got up and sneaked out quietly again to go walk around for about an hour. Picked up the papers and read about the record heat of the previous afternoon. It was hot. And by the feel of things already at 5:30am it was gonna be another hot one on this day, but we would be escaping the heat on an air conditioned bus - so we were thinking anyway. I read the papers for a bit in Herald Sqaure and then went back upstairs and found The Gorgeous One just waking up. We had packed most of our stuff back up the previous evening - all that was left was to get all our stuff out of the bathroom (shampoo, shaving cream, sunblock, blah blah blah...all the crap you need while travelling for a week.) and pack that up and go down to the front desk and check out. We watched a bit of TV and finally at around 9:15 or so we decided it was time to leave. Checking out was no problem - there were not alot of people checking out and we were helped in short order by a pleasant middle-aged lady. We took a last glance around the lobby and turned and walked out the revolving front door at the Martiniqe for the final time for 2010. It kinda sucked to be leaving.
(Images via: NYCDreamin Archives)
So it's about 9:40am now and we're walking a few short blocks west on 32nd over to 7th Avenue and then up around Madison Square Garden and a block over to 8th Avenue. Then north up to 42nd street and our final destination in NY, the Port Authority Bus Terminal. We lingered outside a bit in the already stifling mid-morning heat while I had a couple of smokes. We had a bit of time to kill so we went down to the floor our bus departed from (gate 69) and waited in the larger waiting area for most of an hour. Then, when gate 69 cleared out the people who were catching an earlier bus all left, we were the first ones in the line for ours - meaning we got our choice of seats again.
It was still another hour and some minutes until we were to leave and we remained the only people in the line for quite a while. But about half an hour before the bus was to leave a few people began showing up, but not many. About 15 minutes before we are to start boarding the bus, this reeeeaaallly fucked up looking Mexican dude gets into the line. He seems to be struggling with one of his bags. Upon looking closer, the "bag" was a burlap tarp (?) pulled togeter at the corners and tied off. Now that wouldn't be wierd in and of itself, but the shit he has piled into the bag start to spill out on the floor as he sets his things down - empty, crushed plastic pop and water bottles. A bunch of them. He sets his stuff down and begins to unzip this duffel bag he has with him and...we were close enough to see this...there's like a bunch of paper garbage in there! Like just random paper and small cardboard pieces and shit. Crazy. The dude looked it to...his eyes were a deep bloodshot red and he looked to be in serious need of a shower. This is not the guy you want to get stuck sitting next to on a bus for any length of time, not one fucking minute. So pretty soon the bus starts boarding and since there are not many people getting on it all goes rather quickly. We get our seats and get situated. Pretty soon we can see "Garbage Dude" has gotten on the bus with his stuff...and as hes trying to shove the burlap tarp with the bottles into the overhead luggage rach, a bunch of the bottles start falling out onto the floor. So he begins shoving them in the rack a little more emphatically, then quickly picks up the ones from the floor and shoves them in too and sits down about half-way back on the bus. We're not surprised when no one sits by this guy.
We get situated and soon the bus is on it's way under the Hudson River, back above ground and out of Manhattan into New Jersey for a quick 10 minute stop in Newark to let a few people on. As we'd been coming just this far I'd mentioned to my lovely travelling companion that I thought it was a bit hot on the bus even. No doubt outside it was approaching 100* fast, but I thought maybe the driver wasn't turning up the AC or something. So we drive out of Newark and through parts of NJ I've never gone through on my way home. And it's not getting any cooler on the bus...it might be getting warmer actually. And after about an hour I'm certain of it - it's way to warm on this bus.
And other people are mentioning it around us and this one large fellow yelled up at the bus driver, "Hey Driver!!! It's HOT on this bus, Man!" I don't think the driver responded, just kept driving. We made a quick 25 stop in Philadelphia and got off the bus. I caught a quick smoke. It was absolutely roasting outside in downtown Philly on this day, same intense heat as NYC. As we talked to one of our fellow travelers, who had come down from Boston, he said it was the same thing there the previous day, 103*. So our 25 minute break is over - we get back on the bus and it feels a bit cooler than outside - for about 10 minutes - then it's right back to hot. And then we noticed Garbage Boy was no longer on the bus. We hadn't seen him leave. He may have got off in Newark, I don't know. But he was off the bus and we were a bit happier for it...the dude was just all sorts of wierd.
