Avoiding Obama
Well, not really. We would have loved to meet the President. But Obama was long gone by the time our skate started on Wednesday, September 23rd. During the day, President Obama and representatives from all over the world – including Iran’s Ahmadinejad and Libya’s Colonel Gaddafi — gathered at the United Nations.
But even though he and the other world leaders were done with their business at the United Nations, the effects of their visit still lingered on the streets of New York: entire avenues were closed by the NYPD, blocked off even to pedestrian access in some areas. And traffic was, as they say, a bitch.
Thus, it was the job of the Wednesday Night Skate to provide our usual first-class skating experience while avoiding the madness and mayhem created by the aftermath of all that international power descending upon the city.
We started off by going up 8th avenue as far as we could to Penn Station. Then, we skated over to 10th avenue, and skated uptown for quite some time. This kept us parallel to the closed streets of Lexington avenue and the United Nations (and as far as possible away from it) while giving us a great workout.
We skated up 10th avenue all the way to 71st, then turned and skated to Riverside. From there, it was down the West Side Path, taking a break at the Intrepid (and pausing for one of our famous group photos). We continued skating down to the path to Chelsea Piers.
Finally, we left Chelsea Piers and cut across the city to return to Union Square. A collectively tired group then hit the bar for hard-earned beer and food.
