Trip Log – Day 258 – Red Bank, NJ to Toms River NJ

Posted on July 23, 2016 by paulefallon

To Toms RiverJuly 20, 2016 – Sun, 80 degrees

Miles Today: 51

Miles to Date: 13,325

States to Date: 34

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Screen Shot 2016-07-21 at 7.25.37 AMSorry Cape Cod, sorry Miami, sorry Port Christian, sorry Malibu. The most beautiful beaches in the world are along the Jersey Shore. Over one hundred miles of pristine sand bar that include areas of natural preservation, fabulous mansions, and honky tonk boardwalks. I rode south along Ocean Blvd and Route 35 on a perfect beach day of crisp sunshine and steady breeze with the intoxicating scent of the salty sea, overburdened every so often by the smell of greasy fries and deep-fried Oreos. Forty-five years ago I moved away from this strip of sand where I was raised. I am surprised how little these places have changed, how familiar they still feel.

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Mansions that rival the Hamptons line Ocean Blvd in Deal.

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As a child, the Convention Center in Asbury Park was the swankiest place I’d ever seen. In 1965 we drove 25 miles to see the opening of The Sound of Music at the elegant Paramount Theater. Asbury Park nosedived just as Bruce Springsteen made it famous. By the 1990s it was a collection of halfway houses, going down, down, down. But as the locals relate, ‘the gays moved in,’ and saved the place. It’s not exactly South Beach, but it has an upbeat charm.

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Immediately south, Ocean Grove was founded as a Methodist Chautauqua-style camp with a massive revival hall. People still vacation in the rows of tents and small houses with grand porches.

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There is miniature golf, of course, and newer houses that still harken back to porch tradition.

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When I arrived at Mantoloking, I began to see the effects of Hurricane Sandy. Along the ten miles to Seaside, bulldozers replenish beach sand, construction crews rebuild mega-houses, and house-lifting companies raise salvaged structures.

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Several people told me the boardwalk at Seaside Heights wasn’t what it had been, but I found it exactly as I remembered, a titillating concoction of suntan lotion and cigarettes, sweet taffy and sausage with onions. I had a frozen custard cone from Kohr’s, creamier than any frozen treat on earth.

Screen Shot 2016-07-21 at 7.30.09 AMMy hometown, Toms River, is famous for three things: the environmental/chemical damage that Ciba-Geigy inflicted, the epicenter of Hurricane Sandy, and Little League. I grew up in the abandoned gravel pits that the town deeded to Little League to create baseball fields for tiny boys. We spent hours trying to coax infield grass from the sandy earth. My father was a coach; I got hit by more balls than I caught. After two years, one hit, and dozens of errors, I retired to scorekeeping and running the concession stand. I proved talented at both tasks. I scored our way the Toms River’s first state championship and made enough money selling Twizzlers to buy my first guitar.

IMG_7030In 1998, Toms River won the Little League World Championship. Today, those snarly gravel pits contain seven beautiful baseball fields and a clubhouse that includes indoor batting and pitching stalls. I watched a practice in session. The coaches are so patient. The boys, and now girls, are so small. But in their minds, they are all major-league stars.

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Trip Log – Day 257 – New York, NY to Red Bank, NJ

Posted on July 22, 2016 by paulefallon

NYC ro Red BankJuly 19, 2016 – Sun, 80 degrees

Miles Today: 21

Miles to Date: 13,274

States to Date: 34

 IMG_6943My Irish bard, host and tour guide was flat out when I slipped out of his apartment after 8:00 a.m. As a rule, New Yorkers are not early risers. I stopped at a Chinatown bakery for one of my favorite breakfasts: an assortment of buns. Then I rolled towards the Battery to see the new Calatrava Path Station. Perhaps it’s not fair to judge the winged sculpture that sits atop a station whose entrances seem as ordinary as any before it is fully complete, but did New York really need a bigger version of what Milwaukee already has? It is gigantic and it is graceful, but it is also arbitrary. It will make for dramatic photos among the angular crowd.

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The ferry to New Jersey is a delight. I was pleased that it churned up the East River for another stop at 34th street, so I got to see the Brooklyn Bridge and Frank Gehry’s apartment tower, which required a custom window washing machine to clean 84 floors of curved glass. New York is the epicenter of one vein of architecture I detest: random forms of technical wizardry. Just because we can do something – technically – doesn’t mean it’s always a good idea – humanly.

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No matter. Within half an hour I was on the beach! Hooray for Sandy Hook National Park and the fabulous Jersey Shore. The beaches are so pristine.

