Day 18-Saturday (Manhattan, NY)

Around 7am we’re both awaken by the dog (Rover) licking our faces and doing sprints across the hard wood floor. After trying to get back to sleep and failing we finally get up and sit around the table for the LARGEST rolls of shredded wheat I’ve ever seen in my life. They were about the size of softballs and interestingly enough went very well with maple syrup.

After breakfast we set off on our journey to New York. After about a 5 hour drive we arrive in New York. As soon as we cross the bridge and see the city appear, Jay-Z and Alysia Keys’ song… Empire State/New York comes on the radio like they were welcoming us to the city themselves. We find a place to park in a parking structure in Jersey then ride around the river until we get to the subway station to Manhattan.

We arrive in Manhattan and as we exit, we notice the stop is titled World Trade Center. Exiting the station we see construction where the World Trade Center used to be, in its place, a new building. We look and imagined the scenario and took pictures. After about 10 minutes we find our first shop on the map and head out. The streets were narrow but wide and very New York-ish. We ride from shop to shop and eventually make it to Times Square. The people fill the streets and sidewalks as cameras flash from every direction. Every language from French to Chinese, Spanish to Italian filled the air. After gazing for about an hour we decide to ride to a Starbucks to find something to do that night.

Surprisingly, 40 people in a Starbucks makes for terrible Wi-Fi so we find an event on our phones and head to the local bar. We anxiously wait as 11:45 rolls by we hope we can make it in by 12:00 to get in for free. As we arrive at the front of the line around 11:58 we’re told we won’t be allowed in because one of us is wearing shorts. So sadly we walk away and head to a nearby restaurant to decide what we want to do the rest of the night. The waitress serves us waters… then refills… then kicks us for after finally realizing we won’t be ordering any food. Unphased, head to our bikes and head to the subway station. We hop on the subway and somehow get separated. One of us gets off at the first stop, the other at the second. We eventually find each other and meet up at the car. After locking the bikes and eating a late night snack we sleep for the night in the old reliable car, parked in the parking garage.