Wandergliding: New York, New York

September 3^rd, 2014

While I was in Goa I met a fellow Canadian and paraglider pilot Riley. Riley has an infectious attitude for a real joie de vie. His constant smile and positive attitude can only brighten your day. At the time he was living in Shanghai and he even has the city’s skyline tattooed on his shoulder. He was a relatively new paraglider pilot and I have to admit that he has a bit of a cavalier attitude about it that I thought might get him into trouble one day. Flying in Arambol he somehow, accidentally performed a helicopter, a flat spin acrobatic move that isn’t normally performed just 50 meters above the beach. Luckily it all ended well.

Riley had recently moved to New York City working in sales of solar panel systems for residential homes. Being sort of in the neighbourhood, and never having been to NYC before I thought I’d pay him a visit. I decided to take the Amtrak train from Baltimore and enjoyed the couple hour ride that ran mostly along the coast and passed through Philadelphia. Arriving in New York I took the subway to Brooklyn, where Riley has a penthouse apartment with his friend Dan. I got there before Riley had finished work so I hung out in his local watering hole, a nice little Irish pub. Once he arrived we had a drink and caught up about the activities of the past year since we’d last seen each other. Back at his apartment we had a bit of a snafu as he couldn't find his keys but the friendly security guard let us in. What a pad the guys had. Nice and spacious on the sixth floor on the south corner of the building with a massive balcony complete with a barbeque and table and chairs with a glimpse of the Empire State building from one corner...pretty sweet.

The next day Riley didn’t have any sales appointments until late in the afternoon so he offered to take me into Manhattan on his skookum scooter. Having ridden many scooters in India I thought I was prepared for this adventure but I didn’t realize what a white knuckled ride this would be. I was holding on for dear life as we motored across the Williamsburg Bridge, just north of the Brooklyn Bridge. A number of times I thought I was going to pop off the back of the bike. I desperately wanted to take some pictures and videos as we went but that was tantamount to suicide, but I still managed to snap a few. What a way to see the dense metropolis of Manhattan…can’t think of a better way, or a faster one. Riley was weaving through the traffic like a bat out of hell.

Crossing the Williamsburg Bridge:

Riley and his stallion:

Our first stop was the New York Museum which was right next to Central Park. The museum wasn’t that big and almost half of it was closed for new exhibitions that weren’t finished yet but there was a 20 minute film that we watched that narrated the history of the city and it was a fantastic introduction to NYC. It told how Manhattan was actually a native Indian word for “land of hills” and the first Europeans settled there since it was a natural harbour protected for the ravages of the Atlantic Ocean. The Dutch were the first ones there and created a small fortified city on the south tip of Manhattan Island. The reason that Wall Street has its name today is that it was the most northern part of the enclosed settlement, and hence it was actually a wall. Cool.

After the museum we grabbed a couple of hot dogs from a cart and were seriously ripped off. The guy didn’t have a price list and he wouldn’t accept my money while he was cooking the wieners. He asked us where we were from and we responded Canada but in retrospect it would have helped if Riley had mentioned that he was now living in the city. The vendor waited until Riley had taken a bite of his dog and then demanded $26 for both dogs and our soft drinks. Later we saw another vendor with a pricelist and realized that he charged us at least double for our food. Oh well, it wasn’t the worst rip off to have experienced.

In Central Park:

We sat by a big lake in Central Park as we gorged on our hot dogs. This was followed up by a good Frisbee session in a slightly treed area. The normal place to play, a large flat grassy area, was roped off as a tractor was aerating the ground. Afterwards we walked by a few other areas of the massive park, a turtle pond, up a lookout tower, by an outdoor theatre and through some wooded areas on more natural paths. Riley had brought a joint with him so we found a secluded area, or at least relatively secluded as you can be in the middle of New York City. We sat down on the grass by some trees and there were some people about 50 meters slightly out of sight but otherwise we felt fairly isolated. I found it odd that there was a sewer grate right beside me, in an otherwise seemingly natural area but I guess the water’s got to go somewhere after a big rain or when the winter snow melts. Half way through the doobie one of the nearby guys came walking towards us with a big camera around his neck. I thought that perhaps he was going to ask one of us to take a picture of him and his lady friend. Riley wisely told me to ditch the spliff and that sewer grate was super handy for a place to dispose of it. The guy started snapping pictures of us while stating that he was fed up with pot smokers violating his park. He also had a GoPro camera which might have been taking a video. We immediately stood up and started to walk away as he pulled out his cell phone and started to make a call to the police or some other authority. I began to jog away and eventually Riley followed suit. Damn. I just got out of India for this shit and here I am again in a messed up situation. We ran all the way back to Riley’s bike and it wasn’t until we pulled away that I started to relax a bit. What a buzz kill that guy was.

Back on the bike we cruised by some famous locations like Times Square, the David Letterman Studio and the Empire State Building. After a beer in a quaint little bar Riley had to head off for a client meeting so I wandered around near the World Trade Center memorial and enjoyed a gorgeous sunset before hopping on the subway back to his apartment.

The Late Show Studio:

Approaching Times Square:

Holdin' on for dear life in the back:

The Empire State Building:

We sat by a big lake in Central Park as we gorged on our hot dogs. This was followed up by a good Frisbee session in a slightly treed area. The normal place to play, a large flat grassy area, was roped off as a tractor was aerating the ground. Afterwards we walked by a few other areas of the massive park, a turtle pond, up a lookout tower, by an outdoor theatre and through some wooded areas on more natural paths. Riley had brought a joint with him so we found a secluded area, or at least relatively secluded as you can be in the middle of New York City. We sat down on the grass by some trees and there were some people about 50 meters slightly out of sight but otherwise we felt fairly isolated. I found it odd that there was a sewer grate right beside me, in an otherwise seemingly natural area but I guess the water’s got to go somewhere after a big rain or when the winter snow melts. Half way through the doobie one of the nearby guys came walking towards us with a big camera around his neck. I thought that perhaps he was going to ask one of us to take a picture of him and his lady friend. Riley wisely told me to ditch the spliff and that sewer grate was super handy for a place to dispose of it. The guy started snapping pictures of us while stating that he was fed up with pot smokers violating his park. He also had a GoPro camera which might have been taking a video. We immediately stood up and started to walk away as he pulled out his cell phone and started to make a call to the police or some other authority. I began to jog away and eventually Riley followed suit. Damn. I just got out of India for this shit and here I am again in a messed up situation. We ran all the way back to Riley’s bike and it wasn't until we pulled away that I started to relax a bit. What a buzz kill that guy was.

Looking up at One World Trade Centre:

The memorial:

This is a piece of the Berlin wall that was nearby One World Trade Centre. I saw this piece in 1995 in Berlin (which is actually the east facing side and was graffitied by an artist)...crazy: