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Please go to austinparamediccycleteam.blogspot.com to check out my posts as well as those of my co-workers. Be sure to scroll down as you will find a link to a photo album.

Memori al Ride, Day One

We started off the morning with a ceremony at the FDNY training academy at Fort Totten, the weather being cool and misty. The FDNY bagpipe crew did and excellant job. Amazing Grace always makes me cry, but especially so, when it is played on the bagpipes. Then we had a police escort that took us from the Bronx to downtown Manhattan, all the way to ground zero. The roads are not in the best of repair, so I spent a good deal of time out of the saddle, protecting my bike more than my butt. But how cool! A police escort, no stops, tourists snapping pictures of us, right through Times Square, past Central Park and THEN, a ride to Statten Island on the Statten Island Ferry, with a beautiful view of the Statue of Liberty. By this time the weather was perfect for riding, having lost the mistiness and growing steadily warmer. We rode to another fire station, where we were fed lunch and then had to load up to drive across the bridge (no more police escort and too dangerous for bikes). We had biked about 30 miles by that time and had another 30 to go to Princeton, New Jersey. BUT, we got lost/seperated after about 20 miles and had to get in vehicles again for the final part of the day. Turns out, it was probably for the best, since I did see lightning just before the skies opened up with pounding rain and wind.
We finished up at Hillsborough Fire Department, who fed us at least four different kinds of pasta, salad, fruit, beer and wine. Did I mention that the food was fabulous? It was.
A little laundry and we are off to sleep.

Bodies

Kimberly, Cy, Kimberly's friend Maggie, and myself wandered over to Bodies in downtown Manhattan. Before getting there, we stopped off at a pizza place we spotted on the way, and had the best pizza I have ever had - yes, it was that good. It was rainey and cold and kept getting colder. No, I shouldn't have gone, but keep convincing myself I am better than I am. Then we ventured over to Central Park and climbed around on the rocks before taking a carriage ride around the park with an enteraining and informative driver (Robert) and his sure footed tenderfoot, Max. Finally, we did not go with our newly arring members of the rest of the team for more pizza. We did not want to spoil the opinion that we had already had the best pizza in NY at lunch. Instead, we got Thai just down the street from the Hotel. And guess what? Another best! I haven't had Thai before, so it was the best for me, but I was assured by the rest of the group that this was good stuff! Oh, we finished off the night with Scrabble - a tie between Maggie and I, with Kimberly and Cy close behind.

Binge Blogging

I must be a binge blogger. I don't blog for a couple of weeks and then 3 in one day!

During our drive this week, we had beautiful weather. No rain to speak of, which was good since I had my bike on top of my car. There were a lot of bugs, though. Thankfully, the bugs on the bike were much less than the ones on the car and came off very easily. Now it is rainy and cold. I am really hoping for warmer weather on Sunday. If not, at least I have a super nice rain coat, thanks to Suzy.
Unfortunately, I have a sore throat and a fever. The sore throat started out this morning and has gotten worse. The fever was the trip-out-to-Long Island-killer. We were looking forward to going out there, in spite of flood warnings. My brother Geoff assured us that the flood warnings here just mean that it will rain and there will be puddles. In Austin, flood warnings are quite a bit more serious as drownings are not uncommon. Cy and Kimberly have kept me company with Scrabble and I am resting as best as I can. If I am worse and/or no better tomorrow, I will sacrifice seeing the sites for getting better.

New York City (almost)

Cy, Kimberly and I drove 30 hours almost non-stop from Austin to NYC. We left Austin at 130 in the afternoon and managed to miss all major traffic in all major cities, that is, until we got to the DC and then Baltimore area. Then we spent 3 to 4 hours driving the 20 or so miles of that area. I might be exaggerating a little, but this was the toughest part. By the time we found a place to stay, just less than an hour from NYC, we were all a little frazzeled. But we found a really nice room on our first attempt (Hampton Inn with a great rate through AAA), food, beer for Cy and wine for Kimberly and I, then showers and sleep in fabulous beds. I am sure that I was asleep within 1 minute of hitting the pillow and didn't waken until 0600 - perfect!
I am doing laundry as I type, already had breakfast and coffee. Kimberly is running on the treadmill and Cy is working in the room (Cy had to bring his work with him to be able to make this trip :-(
We are set to leave the hotel in about an hour. We had some cell reception issues, but by a miracle, my brother Geoff's girlfriend Linda called us and offered a place to stay tonight. She lives out in the Hampton's, so we will be driving out Long Island this morning. One of Kimberly's friend's will be meeting up with us and Linda has promised to give us the 411 on the best things to do/see in the area.
I think I forgot to mention that we did stop just west of Roanoke to visit briefly with Kimberly's cousin, Jesse. From that point on, I have been paying attention to the terrain. The hills are gonna be a blast!!!!!

You don't blog anymore...

Suzy said I don't blog anymore. The last couple of weeks have been hectic. Some continuing ed and resulting testing that was a little stressful. Some overtime and then sleeping during the day while everyone else is having a normal life. I will try to blog more.

Alarming

Tuesday night, Suzy, Paul, Retta and Cliff took off to Lake Jackson. I managed to get my blueberry bush planted, the car cleaned out and my CPR manikins clean and back together that night. I cleaned all day Wednesday so that I would be able to bake most of Thursday. About an hour after falling asleep on Wednesday, the smoke alarm went off. No, there wasn't a fire or smoke, it was just letting me know that it was time for a new battery. Jarred, and a little shaky, I went back to sleep. Two hours after that, a big bolt of lightning struck somewhere near by, knocked out the electricity for a second and set off the security alarm. I jumped up from bed, completely confused and terrified, (mind you, when I am at work, I am regularly wakened by alarms to go to someone in trouble, but nothing like this!). I had never heard that security alarm before. Apparently the alarm is designed to be so loud that the burglar/bad guy CAN'T stay in the house. It was loud enough to paralyze me. I am afraid if anyone ever really broke in and set the thing off, I would be more incapacitated than the bad guy. Anyway, I am glad that the rest of the family didn't have to endure the alarming night that I did.