New York City?????

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Happy Halloween! It was a clear and frosty morning. We planned a route to New Jersey that took us on a ring road far outside New York City, and we set off. We saw an osprey nest on a telephone pole. (Do we still call them that?) Okay, we saw an osprey nest on a wooden power line pole. No, the power lines aren't wooden. Okay, it's a power pole made of wood, but there were no lines attached anymore. The lines went across the road to a new pole. There were spikey wires attached to the osprey nest's pole about twenty feet up to keep predators from climbing the pole. Pretty neat! The oak trees have changed to dark red and even magenta. The trees all over the hillsides are glorious! Nancy called Mary to talk about some mail coming in and was chatting marily away while Rich was driving happily across the New York State border. We both missed the sign for the exit we wanted for the ring road around New York City.
When Nancy rang off and looked up, there was a sign that said "BRONX". OH MY GOD, we're dragging our camper through NEW YORK CITY!!!! How do we get out of here???? Nancy was frantically trying to decipher the many Interstates in New York City to see what we could do. Luckily, there was no traffic whatsoever. We kept driving, past the exit for the George Washington Bridge and found ourselves on the Throgs Neck Bridge. When we got to the tollbooth, we told the guy we were lost and wanted to go toward Philadelphia. He said, "You're right. You ARE lost." He took down our license and asked if we were the only people in the vehicles. (some kind of Homeland Security question?) Then he gave us a ticket that said we could turn around and come back without paying the $9.50 toll AGAIN. He explained which exit to take and how to get back on the bridge and said we should take the George Washington Bridge. From the Throgs Neck Bridge, we could see the Manhattan skyline! We certainly weren't expecting to see it on this trip! We were sad to see the smog. We got over the bridge and found ourselves in QUEENS! We were almost at Seth's apartment! He was in Columbus, Ohio, and Vivian was at work in Manhattan, or we would have called them and stopped for a chat! Nancy had time to check the map and saw that the George Washington Bridge would take us right through Harlem on Manhattan. Even though it was an Interstate and would be faster from where we now were, we decided to backtrack to the ring road and go around as originally planned. As we went back over the bridge, we looked down at a wetland area in the Bronx and saw two swans. Whew! We got back to where we wanted to be and at the first chance, we got off the freeway to use the bathroom and to get our heartrates back to normal. Oh my goodness!!! Do we have adventures?
We were having intermittent trouble with the truck cutting off, and were so GLAD nothing happened while we were on Throgs Neck Bridge! The way we ended up going, we passed the exit for Sleepy Hollow on Halloween! We crossed the Tappan Zee Bridge. (Hi, Jeanne!) We passed the towns of Somerset and Somerville, you A. K. Guthes and Deckers. At a "service area", we saw the first other Nevada plate since about Utah. Speaking of cars, we have seen more Prius cars back here than at home. There were bunches of them in Vermont, the most in any one place. As we reached New Jersey we thought of you, Jane and John. We saw grass, pastures, CORN, grain, and fruit. There are still green trees here, so the fall colors are not at their peak here yet. We saw a sign advertising Rowan University! Who knew! We could see the tall buildings of Philadelphia from across the Delaware River. They really looked beautiful, shining in the setting sun. We were almost at our new RV park as the sun was setting. Do you think the countryside is flat when the setting sun shines in your eyes UNDER the car's visor?
It was a L--O--N--G day! We slept, exhausted, but not forgetting the Manhattan skyline in the smog.

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Photos

THE BRONX!!!!
Nor much traffic at about 2:00 on a Friday afternoon

Thgogs Neck Bridge
Not much traffic here, either

Manhattan
Enlarge this one!

The Hudson River
from the Tappan Zee Bridge

Comments

[Phil Guthe]

Lost in New York City
How funny. On our trip to Boston in 1984, we pulled similar navigational errors and actually did go through Harlem and the rest, spoke with the toll operator and got a pass while being told we were way lost.