Hike #1098; Manhattan and Roosevelt Island

Hike #1098; Manhattan and Roosevelt Island

12/16/17 Holiday NY City Hike; Penn Station and Roosevelt Island Loop with Tea Biscuit (Scott Helbing), Amanda Lance, Jack Lowry, Cory Salvesen, Jennifer Berndt, Kenneth Lidman, Sarah Hare, Sarah Jones, Ellie Zabeth, Eric Pace, Michele Valerio, Sy P. Deunom (Martyn), Kevin Kowalick, Kathryn Cataldo, Craig Craig, Robert Avery, Jimmy Graham, Jimmy’s friend (sorry I forgot the name!), Mr. Buckett (Jim Mathews), Cindy Browning, Serious Sean Dougherty, Maria Osorio, Agnese Drzymala, Carolyn Gockel Gordon, Jennifer Tull, Peter Fleszar, Jim “Uncle Soup” Campbell, Marissa Panton, John Pershouse, Tom Vorrius, Steve Sanbeg, Diane Rieder, Gina Zuvich, Daniel Trump, Lai Haobo, Jessica Anne, Janet Lynn McCourt-Finsen, Justin Gurbisz, Ted German, ?, Denice, ?, ?, and ? I know I’m missing someone, sorry!

It was time once again for our annual Holiday NY City Hike. This is something we’ve been doing for about twelve years, and is among the best attended events we put together.
I was going through a rough patch and not really feeling festive. I canceled my night hike a few days before, as well as the one for the following week. I didn’t even want to do the holiday hike, and figured someone else could easily just take the lead.

The group in Penn Station

Still, I managed to get myself up in the morning after a brief moment of clarity, and drove to the Millburn Station, which worked out possibly even better than the Short Hills station had the past couple of years.
Not only was I not feeling it, Meetup.com had completely changed their format, and so fewer people were signing up and using the site. I feel that this will go down as the worst re-design since myspace, and it may flop the site altogether. I’ve slowly worked to where I rely on the site to run Metrotrails hikes, and so this is another disappointment.

Macy's Display

When I got to Millburn Station, Tea Biscuit and Amanda just pulled in as well. Together, we headed beneath the tracks at the road underpass, and to the platform we needed to be on. We got our tickets pretty quick and still had the time to use the nearby convenience store for snacks and restrooms and such.
I was sipping on an Arizona RX energy can. I’d gotten nearly no sleep the past couple of nights, and so I needed to keep myself going.
The train came in a short while, and we managed to get a booth area that just had one other guy in it. I put my phone on after having it off for a couple of days, and answered a few people. I was starting to feel a little bit better once we were on our way.

Old buildings surrounded by new

I poured a Crazy Brewski, a weird Lithuanian beer I’d recently taken a liking to, into my Arizona can and sipped away my worries on the ride there.
Usually, the subways run behind, and it seemed like just about everyone’s train was except for ours. Tea Biscuit and I walked into NY Penn Station a bit early.
I hesitated behind one of the store stations as I approached the big tree in the middle of the mall section, thinking I could still get out of this and go back, but after a few minutes I moved on over to the group.
There weren’t that many there when I first arrived, but it looked like some had been there a little while. I greeted people as they showed up, and we ended up there for a while.

Bryant Park fountain

Once it seemed like we finally had everyone together, we decided to head out. I was going to rely on Uncle Soup and Gina, because they knew the way around the city better than I do. The plan was to head north to get to the Queensboro Bridge, which we would cross on. Uncle Soup suggested we go through Grand Central Station, which I’ve always loved as well, and so the decision was made. Still, no one seemed to know the way to go initially from the station, and I didn’t want to try to guide the way really. Fortunately, Haobo stepped up, because he knew exactly where to go, saying “I’m a local now!”.

Bryant Park rink

We passed by the Macy’s displays, which is always a popular thing to do. I didn’t pay a whole lot of attention to it, and nothing in particular stood out. I just took a couple of pictures and we continued on.
Jack showed up in his full Santa suit (minus the beard) as usual, and was already playing Christmas songs with a chorus of hikers singing along. I could hear them behind me even when they got a block back.
The city is always amazing, especially this time of year. I sipped my drink and started feeling a bit better. Uncle Soup pointed out how amazing it is when there are smaller, older buildings surrounded by the skyscrapers. That was kind of a focal point when I started paying more attention to the surroundings and feeling much better.

