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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, March 18, 2009 3:32 pm

It’s Your Ride from Cinecycle on Vimeo

A beautiful film which not only advertises the Hutchinson brand but inspires myself to get out there and just ride. Most folks like the messenger riding through aggressive NYC but I enjoy the girl’s casual stroll on a Schwinn Sid. I’m so glad I’m riding today!

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By Johnny, May 7, 2008 10:39 pm

No time to post a detail rant but here are the photos. We made it back a week ago and was delayed once again.

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By Johnny, December 3, 2005 7:37 pm

This cult classic movie was on Spike TV today. I remember the first time watching this as a kid and was blown away by the sheer violence and a similar story to alot of the action video games that was made since the 80s. For those who haven’t seen this movie, the Warriors are framed for the killing of a gang leader with other gangs looking out to kill them as they travel through New York City to reach their turf in Coney Island. Even after 25 years, this movie is still great! I’m not the only who thinks this movie is worth a look. They’re remaking the movie, the video game was recently released, and even action figures are seen through-out the Internet. Go Warriors!