Gingko NUTS!

ROAR! While I was out riding my bike the other day I came across a gingko tree in my neighborhood. Gingko trees have been around for millions of years. The fruit smells like rancid butter but the nuts are delicious! They're a snack I've been enjoying for over 65 million years.

Here you can see the Gingko tree by the side of the road on Morgan Street. It's pretty big, I'm not sure how I missed it so many times.

Here you can see the gingko fruit on the ground. I had to free the nuts from the smelly fruit in order to cook them. My claws smelled like Dino-vomit. GROSS!

Here I am enjoying some of the nuts. After freeing the gingko nuts from their stinky shells. I roasted them in the oven and salted them. Now that's what I call a tasty snack! YUM!

From the Hole to the bowl!

Roar! Today was such a weird day. I decided to ride out to this neighborhood between Brooklyn and Queens I heard about. It's called the Hole and it is with out a doubt the worst neighborhood in New York City. It looked like an asteroid had hit this place! You can see what I mean in this satellite image:


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I couldn't believe a place like this existed here in NYC and I just had to see it with my own eyes.

This is the first street I rode down once I crossed Conduit Ave and rode down into the Hole.

There are a ton of abandoned lots that are now completely overgrown.

There were also a bunch of burned out and abandoned cars littering the streets. It was like something out of a post-apocalyptic movie.

The neighborhood is called the Hole because it's 30 feet below grade and floods every time it rains. I guess that's why a bunch of people in the area all seem to own boats. They need to get around somehow.

Of course since the Hole is 30 feet below grade that means it isn't on the septic line. So every time it floods it just turns into one big cesspool. Here you can see a puddle left over from the last time it rained. Gross!


I decided to leave my mark on this abandoned trailer in the middle of one of the overgrown fields.

After all the riding I did to and around the Hole I was bonking pretty bad. I decided I needed some serious carbs if I was going to get back home so I headed over to Spring Creek for some pasta.

Oh yeah! The Olive Garden, no better place for cheap food! Luckily, they were having their unlimited pasta bowl special so I ate my fill and kept riding.

Roar! Check out this awesome Meat Sauce 2X Combo!

After lunch I rode around Spring Creek park a bit before heading home. The original Spring Creek was right on Jamaica Bay but now it's a protected nature reserve and you can't go in. They did build a small new park by the shopping plaza with the Olive Garden that has a nice bike trail. It also appears to have the only regulation cricket pitch in New York City. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it's kept in very good condition. I doubt many people will be hitting sixers at this cricket pitch.

ROAR! I met John Kilduff!

Roar! Tonight was awesome! I went to see Let's Paint TV live at the Issue Project Room in Brooklyn. For those who don't know Let's Paint TV is an internet show where the host John Kilduff tries to do it all. Tonight he painted while running on a treadmill, blending drinks, cooking soup, playing catch, and interacting with the audience. It was totally nuts!

Here is John running on his treadmill. You can see the painting he's working on to the right and his blender is on the left. What you can't see is the live band behind him and the giant projection screen displaying all sorts of crazy psychedelic imagery. It was also some girl's birthday and she gave him a cake to blend. It exploded and cake went everywhere. I love cake!

This is the painting John did of the audience. See if you can find me!


Here is a photo of me and John. It was sure was cool to meet him. If you haven't seen it already you should check out John's show at www.letspainttv.com

ROARING at the Reservoir!

Roar! I rode out to Ridgewood Reservoir the other day. It was pretty awesome. Ridgewood Reservoir is this old decommissioned 19th century reservoir. Now it's just a nature reserve with all sorts of cool birds. It's fenced off so you can't get inside but everyone just sneaks in anyways.


Here's me hanging out in the woods by the reservoir. It's pretty rare to see unchecked growth like this in NYC. It's almost like being back in the cretaceous period. I had fun stomping around and scaring all the small mammals. "ROAR! Guess who's back guys!" There also were a ton of sassafras trees growing in the woods here. I dug up some of the smaller ones so I could make my own root beer. Should be tasty!

Here I am in front of the reservoir. It's all over grown inside and the water level is really low. You can make out one of the old pumping stations in the back.

Here is a better picture of me in front of the water. You can see all the cattails growing in along the edge of the reservoir. Mmmm... Cat tails... It's really beautiful here. I think I might come back out here sometime later in the fall and do some painting.

Or maybe I'll do a little right now.