There is a woman in Clearwater, Sophia. For several years, she has set me up with guys who need a ride from one job location to another.

Because she had let me make a lot of money, when she needed a ride herself, I agreed, even if that trip was over 2,500 miles long.

She needed to go to NYC to deal will some immigration stuff.

I left the house on Saturday afternoon at about 3pm and headed down to Clearwater, to get her.

After loading the car, we set off just before 6pm. Google had given me the travel time of 18-20 hours, but when I entered the address into Waze, it said 15. Whoa, that can’t be right, but hopeful.

I was actually presuming that 20 hours would be more correct, allowing for rest stops and gas.

As it was Saturday, the traffic wasn’t bad, except for the singular accident that was only a few miles away from her house, we didn’t even get across the bay yet, that delayed us about 30 minutes. Only one, so I can accept it.

I ran up I-75 until just past Ocala, then had to cut through the dreaded US-301, speed trap alley. I was conscious of the signs and had no problem with cops, but did have a downpour.

Once in Jacksonville, I got onto I-95, and had the oddest direction I’ve seen, “Rt turn in 903 miles”. That does make it simple, just hit cruise control and relax. Except it isn’t that simple, as there are a few by-passes around DC, Baltimore, and Philly, so the turns were much sooner than it stated.

I was fine until around 5:30 or so, I was starting to feel it and was having a hard time keeping my eyes open, so I checked my rest stop app and there was one 20 minutes away. Even in that short time it was hard, I only realized the exit was there at the last moment.

She had asked me several times, while stopped, if I was okay. I was, at those times. I was trying to get closer to daylight before allowing her to drive, as I don’t know how well she can drive at night, but when I stopped and got out, I was hoping she would offer to drive then. Nope, she just went back to sleep. Oh well.

I got in the passenger seat and slept very briefly and poorly, without the car running, it got quite hot, especially for 6am in VA.

Around 8, I got out and went to the toilet and changed my shirt, it was sweaty. I wish I could get a shower, but no option there.

An hour or so later, we stopped at the largest Huddle House I have ever seen, it was almost a real restaurant. We were still in VA, but they had Yankee prices, coming to over $30 for just the two of us.

Google had shown me a toll bridge, going across to Staten Island. Wikipedia says it is $16-24, depending on day and time. In Clearwater, Waze was giving me a estimated toll of $72. WFT???

In looking at the directions, it had a few toll roads and express lanes. The latter I could ignore, but the others I was going to have to get closer before it would re-route better.

After breakfast, I tried again. Too many tolls around DC and beyond, even with the settings changed to bypass tolls, it would not.

Waze, Google, even (shudder) Apple Maps would not skip them. Since I knew about the one bridge, I tried setting the destination for Newark, NJ, just across the river. That did work, partially.

I took the I-495 loop around DC on the west side, since I had previously gone on the east, when I drove home after buying a car off eBay. I then headed up towards York, PA. This was adding at least an hour, but it was the only route I could get to come up without tolls.

One item that bugged the crap out of me, the signs state “YORK PA”. There is no comma, even though there should be. I initially wondered what the “pa” was.

Near York is Lancaster, which is kinda funny if you know the War of the Roses. Also went through Reading, which lends its name to a work truck company.

I was passing Newark airport, right about the same time as was originally supposed to be picking up a couple in Tampa, that was flying from there. For some reason they didn’t want to ride 20+ hours in my car. Odd.

I followed the directions to get to Brooklyn, seeing signs for “Holland Tunnel”, but went across the Verrazanno Bridge instead. There was a toll for this bridge also, but it had tickets and accepted cash.

As the car before me took the automated ticket, I see the message stating he may proceed. As I pulled up, no ticket was dispensed, but the message said “E-ZPass accepted”. I have a SunPass, not E-Pass or E-ZPass. I guess it is just a singular message.

Directions led me across Staten Island, then we went to Brooklyn’s China area, for dinner. Somehow we missed lunch.

Sophia is originally from the Cantonese region of China and was home sick, so we went to a Cantonese restaurant. It was good, but still full from breakfast.

We arrived at the restaurant around 6pm, only 24 hours since I picked her up. God I’m tired. After several stops and a detour, the 20 hour estimate sounds accurate.

20 minutes to drop her off, then 45 to my hostel, in Queens. Strange that the subway would take an hour, I thought public transport was supposed to be faster.

Arriving at the hostel, I find a reasonable close parking space and go to check in, 8pm, nearly 29 hours after I left the house. I get in bed and don’t get out until almost 10am. I wasn’t sleeping the whole time, just enjoying not being in the car.

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I roamed around, for most of Monday, just looking for something interesting. I got a egg and cheese sandwich for breakfast at a bodega, not bad, but not good either. Just something to fill the hunger need.

For most trips, I have time to plan and organize my time. This was an almost a spur-of-the-moment trip, so I didn’t have any subway knowledge or iPad program. If I don’t know which line to take and where to get off, then it would be very difficult and expensive.

I did go down into the nearest station, and asked the employee about any 3, 5, or 7 day tickets, many cities have them available for tourists. They did not, but she stated they have a “temporary” card that I can load up and then it will simply deduct the price as it is used.

There are many problems with that. First, I have to store money on the card, which I probably won’t need. Second, I will have no idea of how much is remaining, unless I know the price of every use and correctly deduct the amount in my head. And also, can I get the unused remainder back? Probably not.

