I left almost a decade before you did
@Bose. That paved path is pretty, indeed! I don't think I could ride by some areas, unless I was in a large pack of riders. I don't know how you felt, but when I was there, I rarely stopped to get gas after dark on parts of the L.I.E. One evening I was driving back from visiting friends who lived just outside NYC, not far from that end of the expressway. I had to drive to the other end, and it was dark. I pulled in to fill up somewhere mid-island, and I got a terrible feeling of dread and impending danger. In my many years of travel there and elsewhere, that feeling only came over me that one time. But it was scary enough that I tried very hard not to fill up after dark again. I've tried to identify that gas station to see where I was exactly, but no luck so far.