These Out-of-Towners Loved New York
October, 2021
They say if you can pull a U-Haul trailer with your RV through New York City, you can pull one anywhere. Or something like that. I would like to think so anyway since we hooked a trailer to our campervan and did just that – delivering a load of furniture to our youngest child living in Brooklyn.
I’ll confess, Julia and I were both a little anxious at the prospect of driving through Manhattan and Brooklyn and then parking on a narrow city street. But it all worked out well. Our campground was right on the Hudson River in New Jersey, so on a Saturday morning we first took the Holland Tunnel into Manhattan. Easy peasy.
Traffic was busy but moving steadily. Other drivers let us change lanes along the way without so much as a hurry-up honk. And cars could still squeeze by as we double-parked in front of our daughter’s apartment to unload. I was a little concerned about blocking in already parked cars but had forgotten the first rule of congested city parking: once you find a place to park your car, you will avoid moving it at all costs.
Speaking of Costs
It was probably a good idea that we did not check the fares for the toll bridges and tunnels ahead of time. Ignorance is bliss. We drove through the Holland Tunnel three times while visiting New York City. The final time was on a weekday morning as we were departing for Vermont. I later checked our EZ Pass account online to see why it needed replenishing multiple times daily. Staring me in the face was the cost of this single weekday tunnel drive: Forty-four dollars. One way. One time. To cross the Hudson River.
Of course, there were many more charges to the account thanks to Pennsylvania, New Jersey and other tunnels and bridges in New York. In less than a week, our tollway costs totaled more than what we run up on our Oklahoma Pike Pass account for three vehicles in a year.
Life in the Underground
We were in New York for only a few days. When not delivering furniture, we would board the train near our campground, and after a 10-minute ride from Jersey City under the Hudson River, would arrive at the World Trade Center. From there we hopped on a subway to Brooklyn. After a day of doing this, we no longer felt like complete amateurs. We never got on the wrong line. We got off the right one once when we thought it was the wrong one. But no harm, no foul. Ten minutes later we were back on board the next one that stopped.
Before we ever boarded our first train, we researched and downloaded several apps to help us navigate our commute below the streets of New York. They were all pretty much indecipherable. We then asked our daughter what app we should use, and she responded “Uh, Google Maps”. This was excellent advice as it gave us accurate and understandable real-time directions on how to get from A to B to C on the MTA. Wide-eyed neophytes no longer.
Fastest Ain’t Always Best
For our departure to Vermont, we selected the “fastest” route on Google Maps. After taking us through the Holland Tunnel for that one last fleecing, it had us traveling north through Manhattan, hugging the Hudson River and then through Yonkers on a very scenic route. There was just one little glitch with this route. Somewhere after leaving Manhattan, this road was no longer meant for vehicles taller than a pick-up truck. It just so happens our van is 9 feet 8 inches tall. Google Maps may be great navigating below the city streets, but it is not the best app for an RV driving on the streets of New York.
In order to drive under several of the picturesque stone archway bridges planted along the way, we had to quickly move to the inside lane on what was a busy thoroughfare. Even with this move we had only a few inches to spare under a couple bridges. The stress of it all resembled a nightmarish geometry pop-quiz: quick, at what point does a 9’ 8” tall object traveling north at 65 miles per hour intersect an immovable stone arc with a height of a 7’ 3” at the right edge of the outside lane? Or something like that. After it became apparent we had entered the seventh circle of bridge hell, we exited and took an alternate route. This detour added an hour to our journey but left both our van and sanity intact.
Difficult Memories
There were so many things we wanted to see and do in New York City as it is an amazing place. But our time was limited so most would have to wait until our next visit. One required stop though was the 9/11 National Memorial and Museum. It did not disappoint. It was also a very emotional experience.
We first quietly remembered that tragic day while at the Memorial’s Waterfall Pools, reading just a few of the names of those who perished, and listening to the sound of water falling. There are two pools, North and South. They are located where their namesake towers once resided.
Then, we entered the Museum itself and descended the stairs, with parts of recovered steel “tridents” leading us downward into where massive foundations once anchored the Twin Towers. Stronger feelings started to bubble to the surface. The further we explored the Museum, my emotions turned increasingly raw, reliving the pain of September 11, 2001. All the artifacts on display made it real again. And listening to recordings of victims’ voices shortly before they perished made it feel like it was yesterday.
I took two steps into one of the exhibitions and had to turn around and walk out. While I don’t believe I knew anyone in the room, it was if I could have known them all. It’s been twenty years, but strangely, looking into their eyes was too much for me to bear. Photos of the over two-thousand, nine-hundred victims gazing back at me. That’s the power of the 9/11 National Memorial and Museum.
One exhibition which generated much needed positive feelings, was a wall of 2,983 individual blue squares, one for each victim of the attacks on 9/11 and of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Each square is a different shade of blue. The exhibit is titled “Trying to Remember the Color of the Sky on That September Morning”. You can see an image of this exhibit in the header photo above.
After a couple of hours below ground, we ascended the stairs and left the Museum to feel the warmth of the sun and the humanity of New York City. Both felt good.
Cheers,
Bob and Julia
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