The renowned dim sum restaurant Nan Xiang Xiao Long Bao has long called Flushing, Queens home since 2006, and for almost two decades, visitors from all over would flock for authentic Shanghainese cuisine and to try some of the delicious soup dumplings. Now, people have even more opportunities to grab a quick bite with the opening of Nan Xiang Express in the Upper West Side.
The cavernous dining room at Hutong
There are fancy restaurants in New York that bring a specific cuisine to the forefront and fuse it with typical American flair [and fare], and then, there are restaurants that make you forget you’re in the city altogether. Hutong does neither of those things. You’re constantly reminded of where you are and of the melting pot that makes New York so great, and even more, you’re pushed to question every meal you’ve had and why you’ve only had it prepared that one way.
At the young age of six, William Shatner took to making people laugh, cracking jokes while onstage, and entertaining his fellow friends at a Montreal elementary school. Now over 87 years later, the legendary actor is letting people see the man behind the screen in the new documentary You Can Call Me Bill.
CityPickle is the perfect place to go instead of a bar for Dry January
Yes, you can have fun out with friends without drinking alcohol, and you can stay fit too! Join the rest of the country in playing the fastest-growing sport in the nation, pickleball, instead of going out to a bar and spending another weekend day recovering from the night before.
CityPickle, along with the sport, is growing in popularity all across the city. With its Long Island City location home to New York City’s first indoor pickleball court, you can now play pickleball all yearlong and beat the snowy and cold outdoors. CityPickle’s LIC location offers brand new, state-of-the-art nets, paddles and equipment– and sure looks way better than any tennis court or gym we’ve been. A cute “CityPickle” in subway-mosaic tile lettering adorns a large wall that catches your eye as soon as you walk in– just as there’s a bar in the back that serves up all of the non-alcoholic (and also alcoholic for those who do want to drink!) cocktails you can ask for.
Pickleball offers a social and low-impact sport that anyone can participate in
The Knockturnal recently visited the LIC flagship (a very short bike ride from the author’s native Astoria home) to celebrate CityPickle and pickleball as a perfect accompaniment to people taking on the Dry January challenge.
As the new year unfolds, many people seek out a fresh start and healthier lifestyle choices. And Dry January is no stranger to that movement, gaining much popularity as a month-long challenge that prompts poeple to reconsider their relationship with alcohol. It offers numerous health benefits, including improved sleep, enhanced mental clarity, and increased energy levels. And people love it, saying the break from alcohol gives them a reset buttton to start the year off with a clear mind.
You probably have a few friends who are attempting the challenge or you may be yourself! And oftentimes the challenge always comes down to one question: how do I hang out with friends without alcohol?
That’s a question Hilary Sheinbaum, author of The Dry Challenge and her newest book, A Journal for Bad Days, has answered countless times before, and she has plenty of advice: literally anything else.
Pickleball counts as one of those things. The Knockturnal joined Sheinbaum and several others interested in the sober-curious movement at CityPickle to play the nation’s fastest-growing sport and to have fun, all sans alcohol– and boy did we have fun.
Sheinbaum gave a speech about joining in on the Dry January challenge over four years ago, saying she and her friend were curious about it and wanted to challenge themselves– and each other. While her friend gave in during the month, Sheinbaum didn’t, and ended up participating in the Dry January again and again.
CityPickle’s Co-founders Mary Cannon and Erica Desai
With CityPickle co-founders Mary Cannon and Erica Desai expressing their gratitude for everyone trying out pickleball, and with a hands-on training on how to play and best tips, we took to the courts. A few swings later, we were professionals and ready to tackle any pickleball that passed through our court.
And seriously, let this author be a pickleball convert because it is so much fun. Having grown up going to public school in Queens where our school trips involved trips to the U.S. Open because it was just a stone’s throw away, I thought tennis was where it’s at, and wow am I so wrong.
One of the most remarkable aspects of pickleball is its inclusivity. Whether you’re a seasoned athlete or a beginner looking for a new hobby, pickleball caters to all skill levels. The rules are straightforward, and the learning curve is gentle, making it easy for anyone to pick up a paddle and enjoy the game.
Often described as a fusion of tennis, badminton, and ping pong, pickleball offers a unique blend of fun, fitness, and social interaction– and that last part is what makes me consider giving up drinking for good if it means I get to play a quick game of pickleball. You won’t see me talking much during a tennis or ping pong game (not to mention the countless sports bars in the city with inadequate ping pong tables– rest assured CityPickle has all the space you need not to feel clustered), but you will see me chatting away between points in pickleball– probably about how much of a pickleball convert I’ve become.
And the LIC location is perfectly aesthetic for those Instagram posts
It’s played in doubles and has a pretty low impact on the knees and joints– or if you’re a bit more competitive like me and the team I’ve played with, still a pretty low impact on the knees. It was super quick to learn, and that’s completely in part thanks to the great team at CityPickle walking us through the rules and making sure we understood why the rules were what they were. Most of all, it was super stress-free and relieving: it didn’t feel like I was playing a sport to get points or had too many rules to follow; instead, it was a sport I picked up quickly and enjoyed playing all night.
To keep us satiated during the gameplay, vegan dips, sliders and tacos were served as we served up aces on the court. Players could choose from a spicy guacamole, lemon and garlic hummus and a beet ricotta dip, and for something more filling, a falafel slider with a beyond perfectly acidic pickled red pepper jam, and crunchy fried cauliflower tacos.
The Gaia Elderberry syrup is part of Gisele Bündchen’s favorite smoothie flavor at Erewhon
Although we were bummed to call our games for the night, we walked out with one of the most well-designed and appealing totes I’ve seen, featuring the CityPickle logo before the strings of a paddle. In the tote was Sheinbaum’s newest book as well as a bottle of Gaia Herbs Elderberry Syrup, and Curious Elixir’s booze-free cocktails, including the cocounut pineapple painkiller and a spicy- stormy pineapple margarita. You might recognize the elderberry syrup as part of Gisele Bündchen’s favorite and new smoothie flavor that launched at Erewhon this week.
