Tuesday of last week, my wife was driving in Manhattan, and a driver of another car rear-ended her and wrecked her car. It's a total loss. My wife is just fine. The police had a tow truck bring the car to a garage in East Harlem. On Friday, I put panniers on my Volpe and attached a big milk crate to the rear rack. I rode to the garage to pick up whatever things we needed from the car while it waits for an appraisal and a trip to the junk yard. From there, I went to work in the Bronx. Total miles was 14 as usual, but the route was totally different from my normal route. The bike was heavily loaded, and it was top heavy, so I had to balance in very carefully. The load slowed me a little but not much, and I was perfectly comfortable. The weather was lovely.

Here is the route I took. The car was a 1998 Honda Civic DX hatchback with 240,000 miles on it. It served us well for many years.

Wrecked car:



Laden bicycle:





Path along the Harlem River (between Manhattan and the Bronx).