They Gave it in a Bottle

             Looking for a shortcut to the Cross Bronx Expressway, I came up with the idea of cutting through the Zerega Industrial Business Zone. The area has historically catered to scrap yards, small factories, mechanic shops, and depots. One wouldn't see any type of eatery or even a candy store within many blocks, which I always found strange because it would seem to be a good idea to have a place to serve food to the many hungry surrounding stomachs. While driving down the block my eyes popped open at the sight  that a diner was having a grand opening. The name of the establishment is Ralph's Diner. It just seemed so out of place among the many blocks of parked trucks and junk yards, but the bold idea forced me to return a few days later to try it out.

              Parking on the street could be quite tough as the spaces fill rather quickly with the many workers nearby, but luckily Ralph's Diner offers a spacious lot. There was only one car in the parking lot when I arrived and the Grand Opening signs were still up, so I wasn't sure if it was a case that they were open for business or they were just setting up for the opening. The front door was held open, so I took it as a gesture that they were serving customers. I slowly walked in to scan the inside, and I found that the place was completely empty. When looking forward again, I saw the salad bar was fully stocked and there were two pots of coffee on, so it appeared they indeed were open for business. Finally, I saw some humans; one was a Chinese guy who appeared to be the owner or a manager, and the other was a Chinese lady who was dressed as a waitress. This sent off alarm bells in my mind as usually Greek people have a handle of this type of business, I had never seen a Chinese-run diner before. The concern I had would be the same as if a Greek person was going to make me a small chicken lo mein.

             With the inside totally empty it would've been a little silly to ask for a table, so I just sat up at the long counter. The guy noticed I was staying, so he took the remote control and turned on the two flat-screen televisions that are perched over the counter. The menu options were very ordinary for a diner and didn't list anything unique from the rest of the pack. When judging a diner, there's three important factors that determine if it will make it or not: breakfast, cheeseburger, and coffee. The time of the day was in between breakfast and lunch, and since coffee doesn't go well with a burger, the best way to at least sample two of the three requirements would be to order breakfast and coffee. I selected the french toast with blueberry (compote) topping and a cup of coffee. Interestingly enough, unlike most other diners, they actually heated the blueberry compote instead of serving it cold, and I found it to be a delightful idea. Another pleasant surprise was when the waitress brought out the syrup; it wasn't in the small Smuckers packages that you peel open, it wasn't in the glass jar dispenser you open with your thumb, it was in a regular syrup bottle that you would buy in your friendly neighborhood supermarket and use at home. The heating of the compote would've been worth the trip alone, but then having the syrup in the "home" bottle certainly put it over the top.

               While I was there for thirty minutes with my breakfast and my refill of coffee, no one else happened to venture in. Most of the time the waitress just looked out the window while the guy hurried around doing small errands. I wondered perhaps if the two of them were married or related somehow. Around the time I was done I saw a few more employees come out from the back. It seemed they were doing some other type of work as they certainly weren't needed to handle the large crowd of just me. The inside is done up nice, there's plenty of room, the flat-screen television sets, the breakfast was good, as was the coffee. It seems all the ingredients are there for a successful franchise, its just a matter whether the local workers will use it for breakfast, coffee breaks, and lunch. Foot traffic is also important for any business and there's no reason for people to really be walking around there unless they work in the area, so Ralph's Diner certainly has that fact of life not in their favor.

              They're just going to have to hope many other people are looking for shortcuts to the Cross Bronx Expressway with an empty stomach....

Orchard Beach Rock Climbing Expedition

         
             Monday brought the first glimpse of summer as temperatures reached the low 80's for the first time this year. Knowing what the temperature was going to be ahead of time, I was looking forward to a day spent in the sand reading a book and soaking in the sun. Although there was no swimming allowed since there's no lifeguards on duty until Memorial Day, and the water is still probably too cold to swim in to begin with, it was still a day worthy enough to be spent at the beach.

             I packed a lounge chair, sunscreen, a book, and picked up a quesadilla with a water bottle and made my way over to Orchard Beach. Since its not summer season yet, parking was free, and there were a great many deal of cars in the parking lot since it was such a nice day. When I arrived at the beach area I noticed there were about a hundred or so people on the sand already as if it was a normal summer day. A few people were in the water up to their ankles, but no one was fully swimming, except for a few rogues far off at the end of the beach who were out of sight of the one police jeep on patrol. I downed my black bean quesadilla rather quickly and dove into my book shortly thereafter. As I gave my eyes a break every now and then, I recalled an previous experience at this beach months earlier where a encountered an unexpected rocky terrain. It was several months earlier when I was at this beach and I walked over to the very far left end. I was always curious of what lied ahead beyond that part of the beach, so I checked it out one day and discovered large boulders of land that people were sunbathing on and fishing off of.

