11 Hour Tour of New Jersey

So ...  Last week my work had this meeting for everyone in New York.  It's really cool because my teammates and I travel for most of our job and it's only about once a year that we all end up in the same place at the same time.  SO ..  I thought I would be nice and offer rides to some of my friends at the airport.  Those of you who know me know that I'm not the best driver to begin with.  And I'm horrible at directions.  And while for some reason I am amazingly technical at work, I can be a bit of a ditz when it comes to most everything else (The peroxide must be leaking into my brain).

One of my teammates was visiting me already so we both left my house at 8AM in the morning.  We left South Jersey near the Commodore Barry Bridge headed towards WestChester PA to pick up another of my temamates who lives out near King of Prussia.  Now I've got a pretty large SUV, although it's already filled at this point in time with enough clothes for a month (I'm actually in and out of NY all month so I planned to leave a few bags at the hotel there).  We make it out to West Chester around 9:30/9:45.  Our plan was to drop all the stuff off at the hotels and THEN go and make the airport runs.  On this day and this day alone, not only did EVERY airline decided they would not only land in the NY area on time but EARLY.  Now my GSP system decides it needs to make a complete circle around strange towns before we can get onto any highways or headed to where we are actually going.  So after driving around some North West suburb of Philly for 20 minutes we get back onto the PA turnpike.  10:15 my first friend rings in.  Landed early at LGA.  We make it to the NJ turnpike about 11:00.  Another ring in.  We explained we were almost there (um sort of if 90 minutes away is almost) and they tell us not to drop the stuff at the hotel but to come right there and pick them up.  We tried to explain about the luggage but to no avail, they insisted.  We even tried to get some bungee cord from one of the travel marts on the turnpike (not like we would have known how to attach anything to my roof rack anyway -- as far as I have always been concernd, the roof rack was there to protect the roof of my car from hitting the cement block that hangs down when going into parking garages).  No luck with the bungee.  Since we were going right to the airport, I put in Laguardia on the GPS.  (I mean how many Laguardias can there be?)

11 Hour Tour of New Jersey

Getting close to noon, my final pick up at LGS rings in.  We're almost there ..  a few blocks away.  I knew LGA was in the city, although I thought it was closer to Manhattan and not Brooklyn (where we were).  An airport admist all these tall buildings ..  I'm not seeing it.   The GPS tells us our destingation is right there ...  in the middle of brooklyn amongst a few sky scrapers ... ummm.  Apparently this was 'Laguardia Place' not Laguardia Airport.  Some minor adjustments to the GPS and were about 8 miles away.  So we manage the way to get 3 people at LGA.  We repack the back of the car to (somehow) fit all of the luggage into the back (Ok some people had to hold things to keep from hitting them in the head.) and I'm driving with someone up front and apparently 4 people in the middle row of the SUV.  We're not bad on time.  Going into the city to meet another teammate (just meet, not pickup) for lunch.  My fave pizza place "Angelos".  2nd ave and some other block.  Into the GPS ...  to  ... 2nd Ave ... in Queens (How many burroughs have we hit so far).  Now in addition to the GSP I have a former New Yorker in the car asisting me.  Apparently we need to get over some bridge to get to Manhattan.  Well between the NYer and the GPS that was a pretty well acomplished feat.  It's about 1:30 when we hit the resturant...  and the parking garage ... remember the thing about me being not so great at driving?  Applies to parking as well.  So the clearance is about 6'6".  My 6'3" friend gets out and stands next to the SUV to see if we should make it.  Looks OK.  We go into the parking garage entrance which also happens to be the exit.  (who does these things?)

Lunch went well.  I LOVE Angelo's Coal Oven Pizza in NYC.  They have these little pepperoni that get all crispy in the ovem. And I have no idea where they get their mozzerella cheese from but it is soo flavorful and awesome.  (One of these days in my travels I am going to write a book on Pepperoni Pizza of the USA.  I can always start it here in my blog).  So lunch went good.  Now to get over to the hotels.  Drop our stuff and make a JFK run.

We head over to the Palisades where everything is.  Enter the GPS (no idea why were still using this thing)  GPS takes us up towards the GW bridge.  Has us get off at highway 9, henry hudson parkway.  Drive around brooklyn for about 20 minutes, then head BACK to the GWB.  Luckily it let us go over it that time.  Stop at the center to get our name tags and welcome packets.  Drop one person off.  Head over to (get this) the 'Comfort Inn'.  Ugh ..  By the time we make it there, we get a call from our friends at JFK (eh it's only about 45 minutes away --- sure we're almost there --- they're from Austin, they can use the cold weather once in awhile).  Apparently Comfort Inn has not heard of bellmen.  I paid one of my teammates 10 bucks to carry everything up to my room.  (Including the suitcases which I packed my free weights in --- i like to be prepared).  I didn't actually go up to the room.  They came back down though and told me I had an awesome suite with a cool jacuzzi in the bedroom.  Not bad.  Well off to JFK.

I drove out there.  With 2 other people.  Not too bad of a ride.  We only end up leaving them at the airport for an hour or so.  It was the ride back that caused a few issues.  Starting with the fact that we were now out of gas.  Well the GPS which ALWAYS likes to point out icons for all of the gas stations now has nothing to say.  So we get off at an exit full of non-English signs, and (by now I had given up driving) my friend driving asks some of the guys at the car wash where the gas station was.  They direct us a few blocks.  (Probably call ahead to their gang friends to meet us at the empty block they directed us to ...) We find the gas station and somehow make it back to where we needed to be in time for the Superbowl.  It's only about 7PM now.

Going back to the Comfort Inn from the superbowl party was interesting.  9 people in my car.  I was sitting on the glove box with my head out of the sun roof ...  but everyone was still alive.

So that's the short story of my 11 hour journey from South Jersey to NYC.