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Along Sea Bright, a huge stone wall separates the beach from the rest of the barrier island. I’m not sure how much it helps in a storm. Seems to me the water will come in from the marsh and bay on the other side. But people have built their private decks up on the top of the wall just the same.

IMG_6967The next three days will be ripe in nostalgia for me as I head to Toms River, where I grew up. First bit of memory: I got stuck at one of New Jersey’s raised bridge. They are quirky as ever. Two people in yellow safety vests scamper across the roadway and close gates by hand before raising the dual cantilevers that allow a pleasure fishing boat to motor up the Shrewsbury River while dozens of cars sit in the stifling heat.

I pedaled through the tony boroughs of Rumson and Fair Haven, singing Springsteen songs (he long ago left Asbury Park for these greener pastures). I’m hungering for some Glory Days.

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Trip Log – Day 256 – New York, NY

Posted on July 21, 2016 by paulefallon

Poughkeepsie to NYCJuly 18, 2016 – Sun, 90 degrees

Miles Today: 11

Miles to Date: 13,253

States to Date: 33

New York City is packed with people, even in summer. People are polite, if not exactly friendly, but we develop a veneer here, quickly, to give each other space in a place where space is scarce. I don’t approach many people with my question. It seems intrusive.

Still, there is much to glean by rolling through the city at my pace. New York may well be the most diverse place on earth. All ages and identities appear to coexist with more ease than I’ve witnessed elsewhere. The extremes of rich and poor are great, but less glaring than say, San Francisco.

IMG_6926I think about The Green Metropolis, in which David Owen postulates that Manhattan is the most energy efficient place in the United States. That may be true on a per capita consumption basis, but it really doesn’t translate to a sustainable model we should emulate. Yes, New York is efficient because it’s so dense and there are so few cars. But the density pushes human limits and disconnects us from, rather than links us to, the natural world. When you consider all the external energy it takes to make New York work – including major portions of New Jersey and Connecticut – the argument is not convincing.

I spent a leisurely morning in a deli, eating the world’s best bagel and the largest black and white ever. Then I rode over to Riverside Church and had a conversation with Michael Neuss of Orpheus Orchestra, a chamber orchestra that has developed a collective process in which all forty members participate in selection and interpretation. They have no conductor. It is a fascinating example of truly participatory democracy in action.

IMG_6928I got stuck in a torrential downpour along the Hudson River bike path, but fortunately part of it is under the raised West Side Highway, so I just waited it out with other cyclists and then pedaled on to the sunshine, among them a fresh graduate of The Actor’s Studio on the way to his second rehearsal of a new play. Now that guy was excited!

 

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I went by many of the new buildings near the High Line. Am I the only one who thinks the new Whitney is the 21st century version of brute force over elegance just as the original was in the 20th century? I find an unsettling correlation between the new metal monster and its concrete cousin.

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And since when did Jersey City have a skyline?

imgresWhen I reached my host’s in the Lower East Side I was treated to a night in a true tenement – a five floor walk-up with a WC closet and a bathtub in the kitchen. Patrick took me on a two-hour evening walk through his neighborhood. The streets pulsed on the summer’s night breeze.

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Profile Response: Maura Hallisey, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford, CT

Posted on July 21, 2016 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellow

“There is more done with pens than swords” – Harriet Beecher Stowe

“You are the little woman who wrote the book that started this great war.” – Abraham Lincoln

“Women are the architects of society.” – Harriet Beecher Stowe

IMG_6826I am a Harriet Beecher Stowe kind of guy. I think its cool that this 4’-11” woman, unelected to any office, unbeholden to any corporation, wrote a book that bent the arc of history. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was the best-selling volume in the 1800’s, after The Bible. It was serialized in 1851-52 in Washington D.C.’s National Era, and then published all over the world. Harriet wasn’t able to manage her brand as well as, say, Martha Stewart. She never made a dime off the Uncle Tom tchotchkes that proliferated in nineteenth century America and our contemporary image of a ‘yessir’ Uncle Tom cozying up to white folk is quite the opposite of the books’ title character. But the book made her world-renowned and rather wealthy. The novel swayed our sensibilities of an institution whose time had passed.

images copyHarriet Beecher Stowe lived the last twenty-three years of her life in Hartford’s Nook Farm neighborhood, a literary enclave where Mark Twain was her neighbor. When she died in 1896 her house went through several sales before her grand niece, Katharine Seymour Day, purchased it in 1920 with the intent of restoration. The Stowe Day Research Center dates from the 1940’s, but the house didn’t open to the public until the 1960’s. Even now, it’s not a typical house museum. The focus is less on artifacts, more on ideas. One person, one book, can effect change.