If you want to join in on the pickleball craze, have no fear since there are plenty of options to choose from. CityPickle’s other locations include a pop-up at Industry City, as well as its outdoor locations at Dilworth Park, Wollman Rink, Hudson Yards and Union Square as well as the TWA Hotel if you’re a fan of playing outdoors when the weather gets better.
There’s nothing like spending the holidays in New York– from the countless movies that are set in the city, to the even more innumerable people dressed up as Santa and holiday cheer throughout the streets, it truly is a magical time of year. And with it comes all of the winter wonderland activities, especially ice skating.
The Rebelle Rally is using green hydrogen to charge electric vehicles throughout the rally’s eight days in the wilderness
Women drivers are making their own roads in the eighth annual Rebelle Rally, where rocky uphills, sandy dunes, and chilly nights are no match for these tough ladies and their navigational skills. Now, the longest rally raid in the country is proving even electric vehicles are unrivaled by rough terrain– and the lack of power outlets.
Nearly 130 women at the helm of 64 cars made their way through eight days of rugged terrain in the open expanse of the Eastern Sierras last week. Put into [mostly] bone stock vehicles– cars any consumer can walk out of a dealership with– these two women driver-navigator teams showcased their abilities to think quickly and navigate distinct but rather inconspicuous surroundings while looking for specific markers, all without the use of cell phones, GPS, or other technology.
As if that wasn’t challenging enough, five teams completed Rebelle in electric vehicles: four Rivians (an R1T pickup even finished first in the rally’s 4×4 class) and the not-yet-released Ford Mustang Mach-E.
For off-road racing legend and Rebelle Rally founder and director Emily Miller, figuring out how to charge the vehicles seemingly in the middle of nowhere without any electrical outputs was just another test she had to overcome.
“I assumed it was gonna be easier than we thought. But see, once I start something, I don’t like to quit,” said Miller at the Browns Owens River Campground on the eve of the rally’s start. “And it was not easy, but it was worth doing because it’s the difference between us being in business.”
Rebelle Rally founder and race director Emily Miller
That isn’t to say creating the Rebelle Rally, let alone ensuring it continues to run as smoothly as it does year after year, isn’t a challenge in itself. Miller has to coordinate between federal, state, and municipal governments, secure permits, and ensure last-minute weather changes won’t undo months of hard work by Miller and her team. This year, Miller had to personally go through portions of the course that were decimated when Hurricane Hilary made landfall in California in August– and she said that will only be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to dealing with climate change.
Miller, who has seen the podium at many renowned races and has instructed over 8,000 people how to navigate and drive off-road, isn’t sounding the alarm bell for no reason. Cars and trucks emit over a fifth of all greenhouse gases emitted in the United States, the second-worst greenhouse gas emitter globally (we’ve only just recently lost first place to China). That means vehicle usage in the United States alone accounts for one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the world. With about 1.5 billion tons of greenhouse gases emitted by highway vehicles per year, and with the effects of climate change becoming all the more apparent in our daily lives, ameliorating even just a small portion of emissions can go a long way in helping mitigate any future effects on our environment.
“People tell me that they want their kids to do this. If they want their kids to do it someday soon, I was gonna have to figure it out,” Miller said more bluntly. “And it’s not easy and nobody is doing a long-distance rally like this.”
Rebelle Rally founder Emily Miller chats with staff as the Mustang Mach-E Rally charges via energy produced using green hydrogen
Rebelle has been working with Salt Lake City-based energy company Renewable Innovations for several years now. Still, Miller explained with five electric vehicles in the rally this year (the largest electric field they’ve had thus far), the team had to come up with more innovative solutions.
“Most people don’t realize how much it takes to create rapid power. It’s one thing to trickle charge, but rapid power takes a tremendous amount of power and many don’t do it well.”
To facilitate this, Miller and the team behind Rebelle took to securing green hydrogen, a promising and environmentally friendly form of hydrogen that is produced through a process called electrolysis, which involves splitting water into its constituent elements, Hydrogen (H2) and Oxygen (O2).
Let’s take a quick science breather here:
Through water electrolysis, electricity generated from renewable sources, such as wind, solar, or hydropower, is used to split water (H2O) into hydrogen (H2) and oxygen (O2). This process is done using an electrolyzer, with hydrogen at one end (a cathode, the negative electrode) and oxygen at the other (an anode, the positive electrode). The hydrogen and oxygen gases are then separated in the electrolyzer, with the hydrogen gas collected and then stored for use as energy. In this case, hydrogen is used in fuel cell batteries by combining with oxygen from the air to generate electricity that then powers an electric motor. No greenhouse gas emissions are created through this process, making green hydrogen, well, truly green. In fact, the only byproduct is water.
Whew, now we’re back.
You might be asking yourself, ‘Hey, this is great, why don’t we have this everywhere?’ Miller: “So we’ve had issues getting access to hydrogen. A lot of people think hydrogen is easy to get. Well, turns out it’s not.”
The Renewable Innovations truck charging the Mustang Mach-E Rally
Miller and her team spent countless hours calling presidents of companies and asking anyone from those at small start-ups to higher-ups at Boeing how to obtain enough green hydrogen to power five electric vehicles throughout the Rebelle Rally’s eight days. The calls that were returned mentioned either obscene financial numbers, less than-promised quantities of hydrogen, inferior storage vessels, or all of the above.
Cold calling was only one step of the equation: Miller and Rebelle organizers had to hit the books, creating graphs of multiple factors like the power demands of each EV, ambient temperature, and elevation. “It’s every type of temperature, it’s every type of terrain, every altitude. We will go from 10 feet above sea level to 10,000 feet.”
