My Crazy Day

I left Buckhannon at 6:30 this morning, to catch a ride with Jefferson. Jefferson and I work in the same office and we are both going to Fort Deven's, MA for a month long school that we both have to attend. I probably would have drove myself up, but about a week and a half ago I was abusing my Explorer and blew the transfer case. Many of the people who know my Explorer think "It's a good thing that he's not driving himself up in that thing." Too which I take great offense. But if you saw what we rode up in you may sing a different tune. When I met Jefferson this morning he was in his 1992 Dodge Shadow. No radio......I miss my Explorer.

In any case we start heading north east. I'm a passenger right? That should mean that navigating is not my responsibility. I'm napping, reading, picking my nose. You know completely zoning out. I ask where we are and Jefferson isn't quite sure. I see a bunch of cars with New Jersey plates, but he doesn't remember crossing the state line. I just assume that Jersey sucks so much that they all go to PA for the weekend. Well long story short somehow we get into New Jersey and we don't realize it. I start actually paying attention to where we are headed because Jefferson doesn't seem to know where we are. The plan was to take I-287 to skirt New York City, because who wants to drive right through the city right?

I'm still looking for I-287 when I look up and notice the skyline. It looks a little like NYC, but I've never been there, what do I know. Then I look in the bay, and notice the statue of liberty, and we can't turn around. I start looking at the map a little harder and I realize we are driving right thru the city. Holy crap!!! I get turned around in Elkins sometimes, NYC kinda has me worried. To sum my adventure we go thru the Holland Tunnel, under the Hudson River right into downtown Manhattan.

Now I should clue you in a little more on Jefferson. He's from Braxton county. He told me they had 5 stop lights in the entire county. On the way up Jefferson is talking about how he hates driving in the city. In fact while we're driving thru Manhattan he keeps saying, "This is worse than Iraq." and "Make sure your doors are locked."

I took over the navigation and drove us right thru China town, down back alley's, thru Queens (not the one just up the Tallmansville Rd), the Bronx and out of the city (no kidding). So my first experience with NYC was navigating thru the city with a guy from Braxton county in a 1992 Dodge Shadow, with no radio. Plenty of memories.

You can view all my pictures here. Enjoy....more to come later.