Today I am in New York City. I arrived here last Wednesday evening.
The company I work for, AdaCore, is what I call a "nano multinational". The customers are all over the world, and the employees too, in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia.
So, every year, everybody gathers at the end of August in a big hotel, either in France or on the east coast of the USA. This year, the Summer Gathering takes place in Long Island, starting tomorrow for three days.
For more than ten years now, almost every year, a bike ride has been organized for 2 or 3 days before the Summer Gathering. I am not a biker, but I have been helping for many bike rides driving the support van.
Biking in the City
The main goal of these bike rides is to do something together and to meet in a non working situation. Of course, as most of us are nerds, we still discuss working stuff from time to time.
We went to get the support van on Thursday evening with Ed, the bike ride organizer, and we went through the route that I was going to follow the next two days. We checked that everything was OK at the motel where we were going to stay Thursday night, and made a reservation for Thursday dinner at a restaurant nearby.
Back in New York City, we went to the bike shop to get the bicycles with most of the riders.
At the Bike Shop
As not everybody was there, we put five bicycles in the van and stored all the bikes at the office on 30th Street for the night.
Thursday morning, everybody gathers at the office at 9AM. The bikers took the subway line 1 North to the last station near Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. I met them with the van and they left, taking a bike trail that was previously a local railway, the New York and Putnam Railroad, familiarly know as "Old Put".
Old Put Map
I met the bikers in the middle of the bike trail in Elmsford, where they were able to get supplies such as water, Gatorade, dried fruits or energy bars.
Getting Supplies
I met them again in Yorktown Heights at the end of the bike trail. There, we had lunch.
As we realized that it was already 3PM and not everybody would be able to be at the motel on time for the dinner at 7:30PM, we went to the Peekskill train station to find taxis.
Nine bikers decide to continue biking all the way, the other nine put their bikes in the van and took two Uber cars to the motel in Central Valley.
The bikers made it almost on time and we had a nice dinner.
Dinner in Central Valley
On Friday at 9AM, the bikers started going back to New York City, on the west bank of the Hudson River, mostly on the New York State Bike Route 9.
I followed them in the van. Three of the bikers were either injured or too tired to follow, so they came in the van with their bike.
As it was hot, the bikers drank a lot of water.
Distributing Water to the Bikers
For lunch, we went to a nice deli in Nyack, where I was able to get a very good vegan "Tofu 'Naan'Wich".
Deli in Nyack
I stopped to follow the bikers just before they cross the Hudson River on the George Washington Bridge, with two bikers and their bikes in the van, and we went back to the bike shop. I waited for the other sixteen bikers, that went for a small tour in Central Park. They arrived at the bike shop around 5:30PM. From the van, they took back their small luggages, and with Ed, we went back to return the van at the rental place.
Everybody was happy for another successful bike ride. I am getting old, and at some point I will stop working for AdaCore, so it is probably the last bike ride I participate in.
This afternoon, we will take a bus to the hotel in Long Island for the Summer Gathering with all the people working for AdaCore.