Bryant Park

We continued walking to the northeast a bit, and I could not for the life of me figure out what exact blocks we turned on. We tried to wait at the cross walks so we wouldn’t lose anyone. There was a huge crowd, but we surprisingly managed to stay together reasonably well.
Our next point of interest was Bryant Park. I think I’d walked through this before, but I didn’t remember that it had a Christmas Tree in it, as well as a skating rink set up similarly to Rockafeller Center. That’s always the famous one, but the fewer people at this one really made it kind of nice to pass through.

NY Public Library

The next point of interest was the New York Public Library.
There weren’t a lot of people on the front steps of it, and so I decided to re-gather everyone again. This was basically just a block off of Bryant Park, but I was feeling better enough to give a little historic dissertation.
Most no one seems to know the history of the main building, but it is actually the site of the original southernmost reservoir of the Old Croton Aqueduct system, sitting at the intersection of 5th Avenue and 42nd Street on the old foundation.

Old Croton Reservoir

In the early 1800s, there began a problem with water borne pathogens in Manhattan. Prior to artificial waterways and pipes, the main supply of fresh drinking water in the city was a pond at the south side that was referred to as “The Collect Pond”.

From NY Public Library collection

Jonathan B. Jervis, the same man who designed the Delaware and Hudson Canal, set up the Old Croton Aqueduct to bring water from the Croton River up in Westchester County, dropping one foot per mile, to Manhattan.

Image of original Croton Reservoir

The first collecting reservoir in the city is now the square area in Central Park known as The Great Lawn. That one was replaced by the New Croton Reservoir, which was later renamed Onassis Reservoir. From there, pipes carried water to the library location.

Old Croton Reservoir

The Egyption style reservoir was also used as a sort of park, because a walkway promenade was put in top of it. It opened in 1842, and a song called “The Croton Ode” was joyfully played to celebrate the first clean drinking water “piped” to New York City.

1908 image of the library from Detroit Publishing-Library of Congress Archives

By 1870, it was obvious that the original aqueduct could not keep up with the demand of the ever growing city, and so it was replaced by the New Croton Aqueduct soon after. The original reservoir was abandoned by the early 1900s, and the site was eyed for the new library. It was completed and dedicated in May of 1911.
I always think of the opening scene in “Ghostbusters” when I see the NY Public Library.

The New York Public Library is the second largest library in the United States, next to the Library of Congress, and it’s the fourth largest library in the world!
We headed from the library to the Grand Central Terminal. The building always blows my mind, with the beautiful architecture and the artwork on the ceiling. It’s one of the most prestigious railroad station in the entire world. We commented on how we were thankful it was still there, because the old station had been destroyed to create World Trade Center as well.

In Grand Central

The station covers 48 acres, and has 44 platforms, making it the largest railroad terminal in the world.
The station is actually the third to serve the railroads at this site. It brought together the New York Central and Hudson River Railroad, the New York and Harlem Railroad, and the New York and New Haven Railroad.
The original station at the site opened for service in 1871. Even then, it was already a handsome structure and invoked the feeling of prestige that is New York City.

Grand Central Depot in 1880

Between 1899 and 1900, the building was almost completely overhauled. The facade was changed, and it was heightened from three stories to six stories in height.

Grand Central Station in 1902

The grandiose design of the stations at this site were much to compete with the similarly amazing Pennsylvania Station, of the Pennsylvania Railroad in southern Manhattan.

Present Grand Central Terminal in 1915

The station was completely torn down and rebuilt in phases between 1903 and 1913. It had to be done this way as not to have interruptions in traffic.

Grand Central

We re-grouped in the middle of the waiting room where it was easy to be seen, and I gave everyone some time to go down stairs to use the restrooms. There aren’t a lot of options in the city, so I figured we’d better take this opportunity while we can.
It was nice even to just stand there and admire the architecture.
Once everyone was through, we headed out of the station and continued to the north.
Kat was having entirely too much fun, and Justin and I took turns holding up her one arm while Kevin held the other one and kept her from falling over.

Grand Central

I started singing with Jack a little bit while we were walking by this point. He played John Lennon’s “Happy Christmas (War Is Over)” which is one of my favorite Christmas songs, followed by Paul McCartney’s “Wonderful Christmastime”.
As we continued to the north, we passed by a sort of little plaza that had a Christmas tree in the middle of it, so we all ducked into there to have a closer look at it. It was a nice spot, and it was surprising no one else was around it. I’m not sure where the spot was, but it was getting pretty close to the “Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge” as it’ snow called.

We walked along 59th Street to the southeast for a bit, and soon reached a walkway that goes up to the bridge, but it had cones and was blocked off. I didn’t realize there were two sides, and there might be another way to go across the bridge. It wouldn’t be an option on this trip though.
I saw a police officer directing traffic, and I asked him where we should go to get to the other side, and he pointed to the next block, which I think was 1st Avenue, and he told us to turn to the left there and we would find the walkway up.

Tree in a cove of buildings

As soon as we got to the other side, we ascended to get to the deck of the bridge.
I had walked across this on the holiday hike last year, but it was in the dark and I really didn’t get to see nearly as much as I’d like to have.

Queensboro Bridge

I needed to post a trip to do it again so I could actually feel like I’d experienced it.
The Queensboro Bridge (named for Ed Koch, former Mayor, in 2011) is a cantilever bridge opened in 1909 between Long Island City and Manhattan between 59th and 60th Streets, so it’s also known as the 59th Street Bridge.
The bridge held the record for largest cantilever bridge in North American until it was surpassed by one in Quebec in 1917.
When it was constructed, it was known as “Blackwell’s Island Bridge”.

"Blackwell's Island Bridge", c 1908. (today Queensboro Bridge), from Library of Congress Prints and Photographs

Blackwell’s Island was the earlier name for Roosevelt Island, which the bridge crosses in the middle. There were once elevators going down to the island, and one that carried vehicles that wasn’t demolished until 1970.

Manhattan from Queensboro Bridge

All of these bridges over the East River/Harlem River are so fantastic. They each have quite a different character, and I hadn’t really experienced this one until this time.
Brooklyn Bridge is amazing with it’s deck in the middle above the traffic, Manhattan Bridge with it’s on the sides, and Williamsburg with it’s on the top again...
This one was quite a different experience than the previous ones too. The walkways were on the sides similar to how the Manhattan Bridge was laid out, although it wasn’t built that way. I understand the original pedestrian walkways were on the upper deck.

1907 view of upper deck construction by George Grantham Bain, Library of Congress

Aggie and Maria met up with us at the bridge, having run late a bit in the morning. We headed from the west side and got some nice photos of the city and the waterfront.

View from Queensboro Bridge

Next, Pete F. met up with us. I’d not met him in person yet, but we’d chatted quite a lot on line, as he’s very involved in the Pennsylvania Mid State Trail.
The Mid State Trail had been the subject of several of the backpacking trips Jillane and I had taken, and we’d recently finished the section from Everett PA to the Maryland border, which means we’ve completed over half of the entire route. That is apparently rather uncommon. It was a really tough section, and I’ve been sharing a lot of photos from the route on line.

Queensboro Bridge

So it was really nice to meet him in person and chat for a bit. There’s never enough time on hikes like this one, because there are so many people and trying to keep things moving can be tough.
We got to the very center of the bridge and could see down to Roosevelt Island clearly, and up and down the East River.
It was kind of surprising to me how far south the next bridge, the Williamsburg Bridge, was. We’d walked that last year, and then hiked the waterfront north, but I didn’t remember it being quite that far.

East River

Upstream, there is the Randall’s Island Bridge and the Robert F. Kennedy Bridge, which I’d hiked both of. Above that, I’ve done the High Bridge (Old Croton Aqueduct), Washington Bridge, and Henry Hudson Bridge, but that’s it. There are seven more bridges across the main channel, known either as East River, Harlem River, or Spuyten Duyville Creek. It’s really amazing that there are that many more left for me to do. None are as substantial as the ones in southern Manhattan (except maybe the High Bridge), but they’re all interesting to walk. Maybe we’ll knock off a couple of them next year.

Looking down at Roosevelt Island, I didn’t know what to expect. I was very surprised to see so many buildings and residents on it.
As previously stated, at the time of Queensboro Bridge construction, the island was known as Blackwells Island, and in years before that, the Native Americans called it Minnehanonck, and after that, Varkens Eyelandt by the Dutch New Netherlanders. In the late 1600s, it was briefly Mannings Island, and Blackwells came in during later colonial days, but the name was changed again to Welfare Island from 1921 to 1971 when it was mostly hospitals.

Queensboro Bridge

From 1832 until 1935, the island was like New York City’s own version of Alcatraz, home to a penitentiary. An insane asylum followed, as well as other hospital buildings. The island was home to a Smallpox quarantine hospital as well.
My plan for this hike after crossing Queensboro Bridge would be left up to the members of the group. We could either follow the waterfront along the Queens/Long Island City side to the north, or we could cross back over to Roosevelt Island and walk it’s perimeter.

Queensboro Bridge

While walking, Jack started playing Simon and Garfunkel’s “59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin Groovy)” , certainly the most appropriate piece of music that could possibly accompany this portion of the hike. We sang it as we walked across. We sang other stuff too around this time, but I can’t at the moment remember.
I think before we even got off of the bridge, everyone had pretty much decided that we would be going across to Roosevelt Island. I admit to feeling drawn to it from the bridge as soon as I’d seen it.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/mWBvcJAXwu4

Once we got to the far side of the bridge and stepped off the walkway, I tried to reconvene everyone. Tea Biscuit and Justin apparently had to pee pretty bad, and so they both shared some sort of building to hide behind....barely.
I asked everyone what they wanted to do, and the decision was made to hit the island.

Chair fun

We followed Queens Plaza North, which paralleled the bridge heading back to the west. I wanted to get to the watefront rather than just follow streets north to the island.
Along this stretch, we found an office chair just sitting on the sidewalk. Tea Biscuit sat in it, and we dragged him along the pavement on it for a while. I don’t remember what we ended up doing with the thing, but I do remember almost crashing him at a street crossing with the thing, so I think he gave up on it around this point.

Queens Bridge Park Greenway

After crossing 21st Street, there was a good path parallel with the bridge, called Queensbridge Park Greenway. We were able to follow this through a line of London Plain trees on out to the East River with terrific views of the bridge.
There was some sort of abandoned building, which looked like a closed up old restroom building, under the bridge along the waterfront. Not sure what it was really.
Because we had several more people join us, I had to get another group photo at this point.

Under Queensboro Bridge

Ken and Sarah also both joined us on the bridge just a bit further back, because they had also run late. I was talking to Sarah on the bridge a bit, and she used to live in the neighborhood on the Queens side, so it was cool to hear some of the stories from someone who used to be a local. Strangely enough, even though she lived there, I believe she said this was actually her first time ever walking across the Queensboro Bridge!
After re-grouping, we turned to the right and followed the waterfront to the north.

Abandoned restroom

When we got to the end of the waterfront, we were at the Ravenswood Generation Station property, and had to turn right along the edge of the park heading back to the east. Still, we were able to get some great views back to the Queensboro Bridge, as well as north to the Roosevelt Island Bridge that we’d be crossing.
We headed to the east side of the park and re-grouped yet again, and it was discovered that there was an open restroom there. Once again, we had to wait for everyone to use the restroom before continuing on.

Queensboro Bridge from Queens Bridge Park

I believe this was the point we started really losing people. People were getting tired of the restroom stops and standing around, and I believe this was where the first of them started to cut loose.
We turned left on Vernon Blvd and headed north to the Roosevelt Island Bridge to cros over.
Although it was a shorter old lift bridge, it still offered some really nice views of the surrounding area. We got to the other side, and couldn’t get right on the waterfront, so had to head into a building for a way down.

