New York, New York

Instead of thinking about how hard your journey is, think how great your story will be.

Approaching the George Washington Bridge, I experienced the most heightened sense of awareness that I can ever remember. We emerged from a tunnel on I-95 driving through NYC in the Bronx. Looking to my left, I could see the skyline of Manhattan. Chris and Erica were ahead of me. The song New York, New York crackled out of my walkie-talkie. Chris cued up the song to play over the walkie-talkies as we approached the George Washington Bridge. Shivers went up and down my spine, My skin felt electric. I felt an incredible sense of awe, fear, terror, and excitement as we drove onto the bridge. I usually drove with Paso Robles in my lap. I don’t quite remember, but I might have made her get off my lap during that part of the drive.

Once we made our way to the George Washington Bridge, I figured we would make our way to Liberty Harbor in Newark, New Jersey. We still had a challenging drive through New Jersey to our urban campground in Liberty Harbor.

Three days earlier in Acadia Maine, I told Erica and Chris that I didn’t think I could drive through New York City. I broached the subject during breakfast on our last day in Maine. I walked into their RV in tears, saying I just could not drive my 42 foot, 38,000 lb motorhome through the city. Chris suggested we drive around the city. But we still to make our way through Boston, the northeast corridor of I-95 in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. I planned to drive north of the area north of Boston through Massachusetts, Connecticut and into upstate New York, and down into Pennsylvania. I made that drive two years on the maiden voyage of the Mountain Lioness.

We were all quiet that day. I was sad and depressed. I was just not ready to leave Erica and Chris. I just couldn’t imagine leaving them. While we were shopping in Walmart getting ready for the journey south, I couldn’t take the sadness anymore. When we got back in Chris’s truck, I cued up New York, New York on my phone on YouTube. Erica and Chris turned around in bewilderment. When they saw me with a smile for the first time that day, they knew. I exclaimed I’m going to New York with you. I was in tears again. I am so glad I made the choice to drive to New York City. The city was incredible, the highlight of the trip. Well, that along with riding the Maid of the Mist beneath the thunderous roaring Niagara Falls. That experience will be the next blog story.

The traffic was insane as soon as we crossed into New York from Connecticut. The roads narrowed and there was so much construction. The drivers were, well, New York drivers, extremely rude and aggressive.

There were all these bridges spanning I-95 that were less than 14 feet in clearance. The gravest mistake you can make in a RV is to go under a bridge that is too low and rip off all your rooftop equipment like the AC units, or even worse, the roof. These accidents actually do happen. My RV GPS kept turning red and blaring out warnings to get off the road due to the low clearances. I initially set the RV height at 14 feet to give the RV a margin of error. Mountain Lioness tops out at 13’4.”

The extra margin of error caused problems starting in Boston. The roads here are very old. There were many low-hanging bridges with clearances below 14 feet. I changed the height setting to 13’8″ and still received all kinds of warnings. I would use the far left lane as the bridges were generally higher in the middle of the road than on the side of the road. I also followed 18 wheeler semi tractor-trailers, figuring if they can make it, so can I. The driving from Boston to New York City was the most stressful I have experienced in over 40,000 miles, 6 years, and 550 days on the road. We were even traveling on a Sunday when traffic is usually the lightest.

After crossing the George Washington Bridge into New Jersey, we still had to make our way south to Liberty Harbor. The challenge wasn’t just the traffic. We also had to follow signs and make sure we made the correct turns on roads that had eight lanes, with exits both to the left and right. When we finally made it to Liberty Harbor, I could even see the relief on Chris’s face. Chris never worries or gets flustered. He jumped out of his truck and high-fived me.

Liberty Harbor RV Park was nothing more than a parking lot for a marina. The concrete parking lot had very narrow RV sites marked off. We had water and electricity, but no sewage. The spots were $110 a night, a steep fee for such minimal accommodations. The fee was a bargain compared to $500 a night for a hotel in Manhattan. Liberty Harbor RV Park wasn’t much of a park. For whatever reason, I kind of enjoyed the spot. Maybe I liked the spot because the park was on concrete. My RV weighs 38,000 lbs, so I always like having a concrete or another similar hard surface to park on.

The Class A RV to the left of Chris’s RV did have the right front bumper/cowling smashed in, a repair that would easily cost over $10,000. This guy didn’t quite make his way to Liberty Harbor unscathed. The drive was that difficult. I’ve bumped into things all across the country but somehow got through New York without bumping into any structures or vehicles. Later near the trip while staying in Hilton Head Island Motor Coach Resort, I saw a RV in the site across from me with similar damage. Anyone who uses their RV a lot will probably eventually incur some kind of body damage. I know I have. I’ve seen pristine RVs in my inside storage in Largo, Florida. I’ve also never seen those RVs leave the storage area.

Liberty Harbor RV Park is in Newark, New Jersey. The first evening we walked about 1/2 mile to the PAT subway. Fifteen minutes after boarding the subway and traveling under the Hudson River, we walked up some steps and were in the streets of Manhattan at 34th Street.

