My Journey to See Bill Clinton

Did I mention I shook Bill Clinton’s hand on Wednesday? It was quite an event but the journey there makes for a great scooter story! Here it is:

It’s 3pm on a Wednesday. You are sitting in a downtown Manhattan office and a friend of yours calls to say that he has gotten you 2 tickets to see Bill Clinton speak tonight in Jersey City. The event starts at 7:30 but you must be there by 5:30/6PM to go through security checks. To complicate matters more, you must pick up the tickets in Bayonne and get changed before going. To complicate matters even more, you want to take your friend with you who also works in downtown Manhattan and also must get home (to Jersey City) to change before going. What do you do?

Well, if you own a car and drive in, you are screwed. Traffic leaving the Holland Tunnel starts at 3pm, and peaks between 4-6PM. You can’t even leave until 4pm otherwise your boss will have a fit.

If you took a train in your are screwed. Even though both you and your friend can take the same line to get to your houses, it will still take about an hour to get there, and then you will have to switch off to a car to make the trip back into Jersey City and there is sure to be lots of traffic even locally that time of day.

So how is it possible to leave Soho at 4PM, pick up your friend in the West Village, drop him off in Jersey City, get to downtown Bayonne, pick up tickets, go to uptown Bayonne, get changed, go back to Jersey City to pick up your friend and then get across town to where the event is being held and make it by 6PM? To be sure, the distance is not great, only about 16 miles in total; but we are talking about the busiest time of day in one of the heaviest trafficked regions in America. IT could take a car 2 hours just to get through the Holland Tunnel at 4pm on a weekday. There is only one way to do all of this in 2 hours or less my friends and it is called a scooter. (click on the map to see destination points)

Here is my timeline:

4PM leave work and go hop on scooter, which is parked on the corner of Thompson & Broome. I make an illegal right on red as I am in a hurry (in NJ it is legal, in NY is illegal). Just as I am doing so an undercover cop hits his horn. Before I can even turn around I see THIS GUY

from Law and Order to my left. Then I turn around behind me to see the undercover cop in the sedan get on the mic and say “you gotta wait like everyone else does”. It’s all too surreal for me, are they cops or are they actors? Light changes I go, after all I am a man on a mission.

4:05PM arrive at W. Houston & Washington and pick up Andrew.

4:10PM hit the Holland Tunnel traffic which is heavy. I skip past the long line on Varick and duck right in to the tunnel traffic at Broome.

4:25PM drop Andrew off at his place at Communipaw & Monitor in Jersey City

4:45PM get tickets at 18^th & Broadway in Bayonne

5PM get to my house at 53^rd & Kennedy Blvd in Bayonne, get changed into suit and get back on bike

5:25PM leave my house

5:45PM arrive at Andrews place at Communipaw & Monitor in Jersey City I wait about 5 minutes for him to come down, he hops on and we go.

6PM we arrive at Lincoln Park in Jersey City at the South West Gate. The place we are going is called Casino-in-the-Park and is in the middle of the park. The cop directs us to the North East Gate. The cop THERE tells us to go back where we came, which I am not having any part of, instead he says to try the East Gate at West Side Avenue & Belmont.

6:10PM We arrive at the East gate, which is obviously where the main entrance was. Security is HEAVY and parking is nonexistent. A good amount of people got there early and filled the event parking lot. Cops are directing everyone in front of us towards the park perimeter and side streets for parking unless they are a VIP. We pull us and the cop just looks at me and say “You can fit that thing anywhere, just go on through”. We get stopped at 3 or 4 more check points as we approach the restaurant. At one check point a JCPD Sergeant is just in love with the bike and stops us to chit chat before sending us through right to the front door. We parked right next to the place, walked in and got a primo position in front of the stage. Check out the pics here.

Comments

[Jeramiah]

Nothing like seeing Mr. Bill. What a nice scooter story. What a great time I bet. I would love to go see that guy talk. Went to a John Kerry Rally once. But that was nothing compared to hearing Mr. Bill speak.

[Lisa Escaloni]

I got to shake Gov. Bill's hand when I was teleprompting a big debate with the Dem candidates in 1992. What charisma that man had and still has! I won't go into detail about his effect on women, but had I known all it took was a flash of thong, I might have tried that. Seriously, good scooter story, and thanks for the picture link. Since the Clintons live in NY you New Yawkers get to see more of him than we do here in Texas. Don't assume Texas is ALL Bush country because it's not. We're a purple state.

[Jonathan, Vespaway]

Awesome account, Neil. Events like this remind us why Piaggio put a clock next to the speedometer. It's never too late! J.O.

[Steve Rubel]

That's awesome Neil. You could have even stopped for some cheesburgers to bring him.

[Allen D.]

Neil:

Great Clinton story!

I'm considering buying my first Vespa, and would greatly appreciate your and other readers' insights into 1) the challenges and rewards of parking a scooter in NYC (I live in Gramercy Park and work in the Lipstick Building at 3rd Ave and 53rd, FYI); 2) the risk of Vespa theft, and what to do to reduce same; 3) what to do during the coldest months (are Vespas safe in extreme cold, and, if not, do you know what folks in the area do to take care of their bikes?); and 4) your experiences navigating traffic in Manhattan, e.g., how many near-death experiences have you had or heard about?

Thanks so much for your thoughts.

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