Yesterday I reprised the late-afternoon ride I took two days before: a 72 km (45 mile) round trip from my apartment to Fort Totten and back.
The air was a bit chillier, but brighter, than on my previous ride. Perhaps that accounted for my seeing fewer cyclists, though I encountered more bundled-up people with their dogs along the waterfront path that winds under the Throgs Neck Bridge. But the biggest difference--for me, anyway--was that I started a bit later. You might say that I was playing chicken with dusk: I got to my apartment in under some of the last flickerings of twilight.
The return leg brought me to the Connector between Randall's Island and the Bronx. It runs underneath the viaduct that ushers Amtrak trains toward Manhattan and Penn Station. There, I was treated to an early glow of sunset:
That light proved irresistible to me: I slowed down and, of course, stopped to take pictures, even at the risk of ending my ride in the dark--which wouldn't have been the worst thing, as I'd brought lights.
Later, I relished the irony of feeling as if I'd entered a cathedral while pedaling under a viaduct that continues from the Hell Gate Bridge.