Friday July 4 49th day, no riding

Today we went to Coney Island to see, or at least be near, the World Hot Dog eating championships. The crowd was not large, but it was enough that we could not actually see the contest from the limited space in front of the stage so while the contest was being contested, we were buying and eating some of Nathan's Famous Hot Dogs at the back of the venue. For your information and edification be assured that Nathan's Famous and World's Best hot dogs are about as good as any other ordinary hot dog you might encounter wrapped in a corn meal blanket at the Safeway deli. The show however had its appeal, matching as it did the former, and 6 years Champion, a Japanese guy name Tobayashi, with last year's winner Joey Chestnut. As you may have seen reported on Sports Center, the favorites tied in the regulation ten minutes, consuming 59 hot dogs each. This itself was a first time occurrence and the MC simply decided on an eat off in which the first one to consume 5 more dogs would be the winner. To the delight of the locals and the dismay of a gaggle of Japanese visitors, Joey came through. Afterwards we managed some face time with some of the judges. Tobayashi is the man who moved the sport from winning results in the 30's to the 50's and 60's so he is a big time guy in this field.

Over the remainder of the day we strolled the board walk, and Times Square and at night went to Jill's office to catch the fireworks. Thus was past our Fourth of July.

In the previous entry I wrote of the color of Jamaica Ave where I first really got into the City. I forgot to mention two sights in particular, one a guy doing chin ups on a traffic light that stood on a street corner and the other a guy driving a truck with his left leg raised and pushed out his door window in either an effort to be cool or to avoid being hot, or perhaps both.

From time to time, as we walk about I tune my iPod to Billy Joel's New York State of Mind.

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