April 21, 2021 - Seaside Park, NJ, to New York, NY

Start: Seaside Park, NJ
End: New York, NY
Miles: 72.1
Feet climbing per mile: 30.4
Record of the day's ride: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/65909611

I got up with my alarm at 6:00 and was out the door at 6:30. Before I departed I walked up to the second floor of the motel and took a picture of the sunrise.

My ride home began with almost eight miles of straight flat road. The tailwind of 10 miles per hour helped me easily have an average moving speed of 17.2 miles per hour for that stretch.

As I had expected, from mile 12 to 16 I encountered some heavy traffic on four-lane roads often without a shoulder. At the intersection of Hooper Avenue and Brick Boulevard the driver of a pickup truck rolled coal as he passed me. I didn't yell at him or give him the finger, so I guess I'm maturing emotionally.

I had to walk my bike through the busy intersection at mile 21, but other than that the roads were good with only light traffic from mile 16 to 47. I stopped at a Starbucks at mile 42 to have a brownie and a hot chocolate.

Much of the mile and a half I spent on Route 32 starting at mile 47.4 was a terror, with heavy traffic and no shoulder. My route the rest of the way to Newark was fine, although while I was in Seaside Park I had read in a Facebook thread that the Perth Amboy police had arrested a group of kids and confiscated their bikes for not having them registered. (The kids don't even live in Perth Amboy, but Jim Crow is alive and well.) So I had some concern as I rode past two cops in Perth Amboy, but they left me alone.

I discovered a Dairy Queen at mile 59.5 and stopped to have a pineapple-mango smoothie, a beverage that I enjoyed at Dairy Queens several times during my 4,500-mile solo trip in 2019. The picture below shows the back side of Dynavent gas heater at the Dairy Queen. We used to have three Dynavents in our home and still have two. I understand that these heaters are no longer made.

Exhaust vents of a Dynavent gas heater

I arrived at Newark Penn Station at 1:20, two hours earlier than necessary to be able to board a PATH train with my bike. I arrived at the 33rd Street station in Manhattan to discover it was raining. I walked my bike under scaffolding halfway around the block before starting to ride. When I got to 7th Avenue I discovered a large demonstration by delivery cyclists demanding certain rights. I had read about preparations for the demonstration in a Facebook thread.

After watching the tail end of the demonstration I turned the corner onto 26th Street and arrived home at 2:40.

That night I decided that I would never again ride to Seaside Park, due to the heavy traffic on four-lane roads with no shoulder, the ten-mile straight flat stretch along the shore, and the lack of any climbing. I realized that that was the first time I had ever had such a thought after returning from a trip. But two days later I reviewed my routes to and from Seaside Park and realized that much of the riding was on pleasant two-lane roads with light traffic, and that I had spent only a small amount of time on four-lane roads with heavy traffic. Furthermore I had a wonderful walk along the shore, which was the (positive) highlight of the trip. I thought about the peak-end rule from behavioral economics, which says that we evaluate an experience based almost entirely on the peak experience and the end experience. My peak experience for this trip consisted of riding in heavy traffic with no shoulder (dominating my walk along the shore), and the end experience of the first day consisted of the ten miles of straight flat road. I realized that my evaluation of the trip would be much more favorable if I could ride a route that would avoid the heavy traffic and the long straight flat. After I was able to find such a route, I decided that I would return to Seaside Park for my next trip! A few days later I decided that I would probably not return so soon, but maybe someday I will. I'd love to swim in the ocean across from my motel.

My post from the previous day: April 20, 2021 - Seaside Park, NJ, to Brick Township, NJ, and Return