I worked three
consecutive custom tours last Saturday, Sunday, and Monday and, just by coincidence, these customers from all over the world decided to pick some of our longest, hilliest rides. I love hills but by Monday evening, I felt like an old man!
On Saturday morning, two families and I explored Upper Manhattan and encountered the recent progress at 'Hamilton Grange.' This 200+ year old country estate was recently moved a few blocks down a hill into St. Nicholas Park. Todd Jones, a customer from California, who has had some experience moving houses, explained to us how this was done and how they are currently setting the foundation.
Above is a picture I took back in June of the founding father's home about to moved. Below is a picture I took that same day of the foundation being prepared!
The following day, repeat customers from the Netherlands decided to try the
Dutch Roots tour. One of our first stops was at the
Dykman House, a replication of an old Dutch farmhouse built in 1784 by Dutch descendants way up in Upper Manhattan!
Later in the day, we visited Van
Cortlandt Manor. Here, we toured this beautiful mansion and the Dutch taught me all about the countries storied customs, traditions, styles, and much more as we poked around what seemed to be an endless series of nooks and hidden passageways throughout the house.
The icing on the cake to this wonderful three days was my ride on Monday with the
Ronsvalle's. This family, who is now living throughout the US, met up in NYC for a great ride with George, Brian, and I in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens. Six of the 16 riders decided to do the ride on tandems setting a Big the Big Apple record--- most tandems (3) in one ride!
Saturday morning began with a great trip down the entire length of New York's 'Summer Streets' program, where an 100-block stretch of New York's streets are closed to vehicle traffic on three Saturdays in August.
From Park Avenue down Lafayette Street and further south to the Brooklyn Bridge, the streets were filled with public art, aerobics & yoga classes, a bike decorating party, street painting, cyclists, runners, rollerbladers, and those just taking a leisurely stroll--- everything but cars!
We had access to areas now seldom seen (outside of a windshield) in New York City, like this bridge in front of the Grand Central Terminal. With no pedestrian access to much of the area that surrounds this now obscured beauty it is rare that anyone gets to stop and gaze at this magnificent structure.
From my experiences of riding on busy bike paths, I'd say rollerbladers can be considered the SUV's of human powered vehicles (because of the sometimes dangerous way they flail their arms and legs on narrow paths--- no offense to rollerbladers!), but this pack of what seemed like over one hundred rollerbladers was a welcome sight to see on Lafayette Street and I'd take these guys over an SUV any day!
After getting downtown, we made a quick stop to check out David Byrne's exhibit, 'Playing the Building,' at the Battery Maritime Building. Each key on this organ creates a different sound made by the building, the building's pipes, and all sorts of other odd noise makers throughout this old terminal. We had the whole place to ourselves and this group from Canada really took the opportunity to 'play the building!' 
The last entirely unique moment of the weekend came on Sunday afternoon as our group on Tour C pedaled across Madison Avenue. This plastic casing for electrical and cable wires stretched for over 10 blocks and made the street completely impassible. In all my biking in New York, Ive never seen such a thing. Ive seen them lay similar things a block or two at a time, but never something so big all at once. The plastic casing seemed to come alive as it snaked up Madison Avenue from Midtown to the Upper East Side!
