Goin' Road Trippin'

9/11 memorial

10/15/2022 We all remember the day, where we were and the devastating heartbreak. To be where so much loss, death and ultimately the resilience of the American spirit is defined, brought back all the emotions of that day. I share this post for anyone who may not be able to make it to New York. I posted the plaques describing the photo above.

An officer and his K-9 working at the 9/11 memorial

The cross at ground zero that we all remember seeing, the one that reminded us to keep the faith during the aftermath, is in the middle area of the museum and they don’t allow photos.

Scooters, Starbucks and Subways in NYC

10/15/2022 we made our way to NYC. Let me tell ya, them-there PATH subways are packed with people! Mitch and I decided to take the scooters. Getting off and on a with more than your own two feet is a challenge. People have no patience or tolerance, you gotta get out of the way or get ran over.

The PATH subway system from New Jersey city will take you to the One World Trade Center, (also called the Oculus transportation hub.) Navigating back up to street level was a challenge in itself. (Just keep going up) but again mind you we had 50lb scooters. This is Mitch trying to find our way out of the building after we arrived.

This is in front of the one world observatory

Once we arrived to New York we wanted Starbucks, but where to find it? Siri told us it was there but we couldn’t find it.. finally we saw someone drinking one and they explained it was down below inside the building.

Downtown NYC (the one moment there wasn’t a person)

We got our coffees and now need to find a place to lock up the scooters. We look left, then right, but no bike racks in sight. I suggest up a street, so Mitch heads that way. As I try to hold my coffee and lift my scooter from the sidewalk down to the road from the curb, I see a cop car turn around towards me, and I don’t want to jay walk. I hesitated to continue across the road having to lift my scooter down off the curb with my drink, so I begin to turn the scooter away from the ledge of the road. In doing so, I trip myself up and completely fall backwards, with my scooter and my coffee onto the sidewalk. Of course all of this is in slow motion and as I realize my surroundings, I notice a huge line of people waiting to get into a building, and they are all looking at me. I’m still on the ground and a young man runs over to check on me, asks if I’m ok, I say, “oh yeah, thanks, I’m alright, I was just trying to save my coffee.” He then asks me again , “are you sure you’re ok?” As he helps me up from the ground. I tell him, “I’m fine, but thank you.” I think how sweet he was to be so kind, and then I had to laugh at what I must’ve looked like. When Mitch looks behind him once across the road, I’m already on my feet and he sees the guy helping lift my scooter up not knowing I’d had fallen.

We also rode across the Brooklyn Bridge

There are separate paths for bikes cars and walking

The Brooklyn Bridge is the place to buy souvenirs.
AMAZING PRICES!

After hours of touristing, tumbling and direction rumblings we both had to go!

If you eat and drink too much along the way, you’ll have to look for a restaurant in hopes they have a bathroom. Dunkin’ doughnuts did not. This diner was nice enough let us use the restroom

The view of New York from New Jersey as we head back to Harvey.

We live to drink coffee another day..

The Statue of Liberty

9//14/2022 I can’t believe I am actually writing to say we’ve seen Lady Liberty! To be here, and to share this with you all is more than I could’ve ever dreamed of.

We started our day leaving at 9 for a 9:30 security check in. First, Siri took us to a ship repair spot and we had to ask for directions, then scooted to another location to a little yellow boat and again, it was the wrong spot. Thankfully, Mitch doesn’t have an issue with asking for directions when Siri gets us all turned around.

The Central railroad of New Jersey’s Terminal

If you decide to see the Statue of Liberty from New Jersey, just route yourself to the central railroad of New Jersey Terminal

I drew an arrow pointing to the location you would need to catch the Ferry

New York City from the dock waiting for the ferry

The ride is only about 10 minutes and the first stop is Ellis Island. You can either get off and go through the National museum of immigration or stay in and go to the statue. We opted to get off, and catch a later boat.

The first thing we did was walk around, and I had to touch the top of the torch

This was where people would come in and have to wait to be processed through before coming to America

We learned a great deal about how hard it was for people who traveled so far to pursue the American dream and that at times it became a nightmare, or would not be allowed in.

All of their earthy possessions in a suitcase

Not everyone chose to come. Slave ships.

We caught the ferry at 11:40 to see the Statue of Liberty.

We thought that our pass allowed us to go up halfway inside of the statue but it didn’t. So here’s what we now know.. the island is good size with a few buildings and a restaurant. There are different types of reservations you can make; one is onto the island, another is where you can go halfway up inside of the statue called the pedestal pass and then there is the crown that you can also book online. We found out yesterday that the crown had been reopened quite recently (it was closed in 2020 since the pandemic) and it was booked out into mid November when we looked into getting tickets.

The museum is also on the island and you can learn all about the history, how it was built, and repairs

You can also walk up stairs on either side of the museum and stand on top of the roof to take pictures.

Waiting in line to catch the 2pm boat back to New Jersey

Yes, it’s a long line and a lot of people but loads and unloads pretty quick

The seagulls kept up company through our travels

When we got back to the dock area we stopped into the old New Jersey train station

I believe they are making this into a museum

A couple were getting wedding photos taken in the train station… I wonder if they met here years earlier?

memorial of 9/11 at the central Railroad of New Jersey

NYC, we’ll see you tomorrow!

New Jersey

10/13/2022 we woke with big plans.. to make our big plans for the week. What we didn’t expect is how slow the internet would be here. No joke folks, of all the place we’ve been, excluding one campground that didn’t have any, in the heart of the city in New Jersey where we are staying it is SLOW..even with the hotspot the rv park has offered us. Now, don’t get me wrong, this is still the best place to say when you come to New York in an RV, but just keep in mind, it’ll slow ya down if you haven’t already booked things. So we scootered to a Starbucks.

15 exchange place where we parked the scooters to get our coffee!

The Starbucks isn’t like most, it’s an express Starbucks, so no tables. Just a grab and go kind of place. Funny how the one time we actually wanted to sit at a Starbucks and that wasn’t possible. No problem, we just went over by the water, which was real nice, till it started to rain. Oh well, back to Harvy.

We decided to use the handy map our RV park gave us and section out our days by attractions and their locations.

Our calendar for the month of October.. I should just use a pencil!

We finally got things dialed in, scheduled and planned out.Thankfully a couple blocks from the RV park there are services that we filled the rest of our day with, especially since it rained for the rest of the day.

Mitch got his first cryotherapy at the place next door. He opted for 278 degrees below zero to help reduce the inflammation he has with his back. We then went next door to the Coffee Kitchen and got dinner!

I got the Cajun chicken wrap and fries! Delicious!

Mitch got great information about how to get across the Hudson River. fyi- it’s taking PATH (the jersey subway) into NYC over by the Starbucks we had coffee at earlier!

We see you big apple, we’ll be there soon.. we just didn’t know how! ( ok, more like the easiest way) to cross the River. BTW- it’s the Hoboken tunnel.

So now we are looking into the transit systems, get a 7 day pass, a my metro card and what have ya. We have our reservations set for tomorrow.. the Statue of Liberty!