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By Johnny, August 27, 2010 9:30 am

My first vlog!

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By Johnny, August 1, 2010 11:31 am

Using the MapMyRide app, I was able to map the Los Angeles Critical Mass ride last night. We made 3 stops so each map represents each of those stops.

From Wilshire / Western to the Beverly Hills Courthouse

From the Beverly Hills Courthouse to Pan Pacific Park
From Pan Pacific Park to Western / Sunset

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By Johnny, July 31, 2010 6:45 pm

The last day of the trip began at the same time like it did the previous day. Early morning wake-up call. We get down by 6:30 and depart towards Niagara Falls once again. The agenda for this morning? Check out Goat Island and experience Maid of the Mist!

We got to Goat Island in no time and was greeted with an empty parking lot. What this meant was that we got to see the Horseshoe Falls with no other tourists and really up close and personal. We were so close that with the change of the wind direction, we were showered with the mist from the crests below. To enhance the beauty of the falls, a rainbow can be found circling the top to the bottom of the fall. A truly beautiful and magnificent sight.

With 15 minutes left until the bus drives off, I quickly made my way over to the Bridal Veil Fall, the smaller of the 3. It was quick jog down to the viewing deck with a bridge running over the fall.

After our viewing from the top of the falls were complete, we once again found ourselves at the Visitor’s Center and made our way to the park. We were the first tour group to get there for the Maid of the Mist attraction. Essentially Maid of the Mist is a boat ride near each of the 3 falls. They gave us plastic raincoats because it is expected that we were going to be drenched. I personally didn’t think we were going to get that wet. I was in for a big surprise.

We boarded the first boat that was out for that day and they packed it in with visitors. I luckily got to one side of the boat leaning up on a railing. As we got closer to the American and Bridal Veil Falls, you gradually got misted on and there was a constant spray of water. It wasn’t so bad. But when we made our way to the biggest fall, Horseshoe, the mist became pelting drops of rain. The next thing you know, everyone was doused in water from head to toe. Truly a refreshing feeling! Nothing like an early morning shower to cool down the already warm morning.

As we doubled back, we passed by the other two falls once again giving the other side of the boat the experience of misting from the falls. We made it back to the dock drenched. Our tour guide tells us to go check out the staircase that is located next to the American Fall. Boy was that crazy! With every step up to the side of falls and every wind blowing against you, the water mercilessly pound everything in it’s way including myself and other tourists who wanted to see the top. I got there. I got soaked!

I finally made it back down and eventually found myself at the top of the fall at the observation deck. I took a couple of pictures from way up top. That was the last time I saw Niagara Falls. We were told to get breakfast / lunch before boarding the bus. The bus ride was LONG! Crying kids, uncomfortable chairs, and people complaining about this and that was all part of this ride back. When we finally made it to New York City, I was so glad to be out of that environment. We were back in Chinatown and I had to find my way back up near Korea Town, where my hostel was booked.

I took the Train N up and got off at 28th Street. I made my way to Latham Hotel. For $120+ a night, it was located conveniently close to the Empire State building and few blocks away from Times Square. So when I got there, I dropped off my stuff in my little room and ventured out to get some dinner and explore Times Square. This “hostel” was nothing you wanted to write home about. Didn’t feel all too safe there but it did have an air conditioner which is awesome! Plus I didn’t have to share this space with anybody else. The next morning, I got breakfast at a near-by deli and waited for my shuttle to come. I made it to JFK with time to spare and enough memories to keep me occupied until I get back into work the following day. Great solo vacation!

Niagara Falls, I’m going to miss you!

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By Johnny, July 30, 2010 10:00 am

Our day began with a prompt wake up call at 5:30AM. I didn’t roll out of bed until about 6:30AM. I quickly cleared out the room and made it at the bus at the same time as the bus driver did. It was the 4th of July and the final destination to watch fireworks was going to be Niagara Falls. What better place to be for such a momentous occasion?

Little did I know, we will be spending majority of our time sitting in the bus. It was good to catch up on some reading as well as my sleep. We soon reached our first destination: Hershey’s Chocolate World.

