The evening Lorenzo (my brother) took me to a party. The birthday party of Marcellus. Quanso we got had a crown and a ribbon with the word Princess. I met some of his friends. It was great fun.
Later we all went out and came across a place where country life doing music. Scenes never seen before! Not bad for my first night in NY.
My brother Lorenzo show me a little bit Manhattan between busy streets and tower blocks. At first I feel a little disoriented, but is not hard to find the correct coordinates in the city. The streets are nearly all numbered and with a small map I can always figure out where I am.
I am a guest of Andres, a friend of my brother Lorenzo, in a very large loft in downtown Manhattan. It is situated on a main road, where traffic certainly not lacking. I did a short video footage (under). Actually many are quiet streets of new york. Sometimes also surrounded by a bit of green.
I do not have much time to take pictures the first day. I plan to also enjoy the company of Lorenzo, who tomorrow will leave for Baltimore. I’ll join him in ten days.
After dinner I continue to work … I clean all the components, were terribly dirty! It’s been too long since the last maintenance.
Also put a new chain and new tires. Finally change the saddle with a more comfortable one.
I take a break from all the preparatory work with a dinner, my last meal before leaving Italy. My parents cook a great vegetables tajin, a Moroccan dish is prepared with a terracotta pot. It was really good!
I start to fix the handlebar, originally, before it ended in the hands of Rocco salda il mondo (welds the world), was the back of a chair. After the welds had never been painted and the rust came out easily.
It’s not easy to scratch every part of the handlebar. I am doing a job pretty fast, clean only the essentials.
The most funny part is the spray one. Before the bottom and the color.
I hope that will wipe before departure that is more and more nearby.
Despite the trouble I am satisfied with the outcome.
A race against time. The last weeks were really intense. Among regular work and extra-ordinary, I had to prepare for my journey to the USA: papers abroad permits, purchase new bags, and bicycle transport sack. And to make matters worse, it also came into my mind the idea to paint the TallBike.
I will leave by plane, the best pollutant mode of transport. It obviously does not make me too happy. Compromise between our principles and excitement of discovering new worlds, new life experience, is never easy. But the desire to visit San Francisco, on an occasion like the celebration of 20 years of Critical Mass, has won a bit ‘of everything.
My first stop will be in New York, then I think I ride to Philadelphia and Baltimore. My passion for the blues (as a genre and as a historical route) will push me up to Chicago. I hope to make a trip to Toronto if I can. Then, the idea is to move on the other coast: Seattle, Portland and San Francisco. I do not want to take a domestic flight (for the ethical element above), I hope to get there by trains or bus. But I have not timetable, will be a journey of adventure.
