Central Park, NYC
On Thursday, I packed a suitcase and a camera bag and headed out on a little road trip. For three years I have been wanting to attend a photography workshop with Mike Colon, but the workshops have always been on the West Coast (think California, Hawaii, Las Vegas) not that I wouldn’t go there, but it takes a lot more work to get there. About two weeks ago, he announced that he would be doing one in New York City. It took me a couple of days, but I got my plans worked out and signed up.
Initially I was trying to fly there and back, but I just couldn’t get the right flights and I had to be back in town by Saturday morning (I was teaching a class on Saturday). So as we often do anyway it was decided that I should drive. I left on Thursday morning, more excited that I probably should have been and headed down to stay the night with a girlfriend who lives just outside of the city.
In the good old days, when I was young and single, I would pack myself into whatever tiny car I was driving and drive for hours to get where I was going. I didn’t think twice. Ottawa to Winnipeg 22 hours, Ottawa to Delaware 8.5 hours, Ottawa to Montreal 1.45 hours… you get the picture. My little cars would burn up the highway while I sang my heart out and chugged back a diet soda or a coffee. Often I would get to my destination with a horse voice and a stiff right leg.
This trip was no different. Except there was an empty carseat in the back as a reminder that I had to be careful. My youngest Sister, who drives up and down the Eastern Seaboard all the time, thought I was too old to drive back from NYC at night, by myself. Too old!! Nobody tells me I am too old. Instead of taking the SUV that I drive everyday, I took Hubby’s teeny tiny little car. Better on gas, better to navigate in the city and better to park in teeny tiny parking lots. To be honest, I have only driven this car about four times since we got it last fall, I just never had the opportunity so it was a fun trip even if my butt got a little sore bumping over the roads. I loaded up the CD player with my favorite CD’s a cooler full of snacks and drinks and the trunk with my gear and a suitcase. And off I went.
There were a couple of casualties though. The biggest one being… I lost two hubcaps!!! Now before I left, I thought they seemed a bit loose, but Hubby assured me they were good to go, so I didn’t think much of it. I hit many, many crazy potholes on the way down and back so these puppies could be anywhere from here to NYC and back again. And I assure you that the music was loud enough that I didn’t hear a thing. And what would I have done anyway, stopped on the highway to pick them up? Not likely. Hubby thinks that perhaps one of the guys in the parking garage took them, since they are both gone on the same side. Since all the other cars in the garage were higher priced vehicles (yes, I think the guys were laughing at me in my little car) so maybe he had a little red car at home that needed the hubcaps? Either way, they are gone and life goes on… There are a few new squeaks and creaks now that someone different has been driving the car. There may or may not be a bunch of popcorn on the carpet as I munched my way up and down the highway.
I left NYC just after 6:30pm on Friday night and I got home just before 3am, my seven hour drive turned to eight when I sat in traffic in Nutley, NJ and then again at the border for 20 minutes. Apparently border guards need breaks too and in the middle of the night, they just put up a barricade and make you wait. It felt very good to drive like that again, to know I can still do it at my advanced age and that I didn’t get tired. Sure my neck was stiff and I was tired on Saturday, but I made it there and back with no worries at all. And I would do it again in a heartbeat.
J is off playing with a friend, but here are a couple of faces worth driving all night long for.
A