New York is boring. Well, for me at least. I don’t care about sports, so the Yankees and Knicks are out. I can’t afford Broadway, and I didn’t bring the right clothes anyway. There are quite a few good museums, but when I was checking online, the prices are outrageous. Several were $30, and one was over $80, just for me to walk around a bit and looking. It isn’t like I’m taking them home. I would have like to head to Chinatown or the Korean district, the problem of getting there and back, safely and inexpensively.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind spending money on a vacation, but I was here for “work”. I had given her a large discount to what I would have charged someone else, so I didn’t want to go over budget. Also, I don’t want to throw away money, so some frugality is always needed when away from home.

I ended up at a small river side park, very nice looking, but not really anything to do or anywhere to sit in the shade. There was a nice, small community garden. The East River isn’t much to look at either. No sightings of mobsters dumping bodies, so I’m still alive.

There was another park, next to the Queensboro Bridge, aptly named the Queensbridge Park. There was a crew, which looked like they might be a film crew. Maybe they were going to film a scene for a movie or just a commercial. I saw no cameras nor anyone that looked “film-able” so I didn’t hang around.

Both parks overlooked Roosevelt Island and Manhattan. I could spot the Chrysler Building, but didn’t recognize anything else, since I’m not an expert. I took a few photos, and then returned at night, to get the same, just for comparison. I saw no way to walk to Roosevelt Island. There may be walk lanes on the bridge, but the end was a bit far from the river, and the bridge is high above the island.

I did find a free museum, just roaming around. It was the MOMA PS1. I presume it was connected with the other MOMA, the Museum Of Modern Art. The art inside was “modern” in that it was mostly shit, but there were a few good and interesting pieces. It was originally a public school (a PS), that was converted into the museum after the school closed.

The hostel had a rooftop deck, so I went up, but nothing really to see from only 30-ish feet higher than the road.

I really shouldn’t crap all over the city, after all, I only saw a small section, and to their credit, I did not see any homeless. Hell, I can’t go through Ocala without that.

I did see 3 young colored boys pushing a cart with several huge bags of cans, obviously on their way to recycle them, except it was the middle of Monday, a school day. Eh, I’m not their dad, why should I care.

Also I saw an Asian man, several times as my wandering wasn’t straight. He had a bunch of plastic bottles, again for recycling. If you look at the label, most bottles will have a notice about a 5¢ deposit in several states, including NY.  Dang, I should have been saving them and bringing them with me.

With all the trash thrown out, there is no reason anyone should not be able to make enough money to eat.

 

I checked in with her, that night, about her progress. She stated it may take a week to get done, so I decided to return home the next morning.

Staying in a room for a few days was cheaper than the fuel, but not staying an entire week.

I woke up and got ready to leave and checked in with her again, just in case she needed me for anything. I got a “no”, so I headed out.

I have discovered, mapping programs are okay for relatively short trips, but once you hit some length, their estimates are crap. I believe this has to do with conditions at the time you check the route. Whereas 11am is not rush hour, but your if trip goes that long, then it will be. They do not account for that, I think. My 17 hour estimate became an 20 hour drive, and I didn’t even see any heavy traffic.

An entire audiobook completed and then half of another was done on the way home.

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After a couple days, I needed to check back in, on Friday,

I had a pickup on Wednesday and I had to leave before Monday morning, to get back in time.

Fortunately, she had just finished her paperwork and I could go up and get her.

I left at about 2:30 am, Saturday morning and would arrive around 8pm. That was the estimate I was given all the way up.

I stopped in MD for a toilet break and the estimate moved about 15 minutes. I had not stopped that long, but maybe with the slowing down and getting back up to speed.

By the time I had to stop near Philadelphia, the estimate had jumped almost an hour. By Trenton, NJ, it was another 20 minutes.

My plan was to arrive at 8pm, park and crash out for 2-3 hours, before picking her up at 11. Now I was arriving at 10, plus I realized, it was Saturday night, everyone would be home, so there would not be anywhere to park.

I was right, not a single space was to be seen. So when she texted to find out what time I would arrive, I just went ahead and picked her up.

Up to this point, I had a short “tiredness” around 4am, but nothing since daylight. I was able to keep on driving until around 2:30am, when I decided to pull off into a rest stop. I got into the passenger seat and tried to get rest, but it was poor, only 20-30 minutes at a time. So after 4 hours, I decided it was time to continue.

Shortly after, since it was morning, we stopped at a Waffle House, which had thick outer windows and pass through slots, as it was closed for dining on weekends. What? Isn’t that when they get the most business? What kind of dangerous area are we in?

The drive was mostly uneventful, fortunately, other than seeing a large inflated turtle on the shoulder of the interstate, probably a pool toy.

After entering Florida, I got a text from one of my local amigos, needing to go to the bank. Since I would not be home for hours, I pushed him off until the next day.

Passing Stark (speed trap capital of the world) I got a phone call from another amigo. he needed a ride to Ocala the next day. Will no one let me rest???  He did buy lunch, so I can’t complain, well I can, but shouldn’t.

I got home at 12:30 am, only 46 hours after leaving and 5,000+ miles for the week. I put down some food for the cats and dropped into bed.