Started the day in Manhattan with a short ride up to Mike Blatte, Trek New York City's place at 1st Ave. and 81st Street. Fashionable upper east side. Great breakfast at some place called Gracie Mews. Best darn grilled potatoes I have had in a long time. The coffee was great too. Just the right way to start up the day! Oh, by the way, today in NYC it was 60+ degrees with blue skies. All this on the 14th of December. Not too shabby.
So this here is just a little bit of taste of the Bronx. It really does not do justice to some of the things I got to see today. I am sure it is good people all just trying to do some good, but for a kid from Wisconsin, it was just a bit much! Please notice not so much the fence but the barbed wire at the top just to make it interesting.
First Trek stop for the day was Metro Bikes head office and warehouse up in the Bronx. The area is better than it was but still pretty rough. Lots of armoured steel doors and a doorbell to ring to hope to get in. Met the Denison boys. They hail all the way from Beloit, WI but have built a great bike business in New York. Andrew Kelly was in and we all got a chance to meet and greet...talk about the good the bad and the ugly. I think we will do OK with these guys. They only want to sell more stuff. Pretty simple situation. All we need to do is give the right Nike and Trek product and they will rock with it.
So this is the view back towards Manhattan. It was the best we could do what with the haze that was the only negative on a terrific day for business.
The transition from the Bronx, driving past Randall's Island and the mental hospital and then on to Queens and Long Island is incredible. the Bicycle Planet could be a store in "anytown" USA. As soon as Mike and I set up shop to meet with Chrissy and Morrie, things got incredibly busy for about an hour with lots of people coming in to the shop. Great time and we sold another pink MT 220. History repeats itself as it did at Cycle Sales in Youngstown, OH last week. They even went with the matching pink helmet.
These folks do a great great job with apparel and foot wear. More on them at another time because it will be worth it.
Made the turn towards La Guardia at about 2 PM with a stop at North Shore Bicycles and a visit with George (one of the owners). Really nice guy and nice shop in a typical town. From there it was on the LGA (airport code for La Guardia) and the on to ORD (airport code for Chicago O'Hare). Now for several years I have wondered what the heck is going on there. Are they slowing down because they want to build a new airport somewhere and the only way to get people behind it is to get them upset enough.
Delays at O'Hare are notorious, especially for the short regional jet flights that come in from 300 miles or less. Today's affliction was winds, but this is the "windy city" right? Check out this departure screen from about 9:30 PM Thursday night. While resolution is not too good, the key thing to look for are the yellow status labels.
ORD apparently can land 103 flights per hour under great conditions on 3 runways. Tonight we were down to 60 flights on 2 runways. Some things will not change at ORD and that is the winds blowing across the Plains of Illinois. If Chi-town wants to be truly world class, they need to either buy up all the land around ORD and expand or build a new and world class gateway.
So signing off on Friday, this was a great Thursday. Mike Blatte is awesome and really knows his guys and gals. After the past 2 days I come away with a whole new level of love for NYC. It is such a melting pot of peoples and cultures. There is something for everyone there. Good night!
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