I never knew that there was such a place that existed. The place consisted of an amusement park and a tourist center. We went to the tourist center where upon entering, you smell the distinct scent of processed cocoa and sugar. Oh manufactured chocolate heaven. Surprisingly enough, there wasn’t any admission fee. Our tour guy gave us 1 hour here. I quickly got on a “Disneyland-like” ride which basically explains with simple animatronics how chocolate is made. This was very high on the cheesy side of things. The ride eventually ends and you find yourself in the middle of the gift shop. This was the mecca of all things Hershey. From toy cars to stacks of chocolate for all your sweet tooth’s delight. I decided to curb my hunger by having some breakfast/lunch here. They had their own cafeteria in this center. I was feeling like some real breakfast but instead had some soup.

After all of that, I looked down and realized I was out of time. I quickly made my way back to the tour bus. As usual, I wasn’t the last one back. In fact there were still people taking their merry time. By the time we all returned to the bus, we were 15 minutes late. The tour guide was not happy. Nevertheless, we were on our way. But where?

Our next destination was the Corning Museum of Glass. The route that the bus driver took was primarily 2 lane roads. At times, it was scary watching him try to out pace neighboring cars for a lane. Mind you, I was just getting over the trauma of the accident. During the 3 hour drive over, the bus driver and tour guide got into it. The bus driver wanted to break but tour guide who was conscious of time did not allow that to happen. The bus driver, this big Russian dude, was whining the whole time to this smaller Chinese guy who was our tour guide. Rather uncomfortable since I was sitting next to the tour guide.

We finally arrived to Corning Museum of Glass. This was located in the middle of nowhere. It was literally the only thing in town and if you were around, you wanted to see this place. We were quickly ushered in by the tour guide who worked his magic to get us into the glass blowing demonstration that was already taking place.

The glass blowing demonstration was interesting but what was best about this experience was that the air conditioner was kicked up high. It was hot out and taking refuge from that heat was very comforting. As we finished the show, we were given an hour to check out the museums. There was one exhibit room which had glass artifacts that was used through-out the world. There was another section where it was purely interesting things about glass and it’s significance in day-to-day lives.

My favorite item there was a glass that was curved in such a way that it magnified the people that walks towards it. Very trippy when you see yourself 5x bigger. The coolest thing was definitely the glass pane that automagically frost and unfrost depending on what angle and side you were looking through. Totally awesome!

I finally forced myself away from the rest of the place to grab a quick bite for lunch. With 5 minutes left, I swallowed my lunch and quickly ran to the bus. Here I am hypocritically late. We started on our journey once again. The ride was kicked off with the tour guide making people do karaoke. He eventually got to me and I just didn’t know what to sing. So I belted out some Careless Whisper ala George Michael. It was horrible. When you’re put on the spot you can’t think of the lyrics to one of the most popular song in your arsenal. I crashed and burned! Meanwhile, all the Indian tourists was able to sing to their hearts content. This last about an hour until the tour guide put on a movie. Guess which one? One of my favorite one, Yes Man! I’ve watched it several time and haven’t gotten tired of it.

3 hours later we end up on the first of the Twin Bridges. We eventually reached the welcome center for Niagra Falls. I was finally here!! I couldn’t believe it. We entered the visitor’s center which contained the movie theater. We were given a 15 minute opportunity to go see the falls. The first and closest one was the America’s Fall. That was a thing of beauty! Never have I been in awe just watching water fall off a cliff.

I eventually was herded back in for an IMAX viewing of a movie about Niagara Falls. Again, the air conditioning was the highlight and the movie was cheesy to say the least. A general overview of the falls and the people who discovered it or fallen off of it and lived to tell.

When the movie ended, we were given about an hour to grab dinner and be back at the bus by 9:30PM so that we can be bused over to Goat Island for the best view of the fireworks. With the combination of people being late as well as crowds of cars and tour buses, we ended up not being able to go over to Goat Island. Instead we were dropped off again at the Visitor’s center. We made it 10 minutes before the fireworks show started right above the falls. It was spectacular. Overcrowded but beautiful view of colorful display of art in the sky.

It took awhile for us to gather all the people and head over to our hotel which was in Buffalo, NY. I was exhausted and easily knocked out. 2 days down 1 more to go.

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By Johnny, July 14, 2010 9:18 am

In my last post, I described my hostel experience up to the point where I was getting ready to go in and sleep. Apparently while I was out using the Internet, I had 2 roommates show up and was already sleeping. I quickly and quietly made my way to the bathroom to brush my teeth and prepare for bed. I purposely had my iPhone charged up and ready for me to drown out any noises from the night. The helped all but the 1 hour that I had it set to stop. I kept on hearing all sorts of noise coming from the street. From emergency sirens, cars honking and revving away, people yelling in the streets, and the heat in the room, I had a very restless night.

So when 6AM rolled around, I quickly hopped out of my bed, got cleaned up, and gathered all my stuff and bolted out of my room. Everyone was still asleep.

It was refreshing walking through the streets of NYC with a few people around. I walked the 1.2 mile to my destination in Chinatown. I eventually found my tour bus and had some breakfast Chinese food style (bbq pork bao and fresh squeezed soy bean milk). Lucky for me, I was assigned a seat right up front with the tour guide.

We left Chinatown with a partial full bus towards New Jersey to pick up the rest of the people at 8:05AM. Our tour guide was very energetic and knew what to point out to us as we pass it. Strangely enough, I’ve seen more sports stadium in one day than I ever want to. I must digress, our first stop for the day was in Philadelphia, PA. There we had the opportunity to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. The line to go into to see the bell was way too long for the 30 minute allotted time the tour guide gave us. Instead we got to peak in from the side window.

The courtyard was teeming with tourists given the fact that it was 4th of July weekend. I got to go into the Old Courthouse and walked by the 1st Library that Benjamin Franklin founded. The cobblestone streets gave it a touch of historical reference.

We eventually made it over to Washington D.C. and was greeted by the MLB’s Washington National’s ball park and the view of Capital building. Our tour guided scheduled a boat tour of the Ptomac River. The captain of the boat gave us brief facts about Washington D.C. as we cruised through the warm and windy harbor. Highlights included Reagan Airport, the Washington monument, and the Pentagon.

One hour later, we boarded our bus again and made it to the Smithsonian Airspace Museum. The tour guide said the place was only 2 stories tall. It was a huge 2 story. I didn’t get to see everything that wanted to or dive deeper on some of the exhibits. I was actually late to get back to the bus and had to jog towards the Capital reflection lake where the rest of the group was.

We took a brief ride over to the next stop; the White House. No, we didn’t go in to see. Instead we hung outside the front for a glimpse of our nation’s capital. Throughout Washington D.C. (as well as everywhere else) they were preparing for the 4th of July celebration. At the same location we saw the Nation’s Christmas tree. Again, Washington’s Monument was prevalent throughout our tour around the area.

Our next stop was Jefferson’s Monument. This was an impressive building for the author of the Declaration of Independence. Jefferson was my favorite President when I was learning history back in grade school. The power of his written words moved the creation of our great nation.

As we made our way towards the Lincoln Monument, something unfortunate happened. We got into a car accident. I was prepping post cards and looking at my iPhone at the moment. I look up to see a SUV pull right in front of our path. The bus driver swerved left but it was too late and we smacked right into the SUV. Luckily for the sheer size of the bus, nobody was seriously injured. One lady was complaining about back pains but other than that we were all fine. It took about 2 hours to clear up the mess. By the time we got to the Lincoln Monument, it was dusk and there was an especially large population of students from schools scattered throughout the steps up to the monument. This was the most impressive monument I’ve seen.

Ironically enough we never stopped to see the Washington Monument. Like I said before, it was prevalent throughout our stay at Washington D.C. so we weren’t missing out too much. Our tour guide said there’s usually a line in the morning to go up the monument. The elevator only fits 7 passenger at a time since it narrows out at the top. He also pointed out the two shade of color. The reason is that when they first built this monument, the Civil War broke out. So they ran out of funds since it all went into the war. When the war ended the completed the monument. Unfortunately, they couldn’t find the right material after the war. That is why you see 2 different material or shading of the monument when you’re up close.

