So Sunday morning, we all got up early and made our way to the starting line of the 5 Boros Bike Tour at around 7ish. The ride was 42 miles and took us from southwest Manhattan, up through Central Park, Harlem, down to Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island and a ferry ride back to the start. The ride was supposed to begin at 8 but we didn't really get going until about 45 minutes later because they were letting everyone go in shifts. Once we got going it was a very enjoyable ride. There were a couple traffic jams, but nothing big. I decided to take the risk of destroying my camera by slinging it over my shoulder throughout the ride, but everything turned out alright so I'm glad I did. I am not the biggest biking fan in the world, so after about 20 mile mark, the fun and enjoyment kind of ended and turned it became more tedious and not as much fun for me.
Then, as we were making our way down the BQE, there was another traffic jam. Nothing new, except after a few minutes, it became clear that this was not going to be like the other jams. Amidst a sea of people, we waited, walked a bit, waited, waited and baked in the sun for 2 hours until we got to the off ramp where there were 2 lanes closed creating a huge bottleneck. At this point I just wanted to be at home on the couch... but there was a lot of biking to go. A few more miles to the Verazzano Bridge, which took almost every ounce of will power I had to get to the top without stopping, but before we got there I had to stop and eat 2 hot dogs. We stopped at the "Finish Line" festival... but all the real food was sold out. We still had to ride a couple more miles to the Staten Island Ferry to get back to Manhattan. We finally finished the ride and I was extremely hungry. We got our bags, packed the car, I got a Chipotle burrito and we hit the road.