Roosevelt Island Bridge

Once we were inside a sort of open parking building of sorts, there were steps that led us down to the lower level that the walkway was on. Across, I could see a closed off old escalator that didn’t seem to have been in use some time.

Queensboro Bridge

At the bottom of the stairs, where we exited, there was a strangely located grocery store! A lot of the group was getting kind of hungry, and so this was a good place for a snack or lunch.

View from Roosevelt Island Bridge to Queensboro Bridge

I think the store was Grisdede’s Foods. I wasn’t going to get anything initially, but then went in and found that they had a sandwich, chips, and a soda for like $4.99, which had generous serving of meat on it. That was great for it technically being part of Manhattan borough.

Coming to Roosevelt

While waiting for everyone to come out of the store, and even more of the group to use the restrooms, we started losing more and more.
Some had just had enough of the restroom stops, others had already planned to leave early to go and eat and do other stuff. Some had plans to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We might have lost as much as half the group at this particular point.
After the break, those of us remaining headed out from the grocery store and to the east.

Roosevelt Island bridge

We reached the waterfront and started heading to the north. The walkway at first had some roadways along them, but they sort of disappeared as we reached the north side.
The Color Goldwater Hostpital was near the north side, but I don’t remember paying that much attention to the buildings up there. I was too busy looking at the water and the buildings across on the Queens side, which looked neat with the sort of cloudy ambiance. We stayed along the waterfront to the northern tip of the island.

Roosevelt Island lighthouse

At the very northern tip of the island was a very nice looking stone light house, the Roosevelt Island Lighthouse, which has other names to reflect the island’s previous names. It’s made of cut gneiss and ashlar, and was constructed in 1872.

Historic Roosevelt Island images

There are some interesting local legends associated with the construction of the light.
The light was one of many improvements to the island made after the city purchased it in 1828. Two names are associated with the construction of the light house, John McCarthy and Thomas Maxey. An inscription reading “This is the work Was done by John McCarthy Who built the Light House from the bottom to the Top All ye who do pass by may Pray for his soul when he dies” was once reportedly on a stone.
An 1870 warden report claims that an inmate had constructed some sort of fortification on the north side of the island to fend off against British attacks that he feared, and a contractor was offered a fake sum of money to demolish the fort and construct the light house. Other accounts claim the inmate built the light house. Whatever the case, the lovely structure stands in good shape, having been restored completely in 1998.
We enjoyed the views from this point before moving on to the south on the other side.

View on the island

We started heading south along the waterfront and passed by some apartment buildings and such. It was even more surprising just how many people lived on the island.
Along the way, we passed near, and apparently within sight, of the oldest building on the island. This was the Blackwell House built in 1796 by a descendent of one of the original settlers of the island. It sat vacant for a time, but then was restored more recently. It wasn’t open to public, and we had no signs for it or we might have checked it out.

Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division, NY,31-WELFI,1-1

There is also an historic building known as The Octagon that we didn’t get to stop to see more to the center of the island. It’s clear after doing this hike that we need to revisit the island, possibly as a jump off point to continuing on the waterfront to the north on Queens side.

Dayspring Church

As we walked, I did take particular notice to the Dayspring Church on the left side, with it’s antique looking stone facade.
This was built in 1924 from island-quarried gneiss as a chapel for Metropolitan Hospital, with an attached rectory for the hospital’s chaplain. It reportedly stood abandoned between 1955 and 1975 after Metropolitan moved to Manhattan Island. In more recent years, other churches and now Dayspring Church have revived the handsome building and have been keeping it up.

Boat hull lookout

There was one spot where they had what appeared to be the hull of a boat built into the waterfront walkway to the right, which provided some pretty good views down stream to the Queensboro Bridge and across at Manhattan. There was some new construction going on and cranes, as well as what appeared to be an old power plant of sorts. Below here, and along a lot of the waterfront, there were these weird things with characters on posts as sort of water breaks or something, which added some character to the walk.

View from the hull thing

We continues south on the walkway south past more buildings, and at one point the walkway went right through a building. At a couple of points, the walkway ended, and we just walked on the snow covered grass next to the waterfront.

