Washington Bound
We’re on the train heading south to see our friends from four years ago, Jim and Jayne Thomsen, who live out of Washington in Maryland. It will be good to catch up; and to see Gettysburg which is close-by.
Yesterday we had some lessons in the NY subway – me, first of all, when I got on an express train by mistake which took me from 34th to 59th – then all the way to 125th when I wanted to get off at 72nd. Earlier I had walked to the bottom east side corner of Central Park to change our train tickets at an Amtrak office, only to find it closed down eight years ago. I was then going to hire a bike and ride back to the hotel. Instead I got on a train to Penn Station. It was there that I saw a dead man on the sidewalk.
When I finally got back together with Glenys and Hannah I found they had both bought shoes that I reckon are more like slippers. After a bite to eat, we set off for the 9/11 memorial. We had no idea you first had to obtain tickets and then go through a series of security checks in a queue extending for miles. It would have been better to have visited with more room to move and time to reflect more on the enormity and horror of that day. But I’m glad we got to be there.
There are so many people in NY and so many visitors wherever you go. Even walking across the Brooklyn Bridge we were in a crowd. In the haze or fog we could just make out the Statue of Liberty.
The second subway lesson was being on the D Train in peak hour. I haven’t ever been surrounded so closely by so many strangers; almost glued to them. We were on our way to dinner in Harlem with Bronwyn and Josie. There, it felt like we were in another country where everyone is black. Bronwyn said she’s not the only ‘snowflake’ now but when she came there a few years ago the locals thought she was a cop.
She had cooked a tasty vegetarian meal for us, some special nibbles, and a yummy sweet potato dessert. We shared so many stories we were there till 10.45. That’s when we had train experience #3. We were waiting for the B, not knowing it doesn’t run that late at night; so we were forced to take the D to 59th and then get the #1 back to 72nd. It was midnight long before we got to bed.
You need weeks, if not months, to explore NY, and we had just a few days. I guess we got a sip of it. I could only live there if we had an apartment somewhere near our midtown hotel which is leafy, uncrowded, close to the Park and the river, and all the extraordinary delis. Without Hannah we might still be trying to get ourselves un-lost – what a brilliant navigator she is!!! Now she’s heading home to Montreal while we begin the last leg of our journey. It’s be so good to have her with us.
In My Life 
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