8/28/03 Redbirds being stacked; Peter on the 3-hour tour; Columbia Graduate Social Work party on my boat:

Sometimes, even though I'm supposed to be the New Yorker Tour Guide on a boat full of Tourists, I become a bit of a tourist myself. I was giving my 3-hour tour this afternoon, on an absolutely beautiful, clear sky, sunny day. When we get to the top of the Harlem River, just about to round the northern tip of Manhattan Island, we pass the 207th street rail yard. It's a big subway train yard for the A train, but they've also been rounding up redbirds (red subway cards) here as they get decommissioned. Well today, I saw the process in progress for the first time. In front of the rail yard, a crane was picking up redbirds and stacking them on a barge. There they are, stacked.

This is a piece of New York City history in progress, right before our eyes! These "redbirds" were first used for the Worlds Fair Shuttle Service in 1964, along the stretch of track I used last night to get to the US Open on the same property. The trains are painted red because this was the first anti-graffiti tactic came up with in the early 1980's. The anti-graffiti paint happened to come in red only. These trains are a famous icon of New York City... perhaps more than the regular silver-colored trains that can be seen in other subways around the world. New York's red colored cars were uniquely New York. But, they have lived out their useful life, retiring as the subway car with the greatest distance between failure, on average, compared to every subway car built before and since! They are being barged down to the Atlantic coastline in New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, and being dumped into the Atlantic. The metal shells of these cars, there, on the ocean floor, will form artificial coral reef, and help the marine life down there. A noble second life.

Peter surprised me and came to visit me this afternoon! He had only taken my 1-hour tour, and I was delighted to share my 3-hour tour with him on such a lovely day.

He came with food.

Me in my uniform on the boat, just before passengers began loading.

I took this shot of the barge with redbirds on my second trip. I think people get a kick (or some confusion) out of the fact that I whip out a camera and begin to take pictures like them... sometimes even while still giving the tour. :) I like to keep it fresh, you know?

After the tour, Peter and I shared a dinner at Market Diner.

I was assigned to a charter this evening. This is strange because most charters have music, via a performer or a DJ, and therefore don't need (and don't want) a tour guide. But this evening's charter requested both a DJ and a Tour Guide. It was an orientation activity for an incoming freshman class at Columbia University's graduate social work program. I knew this meant a boat full of 90% females, all my age or thereabouts, all smart. So, I requested the assignment. And as I suspected, having a DJ and a Tour Guide doesn't work. Nobody was listening to me, nobody could hear me, everyone was partying, and by the end of the first hour, too drunk to remember anything anyway. So, I mentioned a few things here and there, "That's the Empire State Building." And enjoyed the ride.

These two girls gave me their e-mail addresses so I could tell them when their photo was posted here. I chatted with them for much of the trip... and got paid for it! And they became increasingly sloshed as the tour progressed, which was quite entertaining. The girl on the left is making a bit of a mousy face in this unflattering photo, but in person she was quite attractive. [She has a boyfriend].

By the end of the night, everyone wanted their photo with the man in uniform (me), and of course, how could I turn down my admiring fans. And I KNOW it's the uniform... because on this trip, there was no tour to be impressed with in the first place. So they took this photo with a bunch of their cameras, and I insisted that we get one with mine as well, so I could demonstrate, here, on my website, the silliness that can ensue if you find yourself, someday, a tour guide on Circle Line.