We walked on the grass along the “W Road” for a bit, and started to approach the Queensboro Bridge again. We passed under it on the road because there wasn’t a path at that point.
There was an overhead cable tram that takes people back across, which we were considering doing; much of the group took this when they left us at the grocery store.
I wanted to do it; it’s definitely part of the experience, even though there is a subway that does the same thing and goes further. Still, I had my heart set on doing the perimeter.

Island fun

A pathway started up again soon after passing beneath the bridge, and we continued to walk it to the south.
We passed near a building for Cornell Tech, a college campus, and Haobo wanted us to go in and have a look at it, but this time I wanted to just stay on the waterfront. There is really so much more to see, and I think even at that time I knew we were going to have to come back to see the rest of it.
We stayed on the waterfront and entered a park type atmosphere at the southern end.

Queensboro Bridge

The next point of interest we came upon was the “Smallpox Memorial Hospital”.
The Smallpox Hospital is a Gothic Revival style hospital built in 1856, and designed by Architect James Renwick Jr. who also did St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, and many others.

Historic image of the Smallpox Hospital

The hospital was built of quarried stone from the island by the prison labor. It was the first Smallpox hospital built in America. The deadly viral disease required quaranteen areas which is probably why the island was chosen for such a hospital.

Smallpox Hospital ruins

It was renamed Riverside Hopital in 1875, and in 1886 it was converted to a Nursing school called the Home for the Nurses of the Maternity and Charity Hospital Training School. Additions were built for this use in the early 1900s.

The school closed in the 1950s, and stairwells, floor panels, and windows were all removed. It’s continued to deteriorate from that time until the recent park development on the south side.
The college campus just to the north only started operations in the Fall of this year, and the northern part of the hospital properties were demolished starting in 2014. It’s nice to see that at least this bit of the history was preserved, even if it is only the shell of the old hospital building.

UN Headquarters

We could see the United Nations Building off to the right from the walkway, sitting along the edge of Manhattan.
The UN building was completed at the Turtle Bay section of Manhattan in 1952. It’s looking kind of drab these days, and the facade was looking kind of stained. With the world turmoil as of late, it felt sort of like a sign of the times. I read things about the US leaving United Nations under the Trump administration, which is frightening at best. I wonder where the UN Headquarters will be in maybe another thirty years or so. There will certainly be changes.

Octagon Building; Image extracted from page 468 of King’s Handbook of New York City …, by KING, Moses. Original held and digitised by the British Library

We walked past the hospital building to a fresh new looking walkway, and a guard shanty on the right side.
I talked to the guy at the booth, and he said we could go in, we just couldn’t have bottles and such out there for whatever reason. He didn’t make anyone throw anything out, but asked that we put them in backpacks and such.
There was a $1 suggested donation to get in, and I’m sure not everyone was prepared for that, so I just paid the donation for everyone with the extra cash that I’d brought, which can come out of the Metrotrails funds. That’s one of the great things about all of this non profit designation, it simplifies everything when I have the ability to do something like that.

Smallpox Hospital; From Gleason's Pictorial, 28 May 1853. Scanned from The Wickedest Woman in New York: Madame Restell, the Abortionist by Clifford Browder.

This was Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms Park, which opened to the public in 2012.
The walkways were clean and light colored concrete that looked modern compared to everything else around us, with slanted edge walls and trees above.

FDR Four Freedoms Park

As we reached the south end of the island, I looked across to the west and couls ee the old Pepsi Cola sign we had walked under on last year’s NYC hike, and the waterfront walkways over there from our different angle.

Roosevelt bust

At the south end of the park was a huge bust of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s head in a concrete partial enclosure. Beyond that, a concrete engraved monument with his quite about the four freedoms everyone should have: Freedom of Speech, freedom to worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

FDR Four Freedoms Park

The walkway down to the very tip of the island was closed due to extra ice and snow on it, much to Sarah’s dismay because she seemed overly anxious to go down there.

