The best laid schemes of mice and men.

Saturday I had pretty much the perfect day planned. I feel like anyone who has talked to me in the last several weeks is probably very aware of my excitement over volunteering for the bike ride to Montauk. Instead of riding the 144, 100, 66, or 30 miles there, I volunteered to drive a truck and bike around the city and then drive a passenger van home. My new roommate and long-time friend Ashley came along as a fellow-volunteer.

For anyone out there who doesn't know, Montauk is the farthest tip of Long Island (here's a map of the route Manhattan to Montauk):

This was my planned schedule for the day:

2:30am Wake up
4:25am Arrive at Penn Station and help bikers load their bags in my truck
7:13am Leave for Montauk
10:30-11:00 Arrive at Montauk, eat the picnic, play in the ocean, bike ride around
1:00pm Drive passenger bus of bikers back to Manhattan, pick up my bike, return van

4:30pm Attend Lilly's wedding reception
7:00 Attend Tamara's birthday party

Here was my actual day went:
2:30am Woke up
4:15am Arrive at Penn Station and start loading my truck with bags
7;10am Volunteers biking the 60 mile route (almost all of them) leave to catch their train
7:11 Remaining volunteers realize there a major flaw in the planning and about 200 bikes are sitting in front of Penn Station waiting for us to load them unto trucks we do not have.
9:30 After loading 7 bikes into our truck already full of bags, Ashley and I take off toward Montauk, leaving about 3 volunteers with about 200 bikes and NO trucks.
10:30am I almost kill us in the Queens tunnel. After navigating a 60ish minute traffic jam, Ashley takes over driving, thank heavens! (I hate driving.)
12:30 Arrive at the Southampton Rail Road station to drop off the 7 bikes. The riders there have already been waiting for their bikes three hours. The truck with the majority of their bikes (which left an hour before us) has not yet arrived.
2:30 While driving towards Montauk, Ashley and I realize we were suppose to have LEFT Montauk an hour and a half ago. We also realize that we have been driving 4 hours. We start getting a bit goofy.
3:00 ARRIVE IN MONTAUK. We report in to the transportation desk. They do not know when or how we will be leaving but assure that they do need us. We decide to detach with love. We hand the keys to the truck over to them and decide to just enjoy the rest of the day.
3:30 We eat the picnic, bike into town, play in the ocean, bike ride taking in the lovely scenary, eat some more food. No matter how much of their picnic food we eat, we cannot get full, so we ride into town to get fish-n-chips and coconut popsicles (well, ashley has fish-n-chips because I don't eat fish and I have a coconut popsicle because ashley doesn't eat sugar, but you get the idea). The afternoon is going well, other than the fact that I am very sad to realize I will miss Lilly's reception and Tamara's birthday party. This was on consolation:
7:15 The transportation department still does not know what they need us to do. (The passenger van we are supposed to drive home apparently do not, in actuality, exist). The last train leaves at 7:37 and at 7:15 we are given the option of taking the train home or staying to have dinner with the "organizers" and being designated drivers to get them back to Manhattan. We choose option A. Ashley checks in our bikes and I get our train tickets and we are out of there.
On the train on the way home we reflect on how perfectly our day has turned out compared to everyone else's. I mean, the morning was crazy and I did miss those two major social events, but other than that things had been great! The train ride is pleasant, although much longer than expected.
11:00 Arrive at Penn Station. Our bikes are actually there! Mine is broken (the rear break had been knocked off of the handle bar and doesn't work), but is it still ride-able. We rejoice. We find our friends Christi and Jenn who did the 60 miles ride. They left Montauk two hours before we did. They are still waiting for our bikes. They report that over 100 of the 60 mile riders NEVER GOT THEIR BIKES and did not get to bike at all =(.
11:30pm Ashley and I head home, deciding to ride our bikes the 8ish miles back to our apartment. We learn later that Jen and Christi waited at Penn Station until 1am and when they left, Jen still didn't have her bike.
1:30 Arrive home, shower, discuss how thankful we are that our day worked out miraculously, go to bed.

Did this blog entry drag? Sorry. It really was an extra fun day (accept for the missed reception and b-day party). Ashley and I feel so thankful that in the midst of so much disaster our day somehow turned out practically postcard perfect. To prove my point, other miracles that happened: Ashley lost her cell phone and found it, my brakes were not working in the morning and Ashley fixed them, Ashley found my missing saline solution, and let me reiterate how miraculous it is that we never waited for our bikes.

So, all in all, a good day, although Ashley and I are re-evaluating our goal to train and go on the 60 mile ride next year.