“We start looking at the numbers of the Rally: the terrain, temperature, the hill, the climbing, the descending, and I literally have to put that out on a graph, and then figure out where to put the remote rapid power so that we can figure out exactly how much power we’re really going to need for the whole base camp,” Miller explained. “And Renewable Innovations has been able to help us map that out and [we’ve gotten] to know these electric vehicles and what they take.”
“We have 800 kilograms of green hydrogen. It’s a lot of hydrogen, but it’s what it takes just to power these electric vehicles remotely and rapidly and to power the base camp as our backup to get down the road,” said Miller, who explained an event organizer had to drive to Georgia to retrieve the hydrogen, stored in type IV hydrogen vessels made from polymeric liner, the lightest commercially-available hydrogen storage solution yet.
“For the whole, that’ll last the entire rally,” Miller exclaimed cautiously. “But I have to tell you that hydrogen trucks really aren’t quite ready. We’ve been working with all the different companies. But it’s getting there. So over the next few years, more green hydrogen plants are coming online in the country. And that’s going to be great because how do you create tons and tons of power? So it’s pretty interesting.”
Peter Schultz and Hether Lee Fedullo stand before the Mustang Mach-E Rally
Miller wasn’t the only person raving over the use of green hydrogen to power EVs. Ford Motor Company engineers Hether Lee Fedullo and Peter Schultz were both in attendance during the Rebelle Rally’s prologue to check out the never-before-seen Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally ahead of its 2024 consumer debut.
“It’s really exciting to see it in this kind of environment. I’ve worked on the Mach-E since it was a concept, so I’ve seen this whole journey of the product,” said Fedullo, who is a Vehicle Dynamics Supervisor on not only the Mach-E but the Ford Escape, Kuga, Corsair, and other programs. “Now seeing it in an early environment is really exciting. New space, just opening it up to more customers to see what the vehicle can do and see how you can have fun with it.”
“It’s built for the dirt. We’re really excited to be here at the Rebelle Rally and show the world what this car can do,” said Schultz, who works in EV Program Management on the Mach-E Rally team. “We’re taking it off the street and onto the unbeaten path.”
Fedullo and Schultz were speaking with Mach-E driver Bailey Campbell and her navigating counterpart, Kaleigh Miller, upon their return from the Rebelle Rally prologue, a pretrial dry run of what teams can expect for the rest of the rally. Check out our previous coverage to learn more about Campbell and Miller as well as other women competing under Ford here. Also, read about the fun we had in the Ford F-150 Raptor R here.
Water is the only byproduct when using green hydrogen to create energy through the process of water electrolysis
The engineers were looking for “anything that they’re willing to share, to be honest, because we’re not out there, they are,” said Fedullo. “It’s actually just better to hear what they have to say. They have a lot of experience in these kinds of environments and I’m wanting to hear what their thoughts are on this vehicle versus other things that they’ve driven so that we can always look for ways to improve, get better, and be more competitive.”
Both engineers touched upon the lack of EV charging infrastructure in the United States. There are currently only about 150,000 EV chargers in the country, serving more than 2.1 million EVs on the roads today. Only a quarter of those publicly available chargers are Level 3 fast chargers. Experts believe the country will need to install more than a million Level 3 chargers by 2030 to catch up with demand. However, both engineers were also cautiously optimistic about the country’s direction as EVs become more mainstream.
“That’s where all the innovation’s happening. Electrification is the future,” Schultz said. “Progress is a process and Ford is doing a lot with their BlueOval Charge Network, and as time goes on and as the technology continues to evolve, we’ll get more range, batteries will start getting cheaper and we’ll just continue to develop all this technology.”
For Fedullo, it’s personal. The engineer has been driving a Mach-E for the last few years, and she said life’s gotten easier.
The Mustang Mach-E Rally charging at the Rebelle Rally
“I’ve just noticed over the last couple of years how much easier it is, with my comfort level to just the infrastructure. At least in the Michigan area, where I drive, it is a lot better. I feel like year after year we’re making great strides. So I just hope that customers will be open-minded to driving this technology and checking it out,” Fedullo said. “There’s just a lot of really cool things about EVs and the way you interact with them, from the power and performance to the quietness and some extent, the refinement of them compared to some of the equivalent in price gas vehicles. It’s really exciting.”
Fedullo concluded that the Mach-E and electric vehicles in general were best suited for the rally and this environment.
“From a rally standpoint, I think for me, it’s really exciting to be in these natural spaces and know that you’re leaving a small eco-footprint. I know there’s charging and infrastructure and things that need to happen for this car to be here,” she said. “But it is operating relatively cleanly when it’s out here.”
“It’s very quiet. It’s not scaring animals away and making all kinds of really loud noises,” Fedullo ended. “But it is really like a serene feeling, the outdoor nature and driving as fast as you can drive this car and hearing the woods, knowing that you are making a very small footprint where you are.”
Ford’s line up at the 2023 Rebelle Rally, the Bronco Raptor, the Mustang Mach-E Rally, and the Bronco WildTrak
Who needs roads when you can build them yourself?
That’s exactly what these ladies did at the eighth annual Rebelle Rally, a 1600-mile rally through the West Coast’s many ecosystems, and the first women’s off-road navigation rally raid in the United States. Women of all ages and backgrounds came to the Eastern Sierras last week to kick off the eight-day rally, which rewards quick thinking and resourcefulness rather than putting pedal to the metal.
This year, 64 teams consisting of driver-navigator duos competed in the rally, where GPS and cell phones are all but nonexistent as the women are tested on their navigation and driving abilities. Winning the rally is less about speed and more about points: those who can find their navigation markers with as few setbacks as possible gain more points that are added to their total.
The Rebelle Rally puts these ladies through rough terrains and 12-hour long days of driving all the while getting what little rest they can while sleeping in tents where temperatures sometimes drop to a bone-chilling 14 degrees overnight. Trudging through one giant treasure map in the middle of weather extremes using old-school paper maps is hardly a walk in the park, but for Laura Wanlass, it might come close.
Maria Guitar, Laura Wanlass, Kaleigh Miller and Bailey Campbell prepare their cars during the Rebelle Rally Prologue
“It’s nice to be out of society. You’re truly present, you have no other thoughts, nothing creeps in,” said Wanlass, who daylights as a lawyer in Washington state. “Then you go home and you can’t remember anything of your past. You can’t remember the password to your work computer. It’s that fast.”
Wanlass is one of several women sponsored by the Ford Motor Company this year. An official Silver Sponsor of the rally, Ford has competed for four consecutive years at Rebelle, with five teams racing under the carmaker this year.
Although Wanlass might find it difficult to remember her day-to-day life outside of the rally, it’s for good reason: she and her fellow teammate Maria Guitar finished third and second overall in the 4×4 class in 2021 and 2022 respectively. This year, the two finished third overall, in the Bronco Raptor.
“We’ve been on the podium for the last two years,” explained Guitar, a day trader from Columbus, Ohio. “You start dreaming weeks and weeks and weeks out.” Guitar, who navigates as Wanlass drives, said this is the first year they’re sponsored by Ford, but that hasn’t made a difference in their strategy.
“We want the most, always. We’ve placed that pressure on ourselves, and so we have to just not worry about it and focus. Bring your best, do your best.”
The Ford Mustang Mach-E leaving the campsite to start in the Rebelle Rally Prologue
Ford brought four of their successful Bronco and Bronco Sport vehicles for another multi-year win after the Ford Bronco Sport scored a historic three-peat win last year in the X-Cross class. Shelby Hall and Rori Lewis finished fifth in the Bronco Raptor, and Jessica Moore and Melissa Clark came in first in the rally’s X-Class division, competing in the Bronco Sport.
Driver Karisa Haydon and navigator Trista Smith, who were the 2022 Rebelle Rally Cross Rookies of the Year and Stage 7 winners, moved up to the 4×4 class in the Bronco WildTrak this year. They finished sixth in the new division.
“We were rookies to the purest form. We had never driven off-road,” said Smith. “We trained the entire year for it but before that, we’re not super offroaders, we were not into motorsports and had no navigation experience whatsoever. So we just really dove in. And it allowed us to do really well last year.”
The duo explained they’re keeping to the strategy they employed in last year’s Rebelle, namely, how efficient they were on the road– or lack thereof. Haydon, a stay-at-home with a pair of daughters, ages two and four, got her time management skills while working in management at Starbucks. “I live and die by that kitchen timer,” she said as Smith joked she would get out of the car to see if they had reached their marker to receive points. “I’m the time controller in the vehicle. I’m like ‘We need to leave now to hit the next marker, and we only have a few minutes at this one.”
Haydon and Smith’s communication skills stem from their long cultivated ongoing friendship: while Smith and her family– who have been living nomadically for years– were driving through Portland, Oregon on a rainy day when their car broke down. Smith’s husband called his friend, Haydon’s husband, for a new alternator, who had one but was away. Haydon went to save the day herself, delivering the alternator and inviting the Smiths back to her home to fix the car.
Kaleigh Miller and Bailey Campbell prepare the Mach-E ahead of the Rebelle Rally
“So we just sat there and had some rum and coke in the garage,” said Smith. “And we hit it off and went from having no experience to doing trainings to going from zero to getting sponsored by Ford. It’s incredible.”
In addition to the four Bronco gas-powered cars at this year’s Rebelle Rally, Ford is also showcasing a new car that has yet to be released to the public. Bailey Campbell, a driver, and her navigating counterpart, Kaleigh Miller, are pioneering the new all-electric Mustang Mach-E Rally for the first time ahead of its 2024 launch for the mass market.
“The range thing is completely different from gas mileage. I think that’s probably the biggest change for me,” Campbell said upon her and Miller’s return from a day of driving during the Rally’s prologue, a practice day for competitors before the points start to matter. “That and the lack of noise. It was 50 percent laughter today because we’re wearing helmets and all you hear is us breathing and not the gas.”
“This is my first time in the car, let alone electric,” said Miller, a CPA living in Tucson, Arizona who has competed in five of the last eight Rebelles. “So we were in the car yesterday, testing out all the buttons. I think for the general public, it’s a pretty cool way to test out the range and the general environment.”
There’s no better way to test the range of an all-electric car than pushing it to its limit in the middle of nowhere on a single charge. Both the nearly 130 competitors and the rally organizers and staff are lodging at secluded campsites in three different areas of California throughout the rally, miles from the nearest outlet.
Rebelle Rally founder and race director Emily Miller
To facilitate not only the Mach-E but also four Rivians, the Rebelle Rally enlisted the help of a new ingenious charging solution as brought by Salt Lake City-based Renewable Innovations.
Rebelle Rally founder and race director Emily Miller– herself a renowned driver, having won several momentous rallies and instructed over 8,000 people how to drive and navigate off-road– lauded the rally’s efforts to stick to sustainability in every aspect of the race, including the rally’s push to secure green hydrogen to charge the Mach-E and other fully electric vehicles. You can read more about the use of green hydrogen and check out our other coverage of the Rebelle Rally here. Also read about the fun we had in the Ford F-150 Raptor R here.
“We have 800 kilograms of green hydrogen. It’s a lot of hydrogen, but it’s what it takes just to power these electric vehicles remotely and rapidly and to power the base camp as our backup to get down the road,” Miller said, explaining how Georgia and North Carolina are the only two locations in the United States to find such green hydrogen at that scale.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E charging through energy provided via green hydrogen
Given the difficulty in sourcing and the financial constraints in securing such a large amount of green hydrogen, Miller explained that she and her team quite literally hit the books, putting pencil to paper and calculating how much energy the Mach-E and other electric vehicles would require throughout the Rebelle Rally’s course.
“It’s every type of temperature, it’s every type of terrain, every altitude. We will go from 10 feet above sea level to 10,000 feet,” Miller said. “People tell me that they want their kids to do this. If they want their kids to do it someday soon, I was gonna have to figure it out. And it’s not easy and nobody is doing a long-distance rally like this.” In response to the push for more sustainable modes of transportation and referencing California’s ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, Miller said, “This thing’s not going to happen unless we figure this component out.”
And the competitors love that not only are they pushing themselves to the limit, but the organizers behind Rebelle are as well. “It’s also a bigger electric field than they’ve ever had before,” added navigator Kaleigh Miller. “But a lot of technologies have evolved over time. Tents now are clicks and we’re asleep that much faster. In this rally, every second counts, rest and drive.”
The 2023 Ford F-150 Raptor R in all its glory
Ahead of five teams competing for the Ford Motor Company at the eighth annual Rebelle Rally this year, the automaker flew me out from my wonderfully liberal home borough of Queens to the equally liberal Los Angeles County.
Upon landing at the spectacularly poorly-signed LAX– where a seemingly simple search for the hotel shuttle ended up with my lauding of an ousted former Queens native governor known for his propensity to pronounce a certain Queens airport in a very Queens manner– my partner Alex and I were immediately greeted by pleasantly-timed car horns and red brake lights meant to rival a BTS concert at MSG.
The author in the Raptor on Day One
In LA, where cars do rule above all, there are more than 65,000 registered electric vehicles in the county– that’s more than the entire population of Portland, Maine. There are 7.7 million cars registered in the county, enough to rival the entire population of New York City. For context, only one in four households in New York own a car, meaning there are less than two million cars on the city’s streets.
On the sustainability front, LA boasts the largest number of EV charging stations in the country, with over 11,000 commercially available stations spread throughout the city. In comparison, New York City has just over 7,600 public charging stations for the 158,000 EVs registered in the city. New York shines in bike lanes: over 1,500 miles of the city’s streets have some form of a bike lane on them (here’s when I brandish my bike lobby card and decry what really constitutes “protected” in that number, but hey), as compared to LA’s less than 100 miles. Both cities, of course, still boast an unconscionable amount of pedestrian and cyclist traffic deaths that only seem to be growing in the last few years.
The Raptor and the Ford Ranger stuck in LA traffic
Who Am I – or, Why Should We Care About This in the First Place
Although I wish it were, this isn’t a writing exercise in the New York-Los Angeles rivalry. Let me explain these seemingly out-of-context numbers: with a stats background and a master’s in urban policy, I ran for city council in the Queens neighborhood where I grew up on the line of “public space for the public good.” Unfortunately, running on a platform for increased bike and bus lanes, and removing privately-owned vehicles from certain publicly-owned streets to create pedestrian plazas aren’t the most popular policy recommendations in a city where over 200 people have died from vehicular traffic this year alone.
The cars waiting for us in the hotel driveway
But I digress. In most respects, I’m not the first person who should have been given a Ford F-150 Raptor R to drive around for the weekend. I actively denounced erroneous drivers on my #BikeNYC Twitter when it was still a thing; I volunteer at my local open street; and I have spent the last three years working in transportation policy at two different micromobility companies geared towards reducing car trips under two miles (which constitute over 50 percent of all car trips in the United States).
The author approaching the Raptor for the first time
But on the other hand, I’m probably in good company. I’ve been driving [legally] since the second I turned 16, and as much as I hate to admit it, I have a little more than a basic understanding of cars. I grew up in my uncle’s European auto body repair shop, and at one point, knew how to differentiate between the different parts that make up a radiator. That, and being told by friends, family, coworkers, lovers, and anyone in between, whom have entered in cars in which I was at the helm in both New York and Naples to Ireland and Morocco and everywhere else in between, how unstressed they were compared to the outside environment, has all gone to my head. So sure, I’m the perfect candidate to drive a Ford F-150 Raptor R for the weekend, sign me up.
The Ford F-150 Raptor R or: How I Learned to Stop Second-Guessing Myself and Love the Climb
What’s traffic if you can’t hear it in the silent cabin?
Enter Ford. After waking up in our hotel room early last Thursday morning, we made our way down to the lobby for some breakfast before meeting the other journalists on the trip and our Ford counterpart– and all-around fantastic California guide and driver– Mike. We were given the home rules of the drive: each of us would drive from LA to Mammoth Lakes in our own Ford vehicles. We’ll have some pit stops on the way, and don’t get too caught up with the wonders of “the 5” or “the 14.”
The creation of one group chat later, we grabbed our bags and were led outside to the sight of four incredibly powerful-looking trucks. Each of us called dibs on a truck, with my now new friends Tamara grabbing the Ford Tremor and Laycee and Tim climbing into a Ford Bronco. To my shock– since I waited for Alex’s return from grabbing coffee and therefore called dibs last– we were given the monster out of all of them, the Ford F-150 Raptor R.
The Raptor “R” is everywhere
Mike and his Ford colleague Tony both raised their eyebrows as we neared the truck, with Tony saying “You’re going to love this” as he tossed the keys in an almost perfect imitation of any number of 1980s/John Hughes-directed films (but yes, in specific reference to that one). Entering the truck was a testament to itself: not only did you have to step on the footboard to even get close to eye level with the driver’s seat base, but there was a perfectly placed handle to hoist yourself up into the cabin.
I’ll let you Google more well-versed auto writers who can detail all of the features of the truck, of which there are many, and frankly, this isn’t the publication to mention the truck’s 37-inch tires or the 5.2L Supercharged V8 with 700 horsepower engine. Indeed, The Knockturnal is not the publication that can detail at length why the 5-link coil rear suspension type with a Panhard rod and the 640 pounds of torque make the F-150 Raptor R so fun to drive, which it does.
