I
had a master plan of how Friday, Oct. 26th was going to turn out. I
bought a ticket through US Airways (first mistake!) that took me to PA where I
was to meet the rest of my siblings and extended family for my cousin Aaron's
wedding in Philly. I arrived in Philly at 3pm, but my luggage did
not. It went to NY (another long story), and because I needed that
luggage for the evening, I had to retrieve it myself. Rather than getting
off in Philly to hang out with everyone, I flew to NY. I arrived there at
about 6pm and got my luggage, breathing a sigh of relief. Now the trick
was how to get back to Philly in rush hour traffic!
I
called my brother Peter who lives in Manhattan and he chose to have me take
public transportation since I arrived at the worst possible time in NYC.
These were his exact instructions, "Take the Q33
Bus to the Jackson-Roosevelt train station then transfer to the E train (blue)
going downtown to the World Trade Center, get off at 42nd street/Port Authority
Bus stop. Pick up the Greyhound there."
Really? I live in Frisco, TX, which means that almost
everything I need is located off of one main road- Preston. And I can
drive anywhere in one car, by myself, with my Google Maps if necessary. This
was going to be a huge challenge, and I started to panic a little more when I saw
that my phone was dying and thought, "Hope it's just the phone and not
me!!"
I headed out of the airport and followed a mass of people
outside who all looked like they knew exactly what they were doing. I
watched several buses go by and had no idea which ones they were until I saw
one that said "M60" with flashing lights on the front window.
Then I realized that I had to be looking for the flashing letters and numbers
on the buses- hello!! Q33 finally arrived and I got on. I had asked
a stranger right before how much the bus was, and he said "$2.25", so
I had my bills and a quarter ready to go. When I tried to put it into the
box next to the bus driver, he said I had to have exact change in coins only. I must
have looked like I was going to cry because then he quickly said, “Don’t worry
about it, just get on.” Who said
New Yorkers weren’t nice?
Once on the bus, I began to frantically write down Peter’s
instructions on paper so that I would have them in case I completely lost power
on my phone. I called him briefly
to say that I was on the bus, and he reminded me that the Greyhound left
promptly at 8, so I needed to try to purchase my ticket online first and do my
best to get there quickly. It was
about 6:45pm.
I used up the rest of my power on the phone to buy my bus
ticket online, and then asked the lady next to me how to get to the
subway. She smiled and said, “The
bus takes you right there at your next stop. You’ll be fine.”
Again, a sweet New Yorker!
I arrived at Jackson-Roosevelt, walked down into the subway
station, purchased my Metro ticket, and tried to find the E train (Blue) going
downtown to the World Trade Center.
There were 2 E trains and lots of other letters in the subway
station!! As a train was
approaching, I asked the guy next to me, “Is this the E train to the World
Trade Center?” and he practically shouted, “No!! This one goes to Queens!! Run up the stairs, go across to the other side and get on
the E train going to Manhattan!”
Thank you, random commuter, for saving me from going the wrong
direction!
Hurried onto the correct train and arrived at 42nd
street. It was 7:20pm and I was
starving. I had hardly eaten
breakfast since I was at school by 8am that morning for an assembly, and then
had driven from there to the airport.
I hadn’t eaten lunch since I expected to hang out with my family and eat
at the hotel in Philly.
There were a few places to pick up a bite to eat at the Port Authority
stop, but I wanted to secure my bus ticket first. I expected it would take about 10 minutes to get my ticket
and then I could eat while I waited to leave at 8pm.
Instead, I waited in line for 30 minutes to pick up my bus
ticket from will call, and then walked to the end of a massive line waiting for
Gate 68 to Philly a little before 8pm.
I knew it would be a long night, but I was relieved to finally be at the
bus stop, proud of the fact that I actually made it there in one piece and on
time! Philly was only a 2-hour
ride away now. I waited, and
waited, and waited, and finally at 8:30pm I asked the people next to me if they
knew why weren’t moving at all in the line or getting on the bus. They had no idea either, so I asked
someone to save my place in line so I could go to the front and ask what was
going on.
Guess what? The
people at the front of the line were waiting for the 6:00pm bus and had been
there for 3 hours!! When I
heard this news, my stomach fell.
I just couldn’t believe that there was now a 3-hour delay at the bus,
which meant I’d be waiting another 5 hours to get to Philly. I wanted to scream!
I came back to my place in line and explained to everyone
around me what was going on. Some
people just left right away, some stayed, but one young guy suggested, “You
know, we could probably take the Amtrak train and get there quicker than
waiting for the Greyhound.” So I
went with option #3 and followed New York angel Mike to the Amtrak.
We
took the Amtrak to Trenton, New Jersey, then transferred to another train going to
Philly. We arrived in Philly at
11:30pm and Mike made sure I got dropped off right to the Courtyard
Marriott. I thanked him for saving
my weekend and he said he was glad to help; he was on his way 2 blocks down for
a medical student reunion so it was no trouble. These New Yorkers are amazing!
When
I got to my hotel room, I took out all my ticket stubs from the day and
marveled at the sheer number; I had literally taken almost every possible mode
of transportation offered in NY: cab, city bus, train, Amtrak, and
airplane. The only thing I didn’t
take was the ferry! As I closed my
eyes to sleep, I thought, “I’m sure the trip out will be much smoother.” Little did I know what was in store.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment