The goal for today was to get to New York City, Times Square in particular. The first 31 miles were in suburban New Jersey, a lot of it along NJ 27.

Now I wouldn’t describe NJ 27 as a place to go for a pleasurable bike ride, but overall it was better than expected. About half had a shoulder and of the remaining half about half of that had light traffic so everyone was able to get around. Of the remainder, I was alert with my mirror but traffic was well behaved.

The picture above was around the 20 mile mark where this shop was a nice spot for a banana and an avocado.

A few industrial areas such as this plant brought me to my first goal – the Goethals Bridge.

The bridge had a nice walkway which brought me across to Staten Island

The bridge was also the dividing line between New Jersey and New York. Staten Island itself was also reasonable to cycle – streets occasionally busy and going too far south made them hilly. Without much difficulty I found my way to the ferry.

It was a little more fun to figure out where to board. Bikes go on the lower deck. There is a nice area above for others but I was eventually directed downstairs in the garage to wait for the next ferry.

The ferry itself had a bike rack up front. About five bikes were on board. Not all of them are in the rack.

Windows are hazy, but had to get a photo of the Statue of Liberty as we went past.

On the other end we were dropped off in Battery Park. It was hectic starting out but eventually made my way to the bike path on the right side.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enable my bike computer on the Manhattan part. It was still giving me instructions of where to turn and I know route distance was 4.72 but not in Strava.

Walked a block or two past my hotel to the Times Square area. This is the intersection that has the Times Square subway stop. I’ll wander around a bit more without the bike.

My hotel room is the almost lowest price I could find (with much better ratings than the lowest). Small but fits the bike and me and that is what is needed. Happy to get to Manhattan.

Strava for today recorded 38.42+4.72+0.35=43.49 miles, 3:57:14 elapsed, 9.7 average with 1033 ft of climb. I expect more climbing along the Connecticut coast… Now it’s time to explore NYC.