Yesterday was an amazingly productive day for me. Not only did I write a lengthy post for this blog, but later in the day I wrote another in my series of erotic short stories. This one grew to 8K words! I regret that I can't share it with you, but I am trying to find a place where I can have it published.
Enough of that, though, let's get back to the travelogue:
I awoke early and well rested on my second full day on the east coast. We had done a little planning at the computer the night before, and now Russell and I were ready to tackle our trip to New York City. I can't tell you how much I love being in NYC. Ever since I went there for a long weekend with my friend Laura four years ago, I've been yearning to go back. The city makes me feel alive in a way no other city does. I wish I had a job that afforded me the opportunity to live there.
We left the house early and drove 20 minutes to the nearest train station. Even this excited me! I've read too many John Cheever stories to not be thrilled at riding into the city with the commuters. (The truth is, though, we were hours later than the commuters, who grab the earliest trains.) And what a pleasant experience these trains were compared to the Metrolink trains I've been riding for the past four years. The seats are roomy and comfortable and— wonder of wonders!— there is even an overhead rack for stowing your bags, coats, etc. The Metrolink gives you a narrow seat and then expects you to hold all your bags and other items in your lap. To to it off, the commuter train into NYC was quieter and smoother as well.
I spent most of the ride staring out the window at the passing sights. As I've said before, when in the presence of new landscape or other new sights, it's hard for me to do anything but watch. Russell kept me informed about the passing cities and sights as we sped by, and in a short time our train pulled into the famous Penn Station underneath New York City. Penn Station is one of the major hubs for transport into and out of the city.
We got off the train and started looking for the nearest escape routes to the surface. We'd already decided to start the day by having a full breakfast at a nearby diner where Russell's father used to eat daily when he worked in the city. Jack, Russell's father, worked for a time for the Musician's Guild, Local 802, just a few blocks from Penn Station. Around the corner is the Olympic Diner, an authentic NY eatery. We must have had our tourist badges on display when we walked in because we were shown to a window seat and got to spend breakfast watching the street outside. For a 'watcher' like myself, there is no better treat than enjoying steak and eggs with a cup of coffee and watching the street life happen just a few feet away. There were bundled up pedestrians and work men on foot. The vehicular traffic consisted of delivery trucks, work vans, and taxis, taxis, taxis. I enjoyed a huge private laugh when I saw a bus drive past advertising itself as a Christian Tour Bus. I thought to myself that New York City must be the shortest tour they offer!
After eating we walked around the corner to see the Local hall where Jack worked. Russell told me a fascinating story about Jack working there on 9/11. I wish I head remembered to ask Jack myself to talk about being in the city that day. You'll see a picture of the Local hall in my Flickr archive.
(If you're curious, Ground Zero was not on our itinerary for the day. Russell had been there before, and I had visited previously with Laura. It is an emotional sight that can really drain you if you're not ready for it.)
We headed back to the underground at this point, determined to ride the subway north to the Museum of Natural History. I've seen all kinds of security in my travels since 9/11, but the NY subway is one of the few places I've seen police officers patrolling with machine guns. Honestly, they weren't just large single-shot guns; these were automatic weapons, and serious ones at that! It's hard to be anything but nervous when that level of armament is standing 15 feet behind you. It doesn't matter what color uniform he's wearing— you just stand there and hope that this isn't the moment his chemicals go bad.
Day-long subway passes in hand, we dove through the turnstiles and waited for our train. There's an inherent creepiness to the New York subway system. It would take a lot of riding to inure me to the fact that I'm riding under the city of Manhattan. More than that though are the miles and levels of now unused tracks and stations that exist, buried under the city all around one. They are parallel to the active tracks in places, and they are far far below in others. I tried to tell Russell about this, but I couldn't explain it well. Finally I used as an example Vincent's lair from the TV show of Beauty and the Beast... a show which Russell had never seen. So, the point was largely lost. But, if there were ever a place from which chuds might emerge...
The Museum of Natural History basically has its own stop on the subway route. We were able to exit our train and walk over to the museum entrance without surfacing for daylight in between. It being a weekday, there were mobs of school children all around us. In fact, one mob was being ticketed through while we discussed how much we should pay. The Museum of Natural History still functions on 'the honor system,' allowing people to pay as much or as little as they like to enter. (Some special exhibits have their own fees.) There is a suggested donation rate based on age posted at the entrance. Since we were both unemployed, when it was our turn to get tickets, Russell asked if there was a suggested donation rate for the unemployed. Without a hint of sarcasm, disbelief, or displeasure, the woman said we should just pay whatever we could. It was such a magnanimous offer that I gave the entire $8 I had in my wallet at the time. Inside, we could hardly believe how nice she was and we made jokes like "The suggested donation is get the hell out," or "I suggest you visit another museum."
The museum is several floors tall and we went straight to the top, intending to walk down. As it happens, the top floor is all dinosaur exhibits, and you'll find plenty of pictures in my Flickr account. Quite by coincidence, the first door we walked through put us face to face with that iconic T. Rex skeleton towering over us. There is nothing more impressive than that! We wandered from room to room, checking out the different dinosaur displays. In one room, there were smaller dinosaur reconstructions on display, including one of my favorites, the dimetrodon. What was particularly captivating though where the elaborate wrought-iron displays housing the partial skeletons. Those parts of the original skeleton that weren't available were supplanted by the graceful housing itself.
We wandered down one set of stairs to the famous halls filled with dioramas of the world's animals. You will have seen these dioramas in countless movies and TV shows, including the recent Night In the Museum. We dodged children throughout this level, and heard a shocking level of brusqueness from some of the teachers leading their groups. We chalked this brusqueness up to inner city children and the 21st century.
After an hour or 90 minutes in the museum, we decided to skip a few floors and head down to the Hayden Planetarium, attached to the museum on the north side. The planetarium was what had originally drawn me to the museum. The planetarium is an enormous sphere housed in a giant glass structure, looking like a big greenhouse attached to the museum. There were two enclosed hallways/ramps jutting out from the museum to different levels of the planetarium. We chose the lower one, and I was a bit disappointed to find that it didn't lead us to the real show. Instead, in the lower half, there is a brief show, narrated by Maya Angelou, discussing the creation of the universe from the moment of the Big Bang onwards. After that show is finished in three or four minutes, an opposite set of doors opens, leading out to a ramp that gentle spirals down to ground level. This ramp is marked with time divisions and displays marking the 13+ billion years of our universe. It's quite a stimulating and innovative presentation which we casually strolled past. On the bottom then we checked out a few more stationary exhibits. As we were now in the museum about two hours total, we decided to hit the streets. With no other agenda, we could spend the bulk of the day in the museum alone, but there were so many other things we wanted to see.
Stay tuned for Part 8!
Until next time.
"A nickel will get you on the subway, but garlic will get you a seat."— unattributed
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