             The sun was beaming down on me and I was without an umbrella at the beach, so between that and needing something to rest my reading eyes with, I decided to head over to those rocks again. With the tied down low, water had exposed more of the rocky beach front, and slippery algae had formed against the large boulders When I saw the green matter, I thought of it nothing more than sea weed, so I stepped on it. As soon as my foot made contact, I almost fell down immediately. I wanted to keep going, but these rocks were proving to be slipperier than ice. What I needed was time to regroup, so instead of worrying about how slippery the rocks were, I took a minute to focus on a pair of ducks which happened to be swimming by at the time. Then when I was ready, I slowly maneuvered from one small rock to the next, to the next, to the next, until I was able to get up onto one of the higher boulders which was way above water level and without slippery algae. Once I reached that peak I saw that there were about a dozen other people around; some were fishing, some where taking pictures, and some were even sunbathing like I had seen months earlier there.

             After getting to the high-point of the rocks, the rest of the walking is far easier, but one still must be careful not to fall down and possibly face a serious injury. I walked along the rocks until I was brought to a small hiking trail which lies in the Orchard Beach area as well. I took up on the trail, not knowing what I would encounter, and for the most part everything seemed like the typical wooded trail one would expect. The only difference with the trail is that every now and then some weird guy would pop out of nowhere and look at you as if you didn't belong there. As I was walking on the trail I was able to see the beachfront area again up ahead, so instead of continuing and possibly bump into some sinister group burying a body or something, I went for a trail lane that exited back to the beach. It was nice to see that nobody stole my book or my lounge chair when I returned to the area I set up on the sand, and I went on to do a little more reading. In total I was there for probably about three before I made my way back home.

            Although I was happy I didn't fall off any of the algae covered rocks, I was even more happier to escape the hiking trail of weirdos.......

Special Video Edition: A Ride Through Pelham Bay Park

                                          
                                           Pump some air in the tires and get ready for a ride!

                                         CLICK HERE to be brought to YouTube to watch video.

                                        Special thanks to Casey and the crew of CIII Productions!!

An Afternoon at the Bronx Zoo

            It had been quite some time since I last been to the Bronx Zoo, so one afternoon I wanted to check it out to see if there was anything new. I've been there a countless number of times, and even if I'm familiar with most the animals and exhibits there already, I can never get tired of the zoo.

            Instead of driving and worrying about parking or possible break-ins, surrounding neighborhood not all terrific, I decided to take the Bx12 bus which would only be a 15 minute ride. The prices have gone up drastically, I believe it was around $24 for an adult. Granted the zoo does offer entrance for free on Wednesdays, but I had my mind set on it that day and didn't feel like waiting any further. Plus, since its free on Wednesdays, that's when there are the more chances of getting class trips and other large groups which makes for a less enjoyable experience. As soon as I entered there were free roaming peacocks walking around. For whatever reason, the zoo allows them to walk around with all the visitors. A few years I remember I was sitting at an outdoor cafe the zoo has and fed one a piece of pizza crust. More recently I saw in the news that one of the peacocks had left the zoo somehow and had gotten about a half a mile away before being captured.

            I made sure to see the seals which occupy the large pool-like structure in the front past the great lawn they have. Afterwards, I visited alot of the usual places; the reptile house, the dark house, the bird house, the rain forest, tiger mountain, the African plains, the mouse house, the monkey house, and a newer one they opened recently for Madagascar. I also tried the Butterfly Garden, which cost an extra $3, and you can walked around inside this greenhouse structure and has butterflies all around. In addition, there's also a room on display in which you can see them being bred and transforming from cocoon to butterfly. In the reptile house I saw Mia the Cobra, who made worldwide headline news earlier in the year of being an escapee, even though she never got outside the reptile house itself and posed no real threat to the public.

           The monkey house was humorous, but there's not much lighting and the monkeys never sit still, so it was difficult to take any decent pictures. Same with the mouse house and naturally the dark house. What was lightened up nicely and a good viewing experience was the bird house. There were birds flying around all over which made for excellent picture taking opportunities. It would have been ideal to get some good tiger pictures, but there's always large crowds taking up the good spots and I didn't have the patience to keep waiting. The polar bear was quite underwhelming with his back turned to the crowd and sleeping, but the activity of the brown bears play flighting in the water made up for it. I did a great deal of walking and saw most of the exhibits, but as the afternoon was coming to a close, some of the houses started to close and I wasn't able to visit the gorilla congo or JungleWorld. I probably should've gotten to the zoo in the morning to make sure I would have chance to see everything, but I can always go again some other day.

           After the zoo I walked a few blocks away to the Arthur Avenue section, which has become a tourist attraction for its row of Italian resturants and shops like bakeries, butchers, fresh pasta, etc. I was in the mood for clams so I settled upon Umberto's, an extension of the more infamous location in the Little Italy section of Manhattan. I had my clams as an appetizer and moved onto linguine in clam sause as the main dish. For dessert I ventured around the corner to one of the sit-in bakeries and had a slice of strawberry shortcake and a cup of coffee. Usually a slice of cheesecake would be my dessert of choice in that situation, but the presentation of the strawberry shortcake looked too good to pass up.

           I wanted to take a picture of my piece of cake, but since alot of mobsters frequent those establishments, and the group of guys in line with the cake shot looked like good candidates, I felt it was best to not use any surveillance equipment...