How does a 28 ft RV with a sticker on the driver side mirror reading “11 feet” make it under overhead bridges reading “10 feet 7inches” and my favorite one, which I still feel sick thinking about, “9 feet 9 inches”? That was the scene Friday afternoon for me (the driver), Simon (white faced beside in the navigator seat) and Steph (thankfully in the back on the phone doing an interview), driving up to our food event with Jane at Mrs. Greens in Mount Cisco NY.
The most stressful drive I’ve ever embarked upon. Now I know why the sign on the exit said “cars only”. Microsoft streets and trips should come out with an RV or truckers version as I heard from our amazing host, Jane, that many a driver had met a not so favorable fate “roof-wise” from doing the same drive. There is definitely someone watching over us, as I seriously don’t know how we made it under a couple of those bridges. I had to lock up traffic behind me, turn on the 4-ways and pray to the big guy upstairs that the middle point wasn’t the posted max as the signs suggested. I even had NY drivers (typically not so friendly) giving me the hand signal for “hey buddy, you’re cuttin’ this one a bit close”. Talk about shaving years from ones life in an hours worth of driving. Or in our case this day, 3 hours worth and missed what would have been another special experience with a school set up by a great guy named Rod.
We made it eventually and were again, welcomed in like old friends. I like this pattern. Thanks for coming to Mrs. Greens Rod and bringing your son Garret. Thanks for the painting Garret! We even heard that the former 1st couple, Bill and Hillary Clinton shop here! Jane told me that she even spotted their daughter Chelsea with her boyfriend in isle #6 just recently. Everyone we met their was concerned for the health of the Planet and met Steph and I with many questions and concerns for what they can do. Thanks Jane, for all the food and the opportunity to park in your lot and not have to battle Friday night “get outta my way” NYC weekender traffic.
Fast forward to the next day and having JUST congratulated myself on executing the drive back into Jersey. As I was exiting the George Washington Bridge and about to move our day into high gear I realized I had gotten in the wrong payment lane for the tollbooth. Being the honest Canuck I am, I pulled over as soon as I could to walk back to the booth to pay. Picture weekend New York traffic desiring to exit as well as quickly as possible. I think people lose the ability to see an actual person on the side of the road trying to cross to pay the man with the half smoked cigar yelling “ya gotta pay from ova hear”. Doing the safest thing I could think of, I started backing up our incredible Mother ship in order to get a bit closer to safety in order to pay our toll. I was so focused on keeping us straight and not go into on-coming traffic intent on squishing me; I failed to notice the on-coming cement divider keeping both sides of traffic from doing battle.
You get the picture. “Matt look out, the cement divider will wreck your bike rack and the 2 bikes currently sitting on it”!! Yes, you pictured it correctly. Steph was woken from a dream as our bikes rack hitch took the blow and sealed the fate for our now defunct Wall mart donated bike from the London thefts. Luckily, our #2, the hybrid donated from Bushtacka in Ottawa was saved from annihilation.
We took stock. I paid the “really friendly” cigar man his $3.70, we took the bikes and mangled rack off, stored them in our room and Simon’s bunk and limped our way into New Jersey, searching (and hoping) for a Vancouver-like friendly neighborhood bike store. Simon found a place called “Halter’s Cycles” and we met manager Chris Flecknoe, Brian and Bob, our “destined to fix the broken rack” bike crew!!
After doing a diagnostic, Chris stated calmly and confidently, “We can fix it”. I knew we’d find a Vancouver-like bike store! Chris enlisted Brian to assist in the bike rack operation. Bob called around looking for a Hostel for the night. The procedure was as follows: to cut the mangled portion off, re-drill 2 fresh holes, replace the broken end with a new piece and if successful, deny us having to purchase a whole new racking system at $400 US. They set to work like it was microsurgery on Paris Hilton and re-drilled it back to new within an hour. They even reminded us of our home bike shop by giving us (me) some grief for backing into a cement divider! You gotta love these guys from Jersey!
Thanks Chris and Brian, for making it happen and getting us back out on the road with a more solid bike rack for our slimmed down choice of daily bikes, the hybrid from Bushtacka. Our never be forgotten Wal-Mart special was sadly donated for parts, as she took one for the Run for One Planet team.