So we're rolling down the road into Pennsylvania on this bus with basically very little A/C with outside temps nearing 100*. Yeah...good times. All you can do is sit back and try to get comfortable and the more you fight it the more miserable it becomes. Nothing can be done about it. Luckily we have plenty of water with us so liquids are not an issue. The guy behind us continues to go on and on and on about it and almost drives us nuts. I hope the heat doesn't push him over the edge or something - he's a big guy. We make another stop in Harrisburg, PA around 6:30pm. We get off the bus for a scheduled 25 minute break and find out that it is indeed 101* in Harrisburg at this hour. I smoke. We get back on the hot ass bus and continue on until our 8:30pm meal break about half way through Pennsylvania. We get off the bus...and mercifully, it seems to be cooling off a bit. Maybe the bus will cool down a bit by the time we get to Pittsburg. We travel on through PA for a few more hot and uncomfortable hours on this god-forsakenly hot bus and finally arrive in Pittsburgh around 11:15pm. We've been travelling for nearly 11 hours on this hot bus...it's gotta get better on the next leg of the trip.
We got to our gate - got on our new and air conditioned(!) bus and we were on our way into the night at 12:30pm - just a bit behind schedule. Everybody seemed to settle in and rest - it was very quiet on the bus almost as soon as we pulled out of Pittsburgh, and the bus was much fuller now, maybe one or two empty seats remained. We slept for a while and were up just a few hours later to get off the bus again, this time for a 50 minute break in Cleveland. Nothing interesting happened while we were there...back on the bus and back to sleep until around 6:00am.
Woke up and about half an hour later we pulled into Rest Stop #281 or whatever numer it was called, someplace in the middle of northern Indiana I guess, where there was a Hardees and a convenience store. We got hot ham and cheese bisquits and waters and hopped back on the bus.
Chicago was our next stop, about two and a half hours away. When we arrived there...it was complete bedlam. The place was as packed as I've ever seen it and people were lined up in lines that criss-crossed each other and shit like that - people sprawled out on the floor with like 10 bags of crap with them. Kids running around while adults sat and yelled at the to stop running around but did little to actually prevent it. Yeah...the Chicago bus terminal can be a fun place. We waited about an hour and were eventally boarded on a very uncrowded bus where it was possible to stretch out a bit and rest your feet on the armrest of the seat in front of you if you liked without bothering somebody. From Chicago it was about 10 hours home with stops in Milwaukee, Madison, Tomah and Eau Claire, WI. Being that the bus was uncrowded, it was pretty quiet. The Gorgeous One listened to her CD player most of the way across Wisconsin. I chose to sleep...makes the ride go faster.
We arrived in Minneapolis just before 8:00pm on July 8th, about 32 hours after leaving NYC. The temperature upon getting off the bus was maybe in the high 70's - low 80's with very little humidity - very comfortable compared to the 5 day steam bath we'd just endured out east. We met up with Miss J.'s father and went over to their house to retrieve our cat Oreo, who was very happy to see us back. We showed some photos, gave some gifts and then came home to unpack and unwind.
It usually takes me a few days to come off my NYC buzz when I get home and luckily I had a few more days until I had to go back to work so I could relax a bit. It's something I just don't do on vacation in NYC - relaxing - or not much of it anyway. There's just too much to see in such a short time to be "relaxing". Anyone who visits NYC from another town and relaxes while on vacation in the city is crazy. Walk. Walk. Walk. And then walk some more. Walk till it hurts. And then keep walking. Get a good night's rest and then get up and walk until it hurts again the following day. After about day 3 you get used to it and it doesn't hurt so much anymore and you walk some more. You might take a subway ride or two, but mostly...you walk. Heat or no heat. There's alot of beautiful city there to explore and not alot of time to do it.
That's how you see the city of New York.
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