2014-05-04 5 BORO

2014 - 5 Boro ride with a few good friends.  It was a long day, but it was truly well worth getting up early in return for the ability to cycle through the streets of New York.  If you have never done this ride before, I recommend this as a must do ride.  It is not a fast paced ride, It is not a race and you do not always ride.  A few of us joked about it being more of a ride, stop and walk event.

I do not have the ability to put into words the sites, sounds, smells and emotions of the event.  As only one cyclist within 30,000 cyclists, the sounds of gears changing, clips clipping in and out, breaks rubbing against their rims, wheels spinning, bells ringing, horns honking and the songs, the voices, and the howls and yells would be enough to drive one crazy.....but within the atmosphere of the ride......they all felt appropriate and they all seemed to come together collectively.  Behind us the sounds of the cyclists, ahead to the right of us the sounds of the designated band for the corner, to the left groups of on-lookers jumping up and down as they chanted some type of cheer.  in the near distance the sounds of sirens, cars honking, subways passing above and below ground.

every corner had its own sound, the corner musicians played appropriate tunes for the location (a sound that can only be experienced in person).  the sound of bongos and trumpets playing hispanic music the bronx, the sound of  bass and jazz tunes in manhattan, the large boom box pronouncing the rap music while a few youngsters break danced to the beat......every sound seemed to be appropriate to the place.

The views, the scents, the feeling of the environment attaching itself to my skin.... the scent of the pretzels in manhattan, the scent of the horses in central park, the oil scent coming off of the moist pavement, the scent of the hudson river, bananas at the rest stops, etc....

This ride is less than 40 miles, but if you pay attention to the process of the short ride you will find that no where else will you experience so many varied micro-climates and personal emotions.  One can easily ride the entire route and not truly experience the ride.  I have ridden this ride several times and this year I made it a point to take it slow and to take in the emotion of the group....I did not photograph it,  I just took a few photos of those that were with me.....next year I plan to ride and will try to capture in photography the emotions that one would feel as the ride progresses. I wish that I could have done that this year.....but I was too busy experiencing the emotions.