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Maura Hallisey, program coordinator, speaks in the present tense, as if Harriet Beecher Stowe would join the conversation at any moment. “I think it’s important to make our work relevant. The present tense makes it more real. “

How will we live tomorrow?

IMG_6825“I don’t know. Is that an acceptable answer? Will technology and social media have a negative impact? We are in a difficult period of national discomfort. Out of turmoil come new ways of being.

“We want justice now. Uncle Tom’s Cabin was published in 1852. It takes time to influence society. It was more than a decade before the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.”

 

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Trip Log – Day 255 – New York, NY

Posted on July 20, 2016 by paulefallon

Poughkeepsie to NYCJuly 17, 2016 – Sun, 90 degrees

Miles Today: 22

Miles to Date: 13,242

States to Date: 33

 In celebration of the initiatives that Mayor Michael Bloomberg did to encourage cycling in New York City, I rode the entire length of Broadway, from Washington Heights to Union Square, and photographed a slice of city life on a hot Sunday afternoon. Even without cars, Times Square is still claustrophobically dense.

Afterward, I pedaled through the Bowery, investigating sites that William Helmreich, a fellow adventurer at a slower pace and author of The New York Nobody Knows: Walking 6,000 Miles in the City, told me about when I asked him how will we live tomorrow.

I wrapped up Sunday afternoon in Central Park before proceeding to my evening’s host in Harlem.

A photo essay of my trek along Broadway:

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Profile Response: Maralis Martinez, Willimantic, CT

Posted on July 20, 2016 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellowWe gauge our place in the world not just by where we are, but also by where we came from.

Maralis Martinez was born in Puerto Rico but spent most of her youth in New Britain, CT, living with a single mom in public housing. Maralis graduated high school but could not afford college. She worked various jobs, met her husband, went to community college, and obtained a four-year degree. Today, Maralis is a medical technologist at the local hospital where she works second shift three days a week and every other weekend to maximize the amount of time she and husband David (who has a traditional work schedule) can spend with their three-year old Laura. “We are the people who leave our families on Mother’s Day and holidays to take care of other’s family. But I love my work. I never thought I would be where I am.”

Screen Shot 2016-07-18 at 1.01.42 PMMaralis sees parallels between her life and her mother’s, between Laura and her own childhood. “My mother had her first child at age fifteen. Underage marriages were part of Puerto Rican culture. My sister had her first child at eighteen. I had my first child at thirty-one. There is a huge difference in what you can do for your child. I took maternity leave. We have a house without cockroaches or lead paint, a house I could afford to keep if anything happens to David.

“I believe in educating women and girls. If my mother had been educated, she would have had more opportunities; I would have had more opportunities.”

How will we live tomorrow?

IMG_6811“That’s a scary thought with everything going on in the country, with the politics. You hope it will get better. For some it does, for some it doesn’t.”

 

 

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Trip Log – Day 254 –Poughkeepsie, NY to New York, NY

Posted on July 19, 2016 by paulefallon

Poughkeepsie to NYCJuly 16, 2016 – Sun, 90 degrees

Miles Today: 80

Miles to Date: 13,220

States to Date: 33

 IMG_6860In the west, I counted how many times I crossed the Continental Divide (six total). In the East, I’m tallying how often I cross the Appalachian Trail (three times to date). Today I met up with a through hiker, trail name Shaggy, at a convenience store during a Gatorade stop. Shaggy was heading north, traveling solo and looking forward to entering Connecticut, while I continued south to The Big Apple.

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The day was hot, but I had many miles of very nice rail trail. Unfortunately, I got off track at the snarly intersection of I-287 and I-87 (a bike path gets lost in all that spaghetti). So, I simply rode west until I hit the Hudson and came into the city on US 9 south, through lovely river towns along the Palisades.

IMG_6864When I reached The Bronx, I stopped for a well-deserved malt at the first old school luncheonette I came upon. My waitress, Rudi, was a great introduction to the city: a sassy immigrant grandmother with great stories about tomorrow.

I meandered through Riverdale to my host’s for the night. Hillary Brown is a fellow architect and Haiti enthusiast. Lucky me, Hilary has an apartment with a lovely garden, where we enjoyed appetizers, an outdoor pool, where we took a refreshing swim, and a balcony with phenomenal Hudson views, where we ate a leisurely supper and talked and talked until, all of sudden, it was late.

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Profile Response: Alice Rubin, General Manager, Willimantic Food Coop, Willimantic, CT

Posted on July 19, 2016 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellowNot many businesses would fill in the front parking with native plants and a patio. But the whole point of cooperatives is to do business differently. The green front yard in front of the former A&P turned Willimantic Food Coop is a welcome relief from the adjacent hard surface streets.

