I’ll continue to add pictures to the site, as well as keeping you posted on the status of the car’s permanent registration.

Today I took the car around NYC to show it off, and get one last day of driving in before the temporary plates expired.

The Holland Tunnel, heading toward NYC:

Greenwich St, looking south at the new 7 WTC:

An amused mounted officer, who said she thought she had the coolest ride in the city, until she saw my Atom:

The Empire State Building:

Macy’s department store:

An amused onlooker in front of the Empire State Building:

Apparently, the large crowd the Atom drew was creating a “security incident” by blocking the sidewalk, so I was informed I had to leave:

So I pulled the Atom over a few blocks south of Grand Central and started up again:

Times Square:

A sightseeing bus in the mirror:

More interested onlookers:

After this, I drove my car to my BMW dealership (BMW of Bayside) where productivity ground to a halt as everyone emptied out of the shop to see the Atom:

My business partner, Bob Tinkelman:

Bob’s friend Suad takes the Atom around the block:

Here’s the end, 7006 miles in 42 days. About 90 of those miles are from the factory checking the car out before I picked it up:

Tomorrow, September 12th, I’ll be making the final scheduled appearances of the trip. The public appearance is at the Empire State Building on 34th St. at approximately 1:30 to 1:50 PM. I’ll also be in various places in Queens and Westchester later on – drop me an email if you’d like the locations and times of these non-public appearances.

I spent the weekend at my friend HJ’s place in the Poconos, winding down from the trip. Here’s a picture of HJ in the Atom:

I spent an unproductive few days at the DMV office in Rio Grande. Despite having all the paperwork they said I’d need, when I showed up they said I needed another form, in original only, sent from Brammo in Oregon. Once I got that form, they said they didn’t think they could process the paperwork at that location, but that they needed to talk to someone in the main DMV office who they couldn’t locate. Rather than continue to hang around that DMV office, I decided to move along and deal with the paperwork at another office at a later date.

The trip is winding down – I’ll be heading into NJ on Tuesday via the auto ferry, and then stopping at my garage for a day or two before I bring the car to NYC for its official arrival in front of the Empire State Building. Look for a summary post after that’s done.

In the meantime, I’m in Lewes, DE and having a good time. The car has now been on beaches of both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Here’s some shots from today:

Look how small the Atom is compared to other cars in the parking lot:

The view from my hotel room’s balcony:

I posted a reminder about seeing the Atom on various car boards I frequent, and Clyde of Team WTF?! suggested I drop by the SCCA autocross at FedEx Field. Apparently he posted on some other boards that I’d be bringing the Atom, as a large crowd of folks came to see it.

Despite a number of requests for me to take the car out for a run, I declined. It turns out that my tires and my insurance both only last a month or so, and it is pretty close to the end for both of them. [I’ll be ordering new tires when I get back, and I already have a replacement insurance policy in force, but I didn’t want to tempt fate.]

I let a bunch of folks sit in it (to see if they fit comfortably). C’mon guys (and gals!), let’s get some Atom orders in!

Update: This visit was posted to the Team WTF?! site:

I drove through Washington, DC on my way to Delaware. I figured I’d see some of the sights and it would be worth the extra travel time. I was wrong.

We really should do something about it, lest we give the wrong impression to foreign tourists. The roads are in terrible shape (at least in New York City, when there’s a chunk of road missing, it is because some utility work is going on – in Washington, DC there are chasms in the road for no apparent purpose). The signage is confusing / nonexistant (who would ever put exits in tunnels and then put the labels on the exits 1/4 mile past where the road splits)? The traffic signals seem to be timed to catch you at every light. Did I mention the signage is terrible? I would up getting a scenic tour of the Union Station parking garage due to the signs.

Fortunately, all the locals were friendly and were glad to help me “get the hell out of here”.

I’m in Staunton, VA tonight and will be heading to Lewes, DE on Sunday. I’m taking advantage of some room cancellations made when the hurricane was on its way, and I have a nice suite on the beach for Sunday night and Monday night. Tuesday I’ll be heading for the car ferry and going to NJ.

The odometer currently reads 6024 miles. 

The weather here looked better this morning, being overcast but not seeming to threaten rain, so I decided to take the Atom back to the Dragon for a few more runs. Having left most of my luggage at the motel, I was less concerned with losing items while slinging the Atom around the Dragon’s curves. Here I’ve stopped to make sure everything is tied down before heading south to the Overlook:

The weather at the Dragon was great and I got some great runs in – particularly the earlier pair, before most of the traffic arrived. I managed to beat my previous best speed of [censored] by 11MPH. I’m getting good enough that I’m not being passed by anyone, and managing to catch up with some of the sport bikers in front of me.

I also found out firsthand what happens when the rear end of the Atom breaks loose. I’d been told that “the first you’ll know about it is when the rear end passes you”, but for me it just sort of hopped off the ground and skittered a few inches sideways in 3 bounces in a very controlled manner, and I stayed in my lane and exited the turn gracefully. This was doing 50+ in a hairpin indicating 15, so I’m quite pleased with the performance.

After my first run, I pulled into Ron Johnson’s portable http://www.tailofthedragon.com/ store and hung out and chatted for an hour or so. I then pulled across the street to the Deals Gap Motorcyle Resort to pick up some bottled water, adjust my tire pressures, and chat with the bike crowd:

Ron and a number of the bikers think that it is possible that the Atom can set a new record on the Dragon. Maybe Tom can bring an Atom down from Brammo and make a video of breaking the record?

This guy decided to land on the hood when I parked the car at Look Rock on the Foothills Parkway:

Here’s the Atom next to a pickup truck for a comparison of size:

Looking out to the southwest from Look Rock:

Update: My Atom made the front page at http://www.tailofthedragon.com/. There are a couple minor glitches in the copy, but given that Ron and I were talking without taking notes, I think he got most of the points:

Update 2: The Atom also made Killboy’s blog twice: