Hangin' Out In Long Beach, NY: Preparing For A Global Expedition

Hello world!

I’m writing this at a friend’s apartment right on the oceanfront of Long Beach, New York. It’s the perfect spot to settle and unwind away from the busier neighboring Burroughs of Brooklyn and Manhattan. I’m here for the simple reason of seeing friends and a few days of relaxation before I prepare for my biggest adventure ever happening later in July.

• Later this month (July 2016), I’m leading a group of future adventurers (my nephews and nieces) along with a few friends transit style to spectacular spots in northern Michigan.

• Immediately afterwards, three lucky friends are joining me on a special road rally challenge across the Eastern half of the United States.

• THEN, I’m off to New Zealand where I will road trip through the North Island for two weeks. All of this driving will kick off the start of my Quest to the Seven Continents!

I drove here all the way from Detroit, Michigan, about ten hours or so, to prepare myself for all the driving around I’m about to do in July and especially August.

Route from Detroit, MI to Long Beach, NY.

If I can maneuver through Manhattan and Brooklyn during rush hour, I think I’ll be okay everywhere else (save for New Zealanders driving on the opposite side of the road.) I’ll deal with that part later.

Long Beach, New York

Nicknamed The City By The Sea, Long Beach is a small island stretch just south of Long Island. It’s the perfect place to getaway from the city and if you’re into the bar scene, there are tons here along with a variety of beach side restaurants to divulge in including one of my favorites, the Beach Bagel and Deli. The bars are cool but I’m more about the food, and the Beach Bagel and Deli has monster bagels and sandwiches with my name written on all of them!

I ordered the Everybody’s Gone Surfin’ specialty sandwich. It’s a chicken filet cuddled with Swiss and Munster cheese, heated up to create a hot gooey delicious mess of a sandwich. I took it back to Tim’s apartment on the beach and devoured it whole! That delicious sandwich set the tone for the rest of my enjoyable stay, where I was able to catch up with friends who lived in and around the city.

We took a train from Long Beach to the Penn Station in Manhattan to join a few fellow globetrotter who happened to be around, including Adelah and Emre, who I’ve met prior in Guatemala and Nepal, respectively. It was a night of smooth beers, nachos, and walking into random spots we had no business being in like this psychedelic trance trip going on somewhere in the Alphabet City.

Kelly, another good friend of mine who I climbed a mountain for in South Africa, also made an appearance.

I was able to convince some of them to come over to Long Beach the next day for a getaway at the beach away from all the busy. It really is a neat place to just hangout, minus avoiding the hordes of meatheads all over the main street at night. Besides that, the beach takes the cake!

The drive back home was easier than the initial drive to New York. I was able to enjoy all of my outlandish music no one else would dare listen to on blast as I drove through the Poconos of Pennsylvania.

I have a gargantuan trip coming up soon. It’s entirely custom-made to fit my adventurous, super unorthodox, and mostly unplanned style of traveling and I can’t wait to tell you all about it!