Bessie and I finally made it to New York City. Woke up yesterday at a rest stop outside of Milton, Pennsylvania only to find Bessie wouldn’t start. After flooding her then sucking up the extra gas with a coathanger/napkin contraption we were back on the road. Took her to Milton to try to get an oil change and radiator flush and that turned into a five hour ordeal due to her not starting up and trying to change spark plugs to see if that would help (rule #1 – make sure you have the right spark plugs before trying to change ’em). I did get some great breakfast and ended up kicking everyone at the restaurant and mechanic’s shop some cream. On the way outta town I stopped at the truck stop and took, my first ever, truck stop shower. We were going to be slinging cream later that night at Tag Team‘s Fifth Anniversary Party with Broken Social Scene and I knew that if I waited til I got to NYC, it wouldn’t happen. Who wants to guess how much it cost?
On the way in I crossed numerous rivers that were muddy and overflowing due to the recent storms that pounded the northeast. After getting lost and lucky, I found my way to the Holland Tunnel. The lady at the previous toll booth told me I’d be able to drive an ice cream truck through the tunnel but the signs that said “NO COMMERCIAL VEHICLES” shown otherwise. I decided to press my luck and waited about 15 minutes in line to get to the booth to pay my toll. Once I got up there the lady taking the money wasn’t sure what to make of me. She called the supervisor upstairs but he couldn’t figure it out either. It was something along the lines of “OK, he doesn’t have commercial plates, he’s from WHERE?…..in an ice cream truck….he gives it all away…..does he have ice cream now?” The police offer directed me to the side of traffic and briefly looked in my freezers to see if everything was legit. I grabbed a half box of ice cream sandwiches for his crew as a thank you for not making me drive up to the Lincoln Tunnel for what would surely be an extra half hour plus in traffic. Whewww.
Got lost in Manhattan and nearly snapped my suspension while maneuvering around potholes in the century old brick streets. One hole was prolly 2′ X 2′ and 3 feet deep…really. Eventually I made it to
ACE bar where the Brewskee-Ball tournament was going down. The nice limo driver who was parked out front kindly gave up his space and the cream slinging began. Kate, who has written numerous NYC reviews for us was competing and was going to be hoping on board to help sling some cream cream at the Tag Team party. Guzzled down a Yuengling, snapped some pics, made some people happy, then skipped out so we wouldn’t be too late for Broken Social Scene.
Of course we got lost again but eventually we found The Hook in Brooklyn and got set up with a perfect parking spot. The timing couldn’t have been better. Kate went and grabbed a drink and some grub and we got some power to light up the truck. Once a handful of folks got their cream on, the rush began. I told Kate to rock out some then we would swap toward the end so I could get my live BSS initiation. I think I got the better end of the deal, even though I only got to see 3 songs. When I left Los Angeles, over 5000 miles ago, one of the first things I did was record some video of me singing along to “Major Label Debut”. They closed the set last night with that song and I basically lost it. Has it really been over a month one the road? Was I really hear watching Broken Social Scene and slinging cream in Brooklyn? I came back to the truck beaming.
I was going to head back to the Lower East Side for the night but I knew parking would be insane. Instead I decided to get as far outta NYC as possible. At 1 in the morning I started heading north. I had no idea where I was going but all I needed was a place to park and sleep. Around 2:30 I found a park not too far off the highway and called it a night. I anticipated being woke up by the cops but made it till 8:30 without being hassled. Right now I’m in Ossining’s Public Library trying to get caught up on stuff. I gotta find some dry ice in town before the remainder of the cream melts then I’m not sure what I’ll get into. Maybe back to NYC, maybe camping, maybe some trail magic on the Appalachian Trail.
The other pics in here are from my stop in Cleveland. Jakprints, our wonderful sponsor who prints everything for us, is located there so I stopped by to hang out for a bit and kick down everyone with some ice cream. They sure liked the Mucha Lucha pops with the bubble gum eyes a lot. I also stopped by Checker Bar Ice Cream Company while in town to pick up some dry ice and restock on some sandwiches, Power Puff Girls, Cookie’s and Cream Cups and a few others.
The pics of Whitey’s is from Fremont, Ohio. When I rode my bike cross county, five years ago, I stopped in there and Mark treated me to breakfast (check review at www.rideforcancer.com). I ended up staying the night in the Speedway gas station the night before just so I could fill my belly with some goodness again. Stopped by to visit Dan at the bike shop too. Who’d a thunk I’d ever be back? Thanks to the nice folks at Ash Automotive who gave me some tips on the carburetor problem.
If anyone knows of a place to crash in NYC/Brooklyn with parking for Bessie, please let me know.
To the good life….on the east side
Matt