A barely miniature Raptor flashes on the driver’s dashboard when entering the vehicle
Also, having just three days with the car wasn’t enough to even get through the quick guide user manual let alone explore all of the features in the car itself. Instead, I’ll discuss what I, a normal layperson, found so fascinating with the vehicle. After you immediately step into the seat, you’re welcomed with the Ford Raptor “R” logo flashing across the driver’s dash, with a miniature replica of the car doing a show-model 360 before the screen flashes to the speedometer and user controls. The “R” comes across all over the car, inside and out. Its trademarked “Code Orange” color is seen on accents inside the car as well as on the R in the car’s grille and the decals near the pick-up bed.
There’s a giant screen that lets you multitask where you can set one-third of the screen to music or some other entertainment and the other two-thirds to the map. Because I run cold whereas Alex runs hot, the dual AC/Heat came in clutch; and the clutch itself was so well designed that it perfectly fit the palm of my hand and made me feel like a captain on a spaceship with how it handled shifting.
Plenty of elbow room on the console
The cupholders, like everything else with this car, run big, so our small coffee cups were quickly enveloped by the sheer depth of the holders, but it was nothing some wiry fingers couldn’t handle. That, and the surround sound brought to you by 18 Bang and Olufsen speakers (including two in the headrests!) made Alex’s playing of boygenius and Japanese Breakfast match the deep bass of my playing of Asap and The Ramones.
The coolest tech part about the car might be the wireless charging pad that acts as a cable without having to go through the process of adding our phones via Bluetooth. We knew we only had the car for a weekend and I for one hate when I rent a car and have to add my phone for the short 24 hours the vehicle is in my possession. Ford truly thought through every person who enters a car and wants to be on aux– just toss the phone on the pad and you have the phone connected to the car– all wirelessly.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect found in the interior cabin was less the trinkets and gadgets but more, the extra-wide
The back is pretty spacious too
elbow room on the console that opened up and doubled as a lay-flat table and writing desk. If you’re using good ol’ fashioned paper maps (of which the drivers of the Rebelle Rally are reliant– read more about the rally here and here), or if you’re like me and carry a pen and notepad with you always, and especially for last minute notes, that table makes you question why flat surfaces are so scarce in cars today.
To be forthcoming, this is certainly one of the most expensive vehicles you can buy, but it certainly is cost-effective for the features you get. Not only was the MSRP of the truck we were driving nearly $110,000, but every time we stopped to fill up on gas, it would cost over $150 just to fill up the 36-gallon tank. I know, we were driving in California, land of the $6.50 gallon, and boy did I try to get the average MPG over 12 (I hit 12.3 at my finest hour!), but it’s a lot for the average person, especially in an urban environment where I wouldn’t even consider driving, let alone parallel parking on a cobblestone street in Brooklyn. (I’m not going to lie though, the electric Ford F-150, with a price tag a fraction of its gas-powered cousin, does seem enticing given how much fun I had driving it around this weekend.).
You can split the 12-inch screen between maps and entertainment
That being said, if you have a need for all of the specs of the truck (again, of which there are many), there are so many practical ways to use the Ford F-150 Raptor R, from towing upwards of 8,700 pounds (the most of all F-150 variants), to climbing up steep terrain (which I’ll get to below), this is a fantastic car. More importantly, if someone gave me $100,000 to buy a car, I would 100 percent go with the F-150 over any equally priced sports or luxury car. Move over, the 2023 Porsche Panamera 4 with an MSRP of $97,000, I want this American-made beast that makes me feel so safe even when driving with any number of jerks on the road in any number of foreign-made sports cars with an equal or larger MSRP.
Hitting the Road– and Nothing Else
Driving through the Eastern Sierras
After our initial five minutes to get acquainted with the vehicle, we were gathered by Mike who gave us instructions on our intended drive from LA to Mammoth Lakes. We were going to follow him from the hotel to the expressway, and then get to a meeting point for coffee and a bathroom break. With the agreed-upon destination set on the car’s 12-inch screen, we hit the road– slowly.
I mean this seriously: I’m a … defensive driver, according to my driving instructor when I was 15 with a learner’s permit. And according to most, not-too-cautious individuals who enter a car with me, I’m assertive when I need to be but never overly confident. That all went out the window when we started driving the truck. To say I was cautious of making wide turns in this 96-inch wide car– a full 10 inches wider than its non-Raptor F-150 counterpart, which in itself is 14 inches wider than the average car (72 inches)– is an understatement. Alex, who falls well into the “overly cautious” category of drivers, was shocked at my use of both hands on the steering wheel as we pulled out of the hotel’s semi-circle driveway and onto the street.
Alex barely making it over the Raptor
Following Mike started as a semi-arduous ordeal given that the regular LA driver found my speed-limit driving a bit slow for their taste (and to be fair, you’d expect a truck of this size to go slightly over the limit, I give), and so, I soon found it comical people in puny sedans would try to cut off a 6.5 foot-tall truck to beat the light for the expressway onramp. But to reiterate, I felt safe in this car. I knew no matter what dumb shenanigan that driver was going to pull, the Raptor R’s immense size and safety features would keep me as coddled as a 21st-century baby boomer executive asking someone to convert a document into a PDF. And so, I got more comfortable.
As we approached our turn for the onramp, I was waved on by another Ford F-150 owner, who gave a slight smile as I signaled and got onto the expressway. Granted, I’m not the first person one expects to see commandeering the Raptor, but as Mike later explained, F-150 drivers in the know would recognize the sport package of the car we’re driving and tip their hats in our direction. And lo and behold, not only did we get smiles and head nods the whole way up, but we even got a little honking serenade from another Ford F-150 Raptor R, in an Azure Gray Metallic color that perfectly complemented our Antimatter Blue exterior.
Baja mode on the F-150 Raptor
Now getting the hang of the full body of the vehicle, the drive up was pleasantly exhilarating. Drivers gave us space, let us merge when needed, and again, no dumb shenanigans as I was used to when driving smaller-bodied vehicles. It’s something that has been studied time and time again: the impression of a big vehicle affects both the driver of said vehicle and those around it. While this can sometimes have a detrimental effect on the driver of a vehicle (namely having been studied in sports car drivers engaging in reckless driving and taking more risks), it can also have the opposite effect. I for one was constantly aware of every square inch of the vehicle, and that came in handy on the road and off it– which is the exciting part below.
