Mark and I left Texas Thursday May 17th. It was impressive sight to see us barreling down the interstate in his Ford F350 with four (very nice) bikes mounted in the bed of the truck - and all the gear that must accompany a bike team for a 600 mile ride.

Only having a couple of days to get to New York we didn't have time to stop and see the sights along the way - except when we got to Tennessee - we both had to stop and have our picture taken in front of the Wigs Sphere -aka the real name Suns Sphere.

We made great time until we got to Pennsylvania - the hills and trees - the scenery was so fantastic we totally missed out turn and it wasn't until we were in the Poconos we discovered we had missed our turn - this little detour put us an hour or so late into New York.

Once we were on the right track and had entered into New Jersey the beautiful country side faded to suburbs and then into the industrial complex you would associate with New Jersey. But I do have to say much of New Jersey was very beautiful and I now understand why they are the self proclaimed Garden State.

When we arrived in New York City - WOW! OMG! What a place. Needless to say we got lost again - but this time we were paying for toll roads (and when they saw Marks truck they would charges us double the amount of cars :( - you would think they had never seen a truck before).

When we had finally arrived at our hotel - The rest of the team greeted us and helped unload the truck - and most importantly they had us a cold beer- and after the drive we just had it was a well needed beer.

While we were unloading the truck we meet some other bike riders from New Hampshire. With our new friends we headed to Little Italy for some famous New York style pizza. We went to Lambarti's Pizza. This was the best pizza I had ever had!!!!!!!! To top the evening off we went to Ferrera's. This is an Italian dessert place- they had a three page menu of Italian desserts! I had to try the New York Cheese cake. It was the best I had ever had. From now on I will compare all pizza and cheese cake to this very night out.

The next morning we loaded the truck up again to meet up with the rest of the riders. I believe all together we are a group of 47 with about 8-10 support cars. FDNY bagpipes played, the FDNY EMS Commissioner gave us a send off farewell speech and the FDNY Father Chris blessed us, the ride - then we did a photo opt- it was a very quick breakfast provided in Thanks by FDNY EMS. And then we were off for the streets of NY to begin our bike ride to Honor Eric and the rest of the medics who have died in the line of duty.

We had a police escort through Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, Harlem, Manhattan, Time Square, Ground Zero, and then to the ferry over to Staten Island. I guess we put in about 30-40 miles just riding around New York. The ride organizers were very thoughtful in this route- as many of us had never been to NY and we got to see many of the hot spots - Central Park, Yankee Stadium, Macy's - Several Churches- it was unfortunate that we didn't get to stop at any of the places along the way - but then this is a bike ride not a sight seeing tour. We did make a brief stop at ground zero.

Lunch was provided by FDNY EMS on Staten Island. From there our police escort said good bye and we were on our own. The days events from here were a little disorganized - the group of 47 split off into 3 groups and the route was not well marked. A thunderstorm rolled in and the rest stop closed because of the lightening. Everyone had to sag in the last 10-15 miles because of the lightening.

It was a quick shower and we went to dinner provided to us by Hillsbrough EMS. The food was fantastic! Pasta, Pasta and more pasta - and cold beer. Never thought I would have a cold beer in an EMS station. Our hosting EMS was very thankful of us doing this ride - and we were even more thankful for the great food. More photo opt and we loaded back up and headed to the hotel for the night.

What a day in NY. If you only had less than 24 hours to spend in NY I couldn't think of a better way to spend it. Eat the best pizza and cheese cake of your life and have a police escort around the City on a bike with 5 of your friends and 42 new friends. Thank You FDNY and NYPD!