Our day concluded about 10PM when we reached our hotel outside of Washington D.C. I ended my day with a meal in my room and just passed out on my bed. We were told that the wake up call was at 5:30AM. One day down and 2 to go!

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By Johnny, July 2, 2010 8:22 pm

So I’m in New York City, it’ s 10:30PM EST and I’m blogging from the lounge area of the hostel I am staying at. After a grueling week of training, I can finally take the next few days to relax. My first experience of living in a hostel is somewhat interesting. I’ve been told to be very careful and watch my back. Folks also told me they got scabies staying over a 1 star hostel in Europe. Obviously, anxiety would be a perfect description of what I am feeling right now.

I check in here at 3:30PM. After multiple attempts to open my door since the card reader did not seem to want to work, I finally got into my room. The bed that was suppose to be mine was already occupied so I took the only available bed which was a creaky top bunk. The bed is smaller than a twin size and feels very unstable. There are lockers in the room which I brought a padlock to lock up my valuables. I spent some time to plan out my route for tomorrow’s bus tour departure. This was capped of with a brief walking tour in the city. Didn’t go anywhere in particular but got a baguette for dinner. I come back to an empty room and jumped into the shower. During this time I hear one of my roommate come back. He’s from Austria and is on his way to Florida and then eventually to California.

He tells me he’s going to be taking a nap and then go out to explore the city later. I climbed up to my bunk directly above his and was on my computer. Another couple comes in and they introduce themselves to me. Forgot where they were from but they took a quick power nap as I dozed away as well.

I wake up to the Austrian leaving and then the couple leaving as well to explore the night of New York City. I made it down and now I’m here blogging. People have been generally nice. Did I mention that I’m in my pajamas?

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By Johnny, June 11, 2010 12:14 am

Here’s a video of the ride. I can’t wait to take part in this! If you haven’t done so, click on the link to the right to help fight arthritis and guarantee me a spot on the ride. >>>

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By Johnny, May 9, 2010 11:25 pm

Believe it or not I participated in my first Critical Mass ride last month on April 30th. I’ve been wanting to take part of this phenomenon every last Friday of the month. So at the end of last month, I was hell bent on making sure it was going to happen.

Initially my sister’s fiancé was going to join but he could not make it. I convinced another co-worker of mine to join. He hasn’t been on a bike for 3 years. I even offered to take his bike in for repairs since I couldn’t figure out how to mount his rear wheels with disc brakes. Here’s a photo of my rig hauling in his.

Luckily he was able to get his ride back on Friday to join me. I was planning on going with or without him. We hopped on the Red line down to Vermont & Wilshire station. From there we got on our bikes and pedaled towards Wilshire & Western. I had a few friends who was meeting for drinks before the ride. Funny thing is the only way these “friends” correspond with me is only through Twitter. I wasn’t able to get an address or even their real phone numbers for that matter. So my co-worker and I made our way to Wilshire / Western where a huge crowd was gathering.

We waited for about 15 minutes at the location while countless numbers of cyclists kept on piling into the northeast corner of the intersection. You can feel the electricity of the crowd who grew more anxious as the minutes ticked down to the 7:30PM departure time. Like clockwork, 7:30 came and the crowd of hundreds of cyclists overtook the intersection and started down the South on Western. That was the last point of reference that I could remember on the ride until we reached about Chinatown later in the evening. I was completely overwhelmed by the amount of bicycles that was on the streets. It kept me from thinking or wondering where the heck I was. I knew in order not to get lost, I had to keep up with the “pack”. I also kept on thinking how drivers were perceiving us. We got lots of supporting honks and woohoo early on the ride but towards the end, I thought there were honks of disdain (it could just be me worrying about what others perceived). I also kept a conscious effort of not being at the end of the pack or at the side. I made sure my buddy knew the same rules of survival.

The route that was taken took us through parts of Los Angeles neighborhoods that I definitely would never find myself riding at that time of night by myself. We were flying through the infamous Skid Row where transients were hooting and hollering at us. We eventually made it through one of those iconic bridges that you see in such films like “Training Day”. Amazingly enough, I bumped into @danceralamode right before the bridge. We chatted while we climbed pass the fixie kids who were struggling up the bridge. We even saw a wedding photo shoot in progress on the bridge. Of all the nights and all the bridges, their photo shoot was interrupted by a Critical Mass ride. The descend down the bridge was brisk and we found ourselves in the city of Boyle Heights. That’s where the events of the night took a negative turn.

