I really can’t complain.  There are far worse places to get held back a day, and we happen to have the most gracious hosts/friends here who are kind enough to put up with us for another night.  Phil and I got off to a very late start this morning.  Or this afternoon, rather.  We are headed to Watchung, NJ, where my step-mom, Paulette, has a friend who will host us for a night.  It’s about 50 miles from Queens, but we didn’t even get out of Manhattan before Phil got his second flat tire of the trip (the first was on Friday on our way into NYC).  We spent most of the morning getting our stuff ready and getting my new bike ready, and didn’t leave the apartment until 1pm anyway, so when the flat tire held us up another 20 minutes, we decided it was probably best to stay in the city another night and get an early start on Tuesday morning.  So we rode around Central Park, bought some extra tubes and brake pads at Liberty Bicycle on 9th Avenue, and ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant before Phil realized he had another flat on the same tire.  After picking out more glass and fixing that tire, he went to get tire liners at another bike shop down the street (47th St and 9th Ave) while I had an ice-cream cone somewhere in between.  We then rode back to Central Park and stayed there until riding back to Queens.

Since I was going to be in town another night, I decided to check out the restaurant where my cousin Ari works.  I had asked Jeanne about it the day before, but he doesn’t work there on the weekends so I didn’t think I would get a chance to go see him.  Rym, Phil and I met Emily at Benoit, a fancy French bistro.  I talked to Ari about our bicycle trip, and he got the bartender, Paul, to give us some tips on navigating through New Jersey.  Thanks to Ari, we had an excellent experience at the restaurant.  The food was delicious, and we got some complimentary champagne, appetizers and dessert!  The evening wound down shortly after supper, and we hope to get an early start for take two in getting out of the city.