Walk #32

walk32pic.jpg7 March 2005
3:42 pm to 4:42 pm
Heads: 48
Tails: 40
Total intersections: 28
Ending point: Rockefeller Park (no street address, but just west of 22 River Terrace)
Latitude/longitude: 40:43.01.62N/74:00.58.36W
Distance from home: 0.6510 miles
Literature received: None
Coin: 1985 quarter (P)

The world was thawing out sooner than expected: New Yorkers on the street were all wearing coats that were unexpectedly too warm, and looking a little sweaty.

I headed down John Street, up to Fulton Street, past the NYU satellite campus, and over to the Brooklyn Bridge. I could see the dying sunlight dancing over Tribeca rooftops to the west, but having a specific destination in mind wasn’t very useful when a coin controlled my path.

Chinese guy in surgical scrubs, happily talking on his cellphone: “Definitely! Ah, you’re going to miss the science-fiction convention.”

I walked around in circles, threading through and around City Hall Park, and then lurched west, all the way to the West Side Highway. Strolling south between the highway and the Hudson River, I passed through Rockefeller Park. On warmer days, this is where I’d come to read the newspaper on a Sunday morning, or where I’d begin a bicycle ride up to the George Washington Bridge. On this day, I enjoyed the fading sunshine and watched kids on the playground hurling basketballs. Some even managed to get it in the general direction of the hoop.

“Good shot,” said one kid.

“It didn’t go in,” replied the kid who had thrown the ball.