Let’s just say a motorist and some cyclists got acquainted. I didn’t get any details of what happened but I made sure I was not anywhere near. Around that time, I run into @jeremy310 and lost @danceralamode in the shuffle. We reconnected just in time before the mass made their way down the street and in a park. From there I lost all my twitter pals and my co-worker. After a few calls I reconnected with my co-worker. We held our position at the park for about 30 minutes before the ride started up again. And just like that, the events from about an hour ago was a thing of the past. The swarm made their way through USC medical center and eventually through Union Station and into Chinatown like I mentioned earlier.

You could tell that some folks were getting tired. The crowd started to thin out as I presumed some people dropped out to rest or go on their own merry way home. We darted through Chinatown into downtown LA. Eventually we made it into Echo Park onto Sunset. On Sunset, we encountered furious head-wind and a tedious uphill climb into Hollywood. From there the group was thinning out. Only the few fixie riders kept up while others slowly paced themselves through the street. Even though I was starved, I kept my pace with the head of the pack. We finally reached Sunset and Western where the ride ended. From there I reconnected with @danceralamode. I waited for my co-worker but got a call from him that he was about 2-3 miles behind and was going to jump on the train home. I completely understood. Being on his first ride in years and have him ride 20+ miles in a night is too much to ask for. We bid farewell.

After a few back-and-forth cellphone conversations, @danceralamode got a hold of her friend. As it turns out, it was @GraphikDeziner who I’ve been following on Twitter but finally got to finally meet her in person for the first time that night. She had a friend join her and the 4 of us made our way to Dennys for some after-ride-grubbing while the remaining massers started on the People’s Ride. I enjoyed the company and meal while I kept an eye on the time to make sure I don’t miss the last train home. We eventually went our separate ways. I was lucky to catch the last Gold Line train home and strolled home with 39 miles of riding that day. I forgot to mentioned I had to rode back from Montrose into work that morning after a doctor’s appointment so I was beat!

It is so refreshing to have these adventures in my life. I wouldn’t want to trade this for anything.

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By Johnny, May 5, 2010 12:11 am

I unofficially kicked off my fundraising campaign for the California Coast Classic ride. I decided to look through my Gmail contacts and come up with the names of friends who maybe able to help. After 125 emails later, not even one donated to the cause. I did get an email from Tammy who said she will be donating pretty soon.

Hopefully my second group of people, co-workers, will fill this void. The good part about these folks is that our company has 100% match after $25 donation. I’m hoping to see if I can at least raise a few hundreds with these folks. My next approach is to do a letter writing campaign to the businesses that I frequent and see if they can contribute. Other ideas that is in the works is a fundraising party in which Ron has graciously offered to brew some beer for. I was also offered a fundraising ride with the help of The Flying Pigeon LA guys. I’m also thinking about jumping in the Facebook world and get contributions from people I haven’t talked to on a regular basis. Yes I’m that desperate to be thinking about breaking my silence and joining the Facebook masses.

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By Johnny, April 16, 2010 4:41 pm

One of the items on my bucket list is to ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles on a bicycle. I was planning on participating on the ever-popular AIDS/Lifecycle ride but that normally takes place earlier in the year. This pretty much gives me 2 month’s time to raise $3,000. Yup. Not gonna happen. So instead I found another ride for the Arthritis Foundation called the California Coast Classic. This will start and end at the same location and I also have to raise $3,000 to participate. Fortunately, the ride will take place from September 25th to October 2nd. This will give me plenty time to fundraise. I’ve included a donation progress meter to the right of this post to track my progress. >>>>>>>>>

Please help me reach my goal by donating or if you like, join me on this great adventure! If I know you personally, I’ll be asking you soon. The next task is to learn more about the organization so I can sound half-way knowledgable about who I’m helping here. Big plans are yet to come for this so I’ll keep ya’ll posted here.