We walked, well I limped towards Times Square. My Achilles tendon was still very sore from my ballet dancing to the music of Blue Danube Waltz played at the dancing fountains at Station Square in Pittsburgh. We walked all the way up to Times Square. The scene was really cool. We saw Macy’s and all the famous stores. Walking in the city was incredible. I’ve seen the city so many times on TV, in movies, and on TV shows. Seeing the city in person was very interesting. There was an electric vibe to the city. We felt safe there, Chris was our bodyguard. Later that night we ate dinner in an Italian Restaurant.

We walked back to the subway and rode back under the Hudson River to Newark. Then we walked back to the concrete RV park. What an incredible day we experienced.

Chris figured out all the subways, maps, and the layout of NYC. The next day we rode the subway back to Manhattan. This time we got off at One World Trade Center. One WTC was the highlight of the entire RV trip for me. I am not a city guy. I prefer mountains, streams, lakes, and forests. One WTC was one of the most impressive places I’ve ever been.

We rode the elevator up to the observation deck. We rocketed up 1776 feet in one minute. The view from the top of the One WTC was one of the most amazing views I have ever seen. The observation deck had a 360-degree view of New York City. The Statue of Liberty was tiny viewed from the observation deck of One WTC. We were 1/3 of a mile up from street level. The views of lower Manhattan were extraordinary.

The view looking north into Manhattan strained my visual sense of depth and perception. I could scarcely comprehend the expanse I was seeing. The buildings went on for miles and miles, surrounded by water on three sides. I was awestruck.

Memories of a dream I had 40 years ago haunted me. I was in New York City, looking up at impossibly high buildings that went on for miles without end. I just wanted to go home. I looked up at the buildings while we walked around Manhattan, and the dream images from so long ago flickered in my mind and were still vivid. I felt the same sense of wonderment that I felt in the dream except I didn’t feel the need to get out of there. Crime did not scare me. Many of the places we were walking were filled with tourists.

We rode the elevator like a bolt of lighting back down to the concourse of the One WTC. In the concourse, I took my favorite photo of the trip. Chris and Erica were swing dancing. I felt like we were in a movie.

We exited One WTC. We entered the structure through the subway. This view was the first time we saw the magnificent engineering marvel of a structure from the outside. I was astounded.

We ate New York Pizza in a sidewalk cafe near the One WTC. There was a crazy lady screaming with her pants down. Everyone ignored her as if this was an everyday happening. Perhaps these scenes are common. There was a guy nearby playing the trombone. He was awful, and the blaring brass hurt my ears.

Then we got on a sightseeing ship on the East River and saw the Manhattan Skyline from the water level. The ship cruised down to the Statue of Liberty. We went under the Brooklyn Bridge. I began to understand how the five boroughs of NYC are laid out.

Then we went back to our RVs in the urban RV park. Chris actually drove us into Manhattan to eat at a fancy restaurant near Park Blvd and 54th Ave. We had a great dinner, except they tried to pad our bill by an extra $200 with extra bottles of wine and side dishes. I noticed the extras on the bill immediately. The manager said that she had seen this happen before, a bottle from a different table getting put on the wrong table.

There were hundreds of bottles of wine on the wine list. What are the chances that some other table ordered the exact same bottle we did?  I informed her had seen this before, trying to take advantage of out of towners. On the tip line on a $500 bill, I wrote, thanks for trying to take advantage of out of towners and left a $0 tip. Go figure, New Yorkers trying to steal from you. I would never live there and don’t think I will ever go back. I suspect they get away stealing all the time by adding extra bottles of wine to the tab. Then they seize the extra bottle of wine to sneak home with them. We enjoyed an incredible day and didn’t let these thieves spoil the end of our day. I immensely enjoyed the time we spent in NYC.

The next day we went whale watching in New Jersey leaving from Sandy Hook. Our whale watching tour in Bar Harbor was canceled due to poor visibility. This trip turned out to be much better. There were only about 10 people on the boat instead of the 200 people who would have been on the boat in Maine. We saw a Mama and baby whale up close, that was very cool. The calf was born about six months ago somewhere in the Caribbean Sea. They migrated north together.

We headed back to Liberty Harbor and prepared to leave the next day and drive south through New Jersey. We spent three nights just east of Philadelphia. From New Jersey, we went south into Delaware for a night. Then we drove west to Maryland, just north of DC. We spent three nights in Maryland before continuing to drive south on I-95 south past Washington DC, through Virginia, and then into North Carolina.

The drive through the northeast corridor on I-95 over the last 10 days wore me out. I decided to rest a few days in North Carolina. This is where I parted ways with Chris and Erica. Chris and Erica continued on their way along the coast of North Carolina while I rested in Roanoke Rapids. I am so happy that I changed my mind and traveled this route with Chris and Erica. The experiences we shared together on this trip I will remember for a lifetime.

New York New York – Frank Sinatra