A Small Roadtrip in a Big Truck
It takes about five hours to get from LA to Mammoth Lakes, and the F-150 had us yearning for a longer drive. The seats were so comfortable that 6 ‘5’’ Alex didn’t need to get out every so often to stretch out as he so often does in other vehicles. On the seats alone, the lumbar support reached so far it could practically offer you a chiropractic visit in itself, and could be so far removed that you could mistake it for a Herman Miller chair. The Raptor is the best road trip vehicle: it’s beyond roomy, both in the front and rear row seats (which also come with heated and cooled seats), and it’s surprisingly smooth and quiet. By the time we reached our first pitstop and regrouped, all of us were exclaiming about the wonders of our new rides and how we couldn’t wait to hit the road again.
The truck went up steep hills like a hot knife gliding through butter
The rest of the ride did not disappoint. The Raptor R somehow made the traffic that would be found on a typical California drive relaxing. We were beyond elated that of the few traffic jams we found ourselves in, we barely noticed them because we were so comfortable in the cabin. Maybe the answer to road rage is just getting a car with a relaxing interior, or maybe it is just getting an F-150, who knows?
Once we left our first pitstop, we made our way onto SR 14, passed by the third largest onshore wind energy project in the world in Mojave and drove through historic settlements along US Route 395 (including passing by the Museum of Western Film History given how many movies were filmed in this area) before grabbing lunch at Copper Top BBQ in Big Pine. One tri-tip and pulled pork meal later, the group and I made our way to the next destination: an unnamed hot springs site. Mike, who played tour guide not only while in the cars but also when we exited for hikes, stressed an important aspect of sightseeing in nature: keep it as is, or the adage goes, take nothing but pictures and leave nothing but photographs. For city slickers like me and Alex, the hot springs site was a phenomenon in itself, leaving us in awe of all of nature’s wonders, and we couldn’t agree more with Mike’s take.
Hot springs in the middle of the Eastern Sierras
Women Drivers Make Their Own Roads in the Eighth Annual Rebelle Rally
What better way to emphasize such appreciation for Mother Nature than meeting with nearly 130 women who were going to turn off from all of the technological wonders of the 21st century and drive in the Rebelle Rally without a phone or means of outside communication? You can read more about the Rebelle Rally here and here, but in essence, these women drivers were told to literally [not] get lost in nature, all without a phone, which in case you needed a rundown of a mobile device’s functions, here are a few: map, watch, compass, calculator, speedometer, timer, forecaster, flashlight, measurements, and more.
The Ford Mustang Mach-E driving through the Rebelle Rally gate
We went around Brown’s Owens River Campground, met with Rebelle Rally founder Emily Miller as well as drivers on the Ford team (and got intimate with their respective cars), before returning inside for a run of show from Miller addressing the whole lot of drivers on the eve of the Rebelle Rally prologue– a practice dry run of the competitors can expect for the rest of the rally. With previous competitors taking to the stage to share funny anecdotes and words of caution and with Miller going through the roster of all staff members and volunteers that made the rally possible, dinner was served. Michelin Chef Drew Deckman, who has been cooking at the Rally for all eight years, introduced everyone on his team, many of whom work with him at his other restaurants and have themselves been repeat visitors to the rally as well.
Immediately, the tent erupted with conversations of the ride ahead– and what these ladies were leaving behind. Work, family, friends, and anything in between was put on hold when the women brought their phones to the campground to be sealed away for the remainder of the rally. As we chatted with a few about their nerves, or lack thereof, we dined on burgers and hot dogs, and later on as the temperatures dropped in the campsite (that is after all, in the middle of an open expanse in nature), the crowd was enticed with s’mores around an open fire.
Nearly 130 women are competing in this year’s Rebelle Rally
While the competitors had to survive the night in just their tents as temperatures dropped to a chilly 14 degrees the night before, the group of journalists was sent to The Westin Monache Resort in the town of Mammoth Lakes to stay for the remainder of the press trip. There, I pulled possibly my only lapse in judgment with the truck: I decided to forgo the valet parking in favor of self-parking the car in the hotel’s underground garage. A few wide turns later, I started to question my ability to parallel park over simply pulling in inside the lines. Thankfully (and only slightly embarrassingly) a very supportive Mike, who was driving his personal Ford Ranger, had parked right in front of me and informed me of the sheer width of the truck making it larger than the lines in the hotel’s garage.
Competitors are tasked with finding markers without phones or GPS
An early morning wake-up the next day had us catching the sunrise through the rather stoic Ponderosa Pines as we ate breakfast in the hotel lobby. Once the team regrouped, we made our way back to the campground where we would be seeing off the competitors as the prologue started– and then we would be driving part of the rally ourselves. Excited, we exchanged waves and wishes of luck to the racers as they passed the Rebelle Rally’s blue gates and made their way to their markers, all before climbing into our respective vehicles to make the same route ourselves.
This Truck Eats Other Trucks for Breakfast
The F-150 Raptor handles off-roading like a champ
Reader, I have never driven off-road in this sense. Sure, my cousin taught me to drive stick in our hometown in Italy at the bottom of a mountain with a narrow (but paved) two-way road, but I’ve never truly driven off-road– that is, until this past weekend. And frankly, I don’t know if I would have been this confident if it wasn’t for the power and comfort of knowing I was in the Raptor, a car I had already gotten used to driving at this point, and knowing what it could do– or so I thought until I put it to the test and that horsepower proved I had just seen a fraction of what it could do.
It just ate giant rocks and drops like jello; it climbed steep 20-degree hills like we were a hot knife gliding through butter; it sucked up all of the dirt and dust from the car in front of us like a sous vide; it – okay you get the food-induced points. The Raptor handled everything we threw at it, and I’m convinced even if you tried to push it to its limits, you would never get close. The Raptor truly is an off-road race truck with luxury car creature comforts.
