New York, New York - The Finale

I caught the train on Tuesday evening to Yankee Stadium. The trip was OK except for a group of boys that looked to be about ten years old that were totally out of control in the train car. Their dads appeared oblivious except for the occasional “Don’t do that!” which of course did nothing. I got off the train car at the Yankee Stadium stop and was at the stadium within a few minutes. I wound my way through the metal detector and handed my ticket over to be scanned. The ticket guy said it was rejected and let me know (quite rudely) it was for Wednesday night. So, I had to force my way against the line to walk back to the Stubhub office. I got there and managed to swap my ticket out for the correct one. I wasn’t offered any reasonable explanation just a “Sorry”. It was partially my fault for not looking more closely at the ticket but this was still the first negative experience I’ve had with Stubhub.

I ran back to the Stadium (literally) and the correct ticket worked fine. I had missed the first couple of outs, but that was it. The seat was really good. I wished Jonathan could be there because I know how much he would have loved it. The Yankees scored in the first on a triple and ground-out. In the fourth, former Cardinal Carlos Beltran hit a solo shot to right to make it 2-0. The Yankee pitcher Nathan Eovaldi pitched well. The Yankees picked up two runs in the 7th and two in the 8th and won 6-0. They have a neat tradition where they play the Frank Sinatra rendition of “New York, New York” when the game ends. I walked back to the train station and caught the train back to Greystone and Ubered back to the hotel. Josh had managed to wrap up his work and would be able to go back early (Wednesday instead of Thursday). His flight out of LaGuardia was at 6am though, so he had to get up super early to leave for that. He left and I hung out at the hotel til checkout time (my flight wasn’t til 3pm). I had a nice time discussing the ins and outs of Uber with my driver.

I got to LaGuardia and for some reason was marked as “Expedited Security” which allowed me to skip the whole body scanner and taking my shoes off. I never figured out why. Just FYI, Laguardia’s security is at each gate section of each terminal. This limits where you can go eat (there are only a few restaurants in each gate section and you’d have to back out of security to go to another section). Plus, the gate areas are cramped and seating is limited. I finally just grabbed a cup of chicken noodle soup at Au Bon Pain and watched the episode of Gotham I’d missed on Monday night while sitting at one of the few empty gates. The flight was on time and we had no issues getting back to Nashville. I did fall asleep and jumped up a bit startled when the flight attendant asked the person next to me what they wanted to drink (prompting laughter from both of us). My luggage showed up within a few minutes and I set a record for catching a parking lot shuttle bus. I got to my car and headed out. I managed to get out of Nashville with little trouble – well when I managed to finally go the right way on the Briley.

My plan was to attend at Needmore church of Christ on the way home. It was quite a bit off the Interstate, but I had been there once. Plus, my friend David Carmichael and his family attend there and I looked forward to seeing them. It had started to rain quite a bit but it appeared I would make it. I had gotten off I-24 and was about halfway there when suddenly my passenger side windshield wiper completely broke loose. This made driving quite the adventure. So sadly my new plan was now to get back to the Interstate. I was a good distance from it and my GPS took me quite the back route. The rain started to dissipate but I had a new issue – I was low on gas. I was worried I might run out but seemingly out of the blue, I came upon a gas station which was open! I filled up and managed to finally get back to the Interstate. When I got off at my exit, I started hearing a thumping noise in the rear of the minivan, but I didn’t have any trouble getting home so I tabled that til next morning. When I got up the next morning, the passenger side rear tire was totally flat! I swapped it out for the spare. That was painful since it was stored under the car and you have to lower it by a screw and cable system to pull it out. Looking back I thankful that a) the driver’s side wiper didn’t come off and b) I didn’t have to put the spare on while on the side of the road. I took it to Plaza Tire and they replaced the wipers and tire – turned out there was a puncture in the sidewall.

I’d had a great time, but I was glad to be home. Would I go back? Probably. I’d really like to take Jonathan at some point so hopefully at some point in the future the Yancy men can make a trip there.

New York, New York - Part 5

On Monday, Josh had to leave to work with the group he’d come there to help. So, I was on my own. I ended up spending most of Monday just resting. My legs were shot from all the walking we’d done. I watched TV and relaxed for most of the day. When Josh got back, we ate the food that the hotel provided that night (chicken enchiladas). We took the train to Grand Central again and headed for Times Square. It was a short walk to get there.

There were a lot of people there, more than anywhere else we’d gone before. It was bright and was a total assault on your senses. There were several people dressed up as various cartoon figures (think Mario and the Cookie Monster) that wanted to take pictures with you (for tips). We were jostled up and down the streets and went into a couple of souvenir type shops. I found one that had multiple stories and all sorts of Yankee stuff. I ended up getting a Yankee onesie and t-shirt for Lucy. We found the M&M World store. It was four stories of everything M&M you could hope to see – except for a Peanut M&M mug with Donna on it. We also visited the Hershey store which honestly looked neater on the outside than inside. We grabbed a snack and just people watched for a bit (they have outside tables you can sit at). Finally, we walked back to the train station and headed back for the night.

I foraged out myself the next day. Josh was going to have to work late, so I bought a single ticket for the Yankee game that night. Turns out the Yankees deal exclusively with Ticketmaster for resale of print-at-home tickets. This however locks the seller into not being able to sell them for less than face value. I went ahead and bought from Stubhub. Turns out they have a location to pick up tickets a few blocks from the Stadium. I had also made a reservation for a tour of the UN at 1pm, so my plan was to take the train to pick up my tickets, then get back on and head to UN. I got to the Stubhub location with no problem but it took the young lady quite a long time to find my ticket. By the time I got out, I’d just missed the train into Grand Central. In order to try and save time (the next train wasn’t due for 45 minutes), I tried Lyft for the first time. I’ve always used Uber and since Lyft didn’t reach out to where we stayed, I’d not used it yet. The trip was fine. However, because of a huge jam coming into the city, I didn’t get there much sooner than if I’d taken the train.

I got in the considerable line for the UN Security office. One member of the party you are in has to get a printed out security badge. They even take your picture for it. You then walk across the street and go through security to get into the UN compound. I got in with no problem and found the area to check in (they give you a sticker to designate your tour) and settled in to wait. Our guide arrived and we headed out. She gave a really good description of what the UN does plus we got to see several displays about various UN initiatives. We also got to go into several of the UN chambers including the main General Assembly. Most of our tour group of twenty was not from the US. One lady spent most of the tour complaining about the US. Her chief complaint was “they imprison children”. I didn’t want to start an international incident, so I kept my mouth closed. I always want to say in these situations (thinking of my Papaw especially) – “If it were not for the US, Europe would be one large country of Germany not once but twice”. Our guide did point out that almost 25% of the costs of the UN are borne by the US (by far the most). Once the tour was over, I walked back to Grand Central and took the train back to Greystone station and walked back to the hotel.

In my next post, I’ll talk about my trip to Yankee Stadium and my trip home. Neither was uneventful.