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Published: March 21st 2013
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I left Anchorage at 10:00 AM on March 15th with clear skies and a beautiful view of the Chugach Range. Rarely have I flown out of Ted Stevens International Airport taking off to the north. That particular flight plan took us over the city and Joint Base Elmendorf Richardson. I haven’t ever float over the bases on a clear day. It’s a pretty impressive sight, the scope of operations within the military bases. I broke a couple FAA rules and pulled out the phone for a quick photo. This brings me to an important question - who at the FAA still thinks that we turn off our cellphones when we fly? Silly regulations...
The flight to Newark was pleasant enough. I got off the plane and found the airport easy to navigate. By the time I got to the baggage claim my checked bag was already on the turnstile. It looks so professional when you just walk up and claim your bag without waiting. If I felt like a pro for a moment, all confidence was lost when I approached the train ticket station in the lobby to the sky-train. First of all, I didn’t immediately understand that their were
two trains required to get from where I was to where I needed to be. The sky-train takes people from the airport to the actual station. After standing around almost long enough to miss the 11:43 PM departure of the blue line to Long Branch, I figured out how the map was organized, purchased my ticket and ran to the sky-train. The sky-train arrived just in time for me to walk to track five at the train terminal and hop on the Long Branch.
12:48 AM - Get off the train at Long Branch to an empty parking lot in New Jersey. While I had every confidence in my friends coming to pick me up, I’ll admit it was a little disconcerting to be in a NJ parking lot around 1 AM without any idea where to go. 5 minutes passed and then the cab pulled up with Andy and Thomas. Well I shouldn’t really say Thomas was there. He was passed out drunk like a freshly dead husk of a man. In fact, without the occasional lung forward to vomit, dry heaving mostly, I wouldn’t have known the man was alive. Nevertheless, Andy was in good spirits and
we had a good time laughing about how my best friend couldn’t stay sober enough to pick me up from the airport, much less the train station an hour closer. The cab took us home to Thomas‘ place in Wall, NJ. I don’t want to give off the wrong impression, Thomas’ heart was in the right place. Despite being irresponsible with the pick-up logistics, he did manage to pry some Jersey girl off of Andy-eye-candy in the middle of club shortly before finding the cab and giving it directions to Long Branch... that’s when he passed out. After all, it was a Friday night with his brother. My fault for planning it this way.
I didn’t know it until a couple days later, but the cab drove us through Seabright and a few other communities heavily hit by Tropical Storm Sandy. The destruction is still impressive to behold. Homes are wrecked and the beach clubs being rebuilt at breakneck speed are nothing short of exactly what you see on the national news channels. The drama and affects of that storm hang in the air like a stench from a sewage treatment plant on a warm day. I also heard that much of the FEMA money is being withheld because they feel the ecology of the area has changed so much that flooding will be more common and unavoidable. So much for rebuilding.
After getting home and seeing Thomas safely into the bathroom, Andy and I cracked a few more beers and slowly drank ourselves to a welcome slumber on the living room couch. There is something childishly cute and distinctly New Jersey-ish about two grown men drinking until the point of passing out in front of a TV.
This was exactly the local experience I expected.
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