Quite literally leaving everyone and everything in our dust
Don’t take just my word for it, listen to the truck itself. The driver has the option to fine-tune the car to your needs. I hate the machismo-compensating sound of a revving engine and exhaust, so you can set the exhaust to “quiet mode” which tapers that sound down a bit. And because the inside cabin is so well insulated, we barely heard any of the ATV riders in the area doing donuts on the next road over.
That isn’t even half of it: with six different driving modes on the Raptor, you can even specify what surface you’re on and the truck will follow suit. The truck has the usual sport and normal driving modes, but it also has one for towing and another for slippery conditions. For these dirt roads, we stuck to just two: Off-Road and Baja. When we first approached the rocky conditions, we figured hell, this is off-roading after all, let’s go with the Off-Road driving mode. And it blew our minds, but it was nothing compared to the surprise that was in store for us when we switched to Baja mode. Clouds of dirt and dust might have well-been nothing for the undercarriage camera that conveniently showed every obstacle ahead of us– and that proved little challenge for the massive clearance of the Raptor. Baja mode, or as all of us came to call it, beast mode, is meant for high-speed off-roading, switching the car into a more aggressive suspension to handle those fast turns and speeds on uneven terrain.
The author on the last day of the trip, unwilling to give up the keys
With dust clouds behind us and the sunset along the horizon, we made our way back to the campground to catch up with the competitors and then to the hotel, where we would once again have an early morning before setting off to see California’s changing leaves (one thing I can say as an East Coastal-elitist that we have more to be in awe of) as the sun rose. As the women competitors of Rebelle made their way through Day One of the rally, we made our way south. We had a pitstop at the esteemed and almost untouched by time Erick Schat’s Bakery just after stopping to catch the solar eclipse. As the group parted ways, we headed through Manzanar and to Alabama Hills, where once again, the Raptor ate dirt roads like nothing. As we had to pry the keys from our hands to return the car at LAX, and were once again greeted with the delightful sounds of traffic we so dearly ignored in the silent Raptor cabin, we knew this trip fundamentally changed our views on pickup trucks, and were so glad to have to experience off-roading in a true Ford nature.
To read more about the Rebelle Rally, its founder Emily Miller, the competitors, and how they’re powering fully electronic trucks, check out the articles here and here.
In the dark and gritty underworld of John Wick, there’s only one rule: professionals are told to abide by no business conducted on Continental grounds. That, and markers must be honored. And yet, as if the second to fourth movies of the John Wick franchise have taught professionals nothing, they have murdered another person in The Continental, and this time, you’re prime suspect number one.
That’s the premise when you enter The Continental premises in New York for the next three weeks. The famed downtown Manhattan cultural attraction, and the actual filming location of The Continental in the John Wick series, is hosting a murder-mystery party and you’re at the center of it all.
“Welcome to The Continental: The Hotel Bar Experience” is an immersive cocktail dinner party experience running for three weeks starting September 21. The pop-up spurred with Peacock’s newest prequel to the John Wick series, “The Continental.” Each week of the pop-up also correlates to the release of the latest episode of the three-part series: Part One on Friday, September 22, Part Two – on Friday, September 29, and Part Three on Friday, October 6.
Regardless of whether you’re a diehard John Wick fan or do not know how important the sacred grounds of The Continental are to this deadly world of crime, you’re guaranteed to have a blast at the pop-up bar experience. From questionable subjects offering convoluted information to bloodied suspects giving up even more contradictory statements, you’re playing part detective and part theater goer in this truly enveloping experience. Coupled with the exchange of gold coins like in the movies, you’re pretty involved in the criminal underworld of the John Wick series, and you’re going to love every minute.
The night starts before you even get through the front door. While waiting to take a photo next to an NYC cab straight from the 1970s, you’re accosted by a New York Herald Tribune (RIP to the NYC journo folks out there) reporter who gives you his card and says to text him with any information you might have regarding a mysterious murder on Continental grounds. With the scene set, you’re given three gold coins and are escorted to the front desk of The Continental.
Upon entering the unholy grounds, the concierge explains the rules of the show: keep your “fancy telex machine,” as characters will refer to it often, one at all times as there will be messages conveyed to you–via text so no decoding there–and also opportunities to scan QR codes and take photos that you can check out through a special link sent to you. Additionally, you’re required, absolutely a must, to have a blast. Once you pay your coin to the concierge, you’re invited inside for some champagne while Roy the Cowboy with a loose bolo tie tells everyone a certain set of clues lurks behind the initial bar’s curtains.
Walking behind those curtains, you’re now set in the main setting for the night. There, you’ll find tables and seating arrangements for those who want to just take a laid-back approach to this murder mystery, but for those who are fully involved, there are several somewhat conspicuous characters who are full of clues–or, red herrings. While these characters roam around the room, you’re welcome to exchange your coins for many John Wick-inspired drinks, and you’ll leave plenty filled with the mouthwatering food passed around throughout the night. Don’t worry if you run out of coins–there are trusty porters and bellhops who cleverly slip you a few more when you need them.
With a rather loud interruption in the middle of the night, you’re then left to your own devices as you get riddled with
messages regarding which rooms to visit and which characters to speak to–as well as a fun opportunity to take your photo for “intake” with a sassy tattooed assistant telling you in a rather deep 1950s Brooklyn accent to hurry it up. Without giving too much away, you’re in for a treat in the adult playground you’re encouraged to roam with glee.
“Welcome to The Continental: The Hotel Bar Experience” is an immersive cocktail dinner party experience running for three weeks starting September 21. Get your tickets here and let’s see if you make out the suspect before your ex-communicator.
Sixteen freestyle rappers battled it out in Miami this past weekend for the Red Bull Batalla Regional Qualifier, testing their quick wits and killer lines for a chance to make it to the world stage and take home the title of best freestyler in the Spanish rap world.