View at the south tip of Roosevelt Island to Williamsburg Bridge

Still, from above we had a great view down the East River to the Williamsburg Bridge. The sun was starting to go down, which sone a great light on the buildings and the waterway.

East side of Roosevelt Island

We turned and headed to the north along the waterfront on the east side. We passed again by the old hospital building on the opposite side, and could more clearly see how the stone ruins were being shorn up using metal framework from the inside. I wonder if that's a permanent thing, or if there are plans to ever completely rebuild into that existing framework. We continued as far south as we could in the Four Freedoms Park, then had to go back to the west side to exit the same way we went in. We then cut back over to the east side to continue walking south, so we'd just about do the entire perimeter of the island.

I stopped everyone at a good spot where there wasn't a lot of people and decided to go for a vote on what everyone wanted to do. I was inclined to continue walking along the waterfront on the Queens side and finish later if anyone else was interested in doing that. The other option was that we take the tramway back to Manhattan and look for something to eat. The initial vote by everyone was to take the tramway back.
I found out shortly after taking the vote that everyone wasn't actually listening to me when I asked the question, and they just voted with the group. Several of them would have preferred to go and continue walking to the north on the Queens side. Oh well.

Tram ride

We made our way to the tram, then found we needed to have Metro Cards in order to get over. Not all of us had them, so we had to walk a couple of blocks away toward the subway station in order to get them. It was starting to get dark, but still looked worthwile to do it.
We walked back to the tram entrance, and stood in a warmer area for a bit waiting for the next one to arrive. Our group pretty much would take up an entire tram car. Jack started playing some songs along the way, and we ended up doing some Beatles ones. A few we hadn't done in a while came up at this time and during the course of the day, including "I Should Have known Better" and "Tell Me Why" from "A Hard Day's Night" album. We also did McCartney's "Wonderful Christmastime" and "Feliz Navidad" while in the tram.

Once we were over on the Manhattan side, it was up to everyone else to find a place we could eat, and where we would all fit. I urged everyone to make calls to places to be sure it would work. If we had found something relatively soon, I'd likely have gone out and joined them.
We ended up walking a long distance, and I'm not sure what places were called. We found a diner that could hold all of us, but some people didn't want to go because it wasn't a bar too. Then there was another place that would have worked, but some didn't want that either. We were losing more participants at each one we went to and didn't go in, and I didn't really have an appetite anyway.

Darkening at Queensboro

We got to a German style place that Jen, Mr. Buckett, and Eric were keen on going into, but then they could only hold six of us and there were more than twelve of us left. I would have gone in if they would have taken the entire group, but everyone was just kind of standing around outside uncertain of what to do, and I wasn't going to just ditch part of the group. I got the feeling no matter where I'd choose to eat, if I did, someone would feel slighted. I just decided to head back to Penn Station and get out of there. It was starting to get depressing and I had to stay moving to keep out of it.

Mobbed Penn Station

Uncle Soup and I stayed tight heading back to the station. We managed to get in, and found one of the trains was canceled, others were kind of running behind. We had plenty of time before the next one to take us back. We were both going on the same train, just to different stations.
I lost him for a bit while I went to the bathroom, but them found him again and we went to get some pizza. He treated me to a couple of delicious slices from some place right in the station.
The station was absolutely mobbed to a degree I've never seen before on one of these hikes. It was going to be a fight just to get onto the train heading back. I lost Uncle Soup in the crowd heading toward it, but we both managed to get on and head back.
Even though I wasn't feeling it in the morning, I was really glad I forced myself to get out.
I've recently been told that someone I know was at a governemental meeting for my county, and it was some topic of discussion that a lot of people there hated me. This was very hurtful and it bothered me for a little while.
I started to realize something more important.
Yes, there may be some people at some meeting or big dinner that hate me.
The truth is I am doing what I feel is right, cultivating positive relationships, doing what I love and what I'm passionate about, and sharing it with other people I admire and respect. The truth is there's nothing wrong with any of this.The truth is...those people know my name, but I don't know theirs.
The truth is they're going to keep hearing my name, and so will other people long after they're dead and forgotten, and I'll be throwing hikes together and having a great time as long as I can walk.

ham