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We will shortly be flying into Philly, driving our daughter back to college in central PA, moving her into her dorm, then heading about 250 miles east on I-80 to NYC to "celebrate our freedom" :Banane48:

I'm saying hypomiling because we are renting a full-size sedan, loaded up with suitcases, clothes and her computer equipment, and I'm sure the a/c will be on most of the time. I will be navigator with the maps :( , and husband driving. We've been to Philly and her school several times now, but the trip to New York will be our first in several decades. I haven't been back since a teenager so I'm sure everything's changed and Times Square is no longer the seedy place it was then. I am making lists of all the hot delis and eateries we must try -- (can we possibly eat 5 meals a day?) -- and maybe fit in a couple Broadway shows if husband can hold up. The walking is going to be especially tough for him but he really wants to see NY again. Also dusting off our umbrella as we hear you folks out there have this thing called "rain in summer"....;)

Hi Tarabell:

___I do not know if you left yet but if you haven’t, I hope you enjoy your vacation! Be sure to take plenty of pics … If you are heading into NY City, are you going to see Ground Zero? If so, please take plenty of pics of that hallowed ground for me as I have never been there. Hopefully early next year myself …

___And about driving, you may be a better navigator then your husband but I know you are a much more fuel efficient driver … He might like to drive but considering the facts … You know what I mean ;)

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Heh heh... My worst tank of gas EVER was when I was driving at 70 MPH on really hilly terrain in PA. The IMA was always below 4 bars because the hills were just so dang steep. It didn't help much that the front tires were practically flat because I hadn't checked the pressure in about six weeks. My FE for the trip was a whopping 36. Yippie!

Our summer road trip turned out quite a bit better than expected. I tend to stress over details and vacations often seem like just more details to take care of, instead of being relaxation periods. But this one was quite memorable and I actually can’t wait to do it again. There isn’t any hypermiling talk in this post, since I didn’t drive, but I just felt motivated to do a trip report anyway, mostly for the WTC anniversary today.

Our trip to daughter’s college was good, other than the fact that our rental apparently came with a flat tire. The car seemed to be really fishtailing and making me queasy but husband didn’t want to stop and lose time. I was sure something was wrong and finally a truckdriver honked and motioned to us, pointing to the rear of our car and putting his hands together in the classic “flat” signal. That finally convinced him to get off at the next exit where we luckily ran right into a Goodyear place. They looked at it and couldn’t find anything major wrong so he just put air into it and it stayed fine all the way, even on to NY.

Daughter got more and more excited the closer we got to her school. Just like the proverbial horse going back to the barn. She did very well for herself this summer – got a theatre job, took two college classes for her general ed requirements, and drove herself (safely) everywhere. So I'm sure she was sick of being cooped up with us all summer and was pawing the ground to get her independence back again. It was hard for Mom and Dad to say goodbye to her the next day, but we hit the road this time with her empty suitcases stacked inside each other, and headed for the lights of the Big City. We had light rain all the way, but both the tire and my husband held up well and we made the trip in about four hours.

As I mentioned, I hadn’t been to NYC since a teenager so it all looked new to me. Coming in from the NJ Turnpike, a touching sight was the many American flags hanging from overpasses, probably a tradition that's been ongoing since 9/11. Then we came out of the Lincoln Tunnel and headed down 42nd street. At that moment I only wish we had Gershwin’s "Rhapsody in Blue" playing as a driving soundtrack. The city seemed like a movie set of itself – the canyons of streets with walls of skyscrapers on each side, the crowds of people, the swarms of yellow taxicabs -- it all had a feeling of excitement that laid-back LA just doesn’t have. Not sure I could live there, but I enjoy the differences, not the similarities when I travel, and NY has differences in spades.

My husband and I like to see cities by walking so NY was simply made for us. Unfortunately he has lost a lot of his stamina due to illness so I had to be careful to plot our routes with a hotel in easy reach he can drop into to sit or make a pit stop. Still we managed to cover a lot of ground in midtown around Central Park, the theater district and Times Square and some of Greenwich Village. We would have taken the famed subways but felt we would miss seeing a lot above ground so we took taxis when necessary, which seemed pretty cheap and convenient compared with LA. We also went to two Broadway plays which were excellent, and we were glad we made the effort. I thought LA had a big theater community, but have to say NY sure lives up to the hype.

Our cab rides were fairly exciting. It delighted me to see that NY cabbies actually do honk BEFORE the light turns green; just to be sure the guy in front is awake and ready to go. There seems to be no interest in FE—the cabs go like bats out of hell all the time, every time, even if they’re just going a block to the next light. And it’s equal opportunity rudeness for everyone. Our cab cut in front of a police car once and the officer rolled down his window and blistered our poor driver with the most amazing stream of invective in Brooklyn accent I wish I could have recorded. The only partly printable part was the end “didja think I was some kind of @#$% postal worker?” I was practically falling over in silent (I hope) laughter.

We usually had our morning coffee in a café across from Central Park, so one thing we enjoyed was watching the daily swarms of joggers and dog walkers making their pilgrimage to the park. Below is a vista of this enormous park, looking north from our hotel room.

