coast flow.
Just outside NYC, traffic grounded to a halt. In the sunny heat I quickly cooked in my padded road gear as we inched forward. Cresting an incline I could see it - the skyline of Manhattan. We were only four miles away!
Brilliantly, the exits in Manhattan do not correlate to what is marked on my map, and Stewbert and I found ourselves on the west side of the island, exactly opposite to where we wanted to be. This detour cost an extra 45 minutes, but now we have the honor of saying that we took the scenic route around Manhattan - right along the Hudson River, past the WTC site, Battery Park with the Statue of Liberty at our right, underneath the Brooklyn Bridge, finally exiting FDR Drive at 34th Street East.
From there it was three simple turns into a parking garage, directly across from my friend Chris's apartment. We parked our bikes, accepting the $36 per day charge, and met up with Chris and my sister. I must have looked ragged; Chris noted, "You look like you need a drink." Touché, my friend, touché.
- Dan Wegmueller writes a weekly column for the Times, and an annual journal from his summer motorcycle trip. He can be reached at dwegs@tds.net.