 

The Willimantic Food Coop began in 1980 and has been in its current location for ten years. Alice, who joined Connecticut’s largest coop in 1984 and has been here ever since, has witnessed our country’s evolution toward embracing healthier eating and more organic foods. “The Alar scareIMG_6803 in 1987 focused attention on organics. There’s been increasing interest ever since.” However, the organic market represents a small portion of the food sold in this country. “We are lucky here. We don’t have direct competition. The nearest Whole Foods is thirty minutes away in Glastonbury.” Still, Alice is not inclined to rest in that position. “Our objective is to make high quality food affordable to everyone. We really try to keep our prices in line.”

Screen Shot 2016-07-18 at 12.51.41 PMAlice explained that a cooperative is a not-for profit, which is not the same as a non-profit. The Coop has a governing board and charges lower prices to members, but it pays taxes like any other business. The challenge is to make some profit, but not too much. “Last year we made $15,000 on $5 million in sales, which is a good target. Profits are not distributed to members; Connecticut’s cooperative law, dating from 1897, forbids that. Instead, profits are distributed as staff bonuses, capital improvements, or charitable donations.

 

 

IMG_6797Willimantic Food Coop is more than a thriving business with 32 employees in an economically challenged region. It is also a catalyst for local and organic farmers. “There is a resurgence in farming. It’s difficult in Connecticut, where plots are small and land prices high. A decade or two ago, older farmers got out of the business and no one wanted to do that work. Now, there are more people interested in farming.”

How will we live tomorrow?

IMG_6801“I’m more of a futures person. I’d like us to scale back and live more simply. I hardly buy anything. I hardly drive. But I don’t see others doing the same.”

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Trip Log – Day 253 – Danbury, CT to Poughkeepsie, NY

Posted on July 18, 2016 by paulefallon

to PoughkeepsieJuly 15, 2016 – Sun, 90 degrees

Miles Today: 55

Miles to Date: 13,140

States to Date: 33

 IMG_6843Connecticut is a state of beautiful, hilly terrain, lavish suburbs, and poor cities. ‘Home rule’ is big in this corner of New England; it shows through giant contrasts from place to place. I managed to get turned around in Danbury today (I seem to tack on five miles of misdirection every day) but rather enjoyed the inner core of this city rich in Brazilian immigrants. Fortunately, Danbury is not nearly so desolate as other Connecticut cities. Entrepreneurism triumphs, as in this house with a front yard cornfield.

IMG_6844As soon as I crossed the New York State line, I was happy to leave the serpentine climbs through dense woods as the landscape opened up to the majesty of the Hudson River Valley. The slogan, ‘Empire State’ seems appropriate.

 

 

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I reached Hyde Park after one, and treated myself to an incredible lunch at the Culinary Institute of America. My Danbury host studied cooking there and recommended the Apple Pie Cafe. Food so good even a guy who ‘eats to fuel’ can appreciate. CIA is as much tourist attraction as school – the place was hopping on a Friday afternoon.

imgresTwo miles upriver, I visited the FDR Museum and Library, where I met with an archivist at the first presidential library to talk about their work.

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Profile Response – Kristin, Capeway Convenience, Middleboro, MA

Posted on July 18, 2016 by paulefallon

HWWLT Logo on yellow“I’m so sorry, the kitchen is closed on Sunday.” Kristin explained with great concern in her voice, the moment I walked in the store. Obviously, I looked hungry. I found a few packaged items that I could call lunch. She rang them up, rounded my total down to skip any change, and we started chatting.

“We all have to take responsibility. We all have to work together. It isn’t about gun control, it’s about people.” The recent spate of murders; unarmed black men killed by police in St. Paul and Baton Rouge followed five police officers in Dallas doesn’t even get referenced. The new round of shootings has eclipsed last week’s Orlando massacre in everyone’s mind.

IMG_6754Kristin’s been working at Capeway Convenience for five years. Four years ago Henry Patel, an immigrant from India, took over the place. “I love working for him. He has great ideas; I learn new stuff every day.”

Kristin has a way of finding the bright side of any situation. She suffers from lupus, has had a series of close friends die of addiction, and her daughter died a few months after she was born. “That put my life in a whole new perspective.” She counters each setback by coming back, stronger. “My parents have been married 54 years. They are my rock.” Last week, another friend died of an overdose, leaving two young daughters. “What is going to happen to them? They are starting life at a disadvantage. The chain doesn’t break.”

“The poorest people on this earth are always the nicest. I work in a convenience store, but when people ask me how I am, I say ‘I’m living the dream.’ I always stay upbeat.”

How will we live tomorrow?

IMG_6752“We all need to sit down and talk. People need to start getting along.”

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