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Everyone seems to have an iPod, pedometer, a dog, or baby jogger-stroller, and sometimes all of the above. On one of our walks through the park we were startled by a throng of about 20 very intense-looking mothers who ran by us pushing their baby-joggers, urged on by an even more intense-looking trainer screaming instructions and encouragement (I think). Also lots of professional dog walkers, some controlling both huge and tiny dogs with each hand. Never saw a growl or fight; in fact the dogs looked a lot friendlier than the jogging mothers.

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Our other favorite thing besides walking is trying the regional food when we travel. I’ve found few things that I regret trying (except maybe “scrapple” in Philly ;) ). Ethnic restaurants however don’t interest me much because LA has some of the very best --so what I decided I wanted in NY was deli. Delis in LA are rather expensive and not especially great, but in NY it’s a competitive business and they take this food seriously. So we did some exhaustive (but extremely satisfying) research and one of our most memorable meals was in this deli, on the lower East side.

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In this place they give each person a ticket when you walk in (explains the sternly worded sign) that gets punched for each item you buy. I just loved the character of it. Here the pastrami is all hand cut and what you do is slip a dollar into the tip can and then the counterman gives you a piece to taste and you tell him how you want it made and he gives you this amazing huge sandwich that you dream about for days afterward. We split the best pastrami on rye ever here and then for our “after-lunch snack” walked down the street to this place known for its knishes, got one heated up to go, and then walked around the corner where they make real egg creams, and then headed for a little park in the Village where we sat on a bench and ate and admired all the doggies that went by and my husband got to rest and happily puffed his cigar. That at least kept the panhandlers away.

Finally, we arrived at the World Trade Center site. Unfortunately, there was not much to see as the site is entirely enclosed by a fence, with only a few viewing areas.

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This is from the subway station entrance that is right in front of the WTC site.

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I’m sure we could have gotten a better view from up above in the many buildings looking down on the site but we didn’t know where to ask. The rebuilding has started so there were plenty of workers and machinery visible.

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But there is an awful sense of emptiness also, and the wide open space you see between all these other buildings seems...just wrong. Just to the right of center in this shot is a stairway or ramp which seems like one of the few original site remnants not removed yet.

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The city has tried to give a sense of what happened here with a very poignant photo exhibition.

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There is also the names of the victims posted on a large plaque.

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You look around at the area surrounding the site though and there seems to be no trace of the disaster that happened five years ago. Not even a dusty ledge.

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You wonder of course how do two buildings like these --and thousands of people -- just disappear into thin air? The answer is that the emotional devastation and debris may be invisible, but is still quite real. My sense is that this city went through an experience that can really only be compared with one of the great world wars, like London or Dresden, one that it can never ever shake off. There were many floral bouquets hung along the fence, I’m sure by family members still in sorrow. And of course, the flags. The American flag is everywhere there in a sort of defiant symbol, but I hope they also give peace, in the sense of community and reassurance to those who are left behind. They did for us.

Tropical storm Ernesto hit us around the last day or so. My daughter suddenly became concerned about us and called my cell with weather updates every few hours, which made me laugh. We took off from Newark in what felt like a very heavy wind and rain storm. We arrived home to a quiet house, the little birdies long gone from their nest outside our window, and our big birdy's nest upstairs seems awfully empty as well.

Fantastic report, tarabell. I moved up here just at the end of 2001, during the recovery period that was certainly a difficult experience for many, and it was challenging to be tossed into all of it as an outsider. It's a strange and delightful town. Just yesterday I watched a very elderly couple ask a young, heavily bepierced punk woman (who was in her car at the time) directions to the Midtown Tunnel. In the middle of a Times Square intersection. It was a rather mundane, but strangely cute conversation. There's a respect, a comraderie, a rawness, and these are tempered by good-natured but pointed awareness of our differences. I've come to appreciate Spike Lee while being up here, and even Woody Allen, or at least much more than I ever thought I would at a younger age.

Glad your daughter is finally getting away to enjoy college on the other coast. I certainly enjoyed the same experience moving away from GA to CA. Hope she makes the best of it, and your Civic enjoy sweet relief from anxious-teen-jackrabbit-driving syndrome :bananajump: If she was ever allowed to drive it, that is

Ciao!

Hi Tarabell:

___Absolutely wonderful pics of the WTC site considering today is the 5 year anniversary! I have had the TV on all day watching the unfolding of the events from that fateful day 5 years ago. Even today, the whole event still sends chills down my spine.

___I am also glad to hear that your daughter is safe and sound on the East coast in her new surroundings for the next 4 + years and that you and your husband made it back to the LA area safely.

___You should do something in the reporting business as that was a great and well documented travelogue.

___Good Luck

___Wayne

Tarabell,

How very interesting to one that has never ever been in N.Y. for any reason.

Terry (tiger)

Just to clarify, this is actually daughter's second year at college. She started college last year, and loved it in PA, which is why she couldn't wait to get back. She is something dedicated--and a computer whiz. I wouldn't be surprised to see her name showing up in a few years as sound designer for one of those NY Broadway shows or even Cirque de Soleil.

Dogarm no, we only let her drove my old Hyundai while home, for insurance purposes. Speaking of which I'm delighted I can now delete her as a driver for the next 9 months. Boy does that lighten the premium.