New York, New York
Start sprea-den’ the neeeeeeews. We have officially arrived in the world’s most expensive city. Despite my eagerness to fast forward to this evening, let’s start from the top so as we don’t get too lost on the way through the day. Last night I could barely keep my eyes open. Seems the week of returning emails, writing stories and trying to live a reasonably normal life had finally caught up with me. From about 9pm onwards I was asleep at the wheel. This didn’t bode well for what was going to be a big day today.
Up at 6 to greet a happy and smiling Luc was too early a start to the day. By 7 I was begging Kel to let me go back to bed and believe me, that wasn’t the smartest thing I could have done. We still had to pack, prepare the kids and get to the airport for a lunchtime flight to Chicago. As has been the case for most of the trip so far, Kelly went into overdrive and pulled everything together with enough time for us to make it there, quite comfortably.
Cruising around the terminal we were recognised, thanks to our accents of course, by some of the staff in various places. It seemed the recurring message from all was to hang around as the Packers were boarding their plane right about the same time we were. I was surprised by this. With the size of Green Bay and surrounding suburbs, the proximity of the airport and the fact that these guys walk into the terminal like they’re just the same as everybody else, I expected to see a hoard of fans around every corner. Back home, when sporting teams come or go there is always a crowd to greet them; jerseys, textas and cameras in hand. And that’s just the fans, there’s the media on top of that aswell.....To watch these guys here, file in slowly over 15 minutes or so without being bothered I thought was such a great thing.
With that though, came a very difficult decision. What do you do when, after chasing your son through the terminal again, you turn around and all of 20 yards away Brett Favre is approaching his gate. Knowing this may well be as close as you’ll ever get to a 3 time MVP that holds almost all NFL QB records and is deemed as one of the “nice guys” of the game. I mean seriously, what? A photo with Brett hanging beside his framed, signed jersey, that I bought a long time ago, would complete the pool room wall just nicely. Do you run after him and look like a total bozo? Do you calmly walk really really fast so as to catch him, stride up beside and pretend you only just noticed he was there or do you leave him be, hoping that at some point in the next 4 months you may have your chance again?
I let him be. Mind you, for the next 6 hours I questioned that decision but, first and last chances aside I just couldn’t do it.
We continued through to our gate and boy what a procedure that was. Now I don’t think I should be commenting on the practices of Airport security personnel but let me say that as residents of the area serviced by Austin Straubel, you have some of the most thorough security screening practices we have experienced so far. With our names being called over the Public Address system, Ben doing his best to hold onto a ham and cheese sandwich and Kelly still trying to re-pack our completely emptied baby bag we stumbled to the gate with 5 minutes up our sleeve.
With that the first leg of our trip began.
There’s not alot to report on so far as the flight from Green Bay to Chicago is concerned so I won’t bother. It was much the same for our stop-over in the windy city and the flight from there to NY. In saying that, our boys have become such wonderful little travellers that both had good sleeps on each of the flights. That put Kelly and I at ease no end. Oh, that and there didn’t seem to be any Packer-related gear at O’Hare. Of course not; I hear most of you say. But? I would argue, there was a ton of it at Minneapolis/St. Paul? It seemed to me then that this whole Packers, Bears rivalry really does mean alot more than any other.
So the strangest thing about our flight today was that we arrived into LaGuardia some 40 minutes early? I still don’t understand how in this day and age that could happen but it did and this is where the fun began. The 25c arcade games we’ve been playing back home (Green Bay) were now $1. The sandwich we bought at Green Bay had gone from $3 to $7.95 and the beer, as I passed by the stand, seemed to have doubled aswell.
After studying Google Maps extensively to figure out which airport, and which hotel we settled for LaGuardia and a suite only a mile from Giants Stadium. OK, put you thinking caps on. LaGuardia to our hotel was just 14 miles through Manhattan. It was 28 miles over the Triborough Bridge. The hotel is apparently 3.5 miles from NYC city. Supposedly the shorter route can take up to 2 hours through the city while the longer route can be as quick as 30 minutes. 30 minutes to travel 28 miles from New York to Jersey. AS IF.
We collected our bags at the carousel where, unbeknown to me, I must have had my “Hey look at me, I’m an Aussie sucker” sticker on. Blasted memory, I was supposed to leave that in Green Bay. Anyway, within 30 seconds of taking our suitcases off the belt I had George Costanza’s slighty slimmer long-lost brother ask if I wanted a ride. He did it so quietly I thought he had left his voicebox in the car. Suspicious but curious at the same time I said sure, told him where we wanted to go and had him tell me how much it would cost. At this point, having been in the airport for all of about 9 minutes I was tempted to knock him out bushranger style. US$135 plus tolls, plus tips to travel 14 miles??? I suggested, as quietly as he approached, that I didn’t think he should be there at the carousel doing what he was doing. A minute later he came back to apologise and ask what I normally paid to travel to Secaucus. Upon repeating my first comment a little clerarer, and a little louder he seemed to quite simply disappear. It was wonderful.
Turns out, after speaking with the Ground Transport Assistance Desk, our little friend wasn’t too far off the money. We ended up paying $125 with the same added costs. I did feel a little bad for the way I spoke to him but still, he was spruiking for rides where he shouldn’t have been. Was he going to take us to where we didn’t want to go?
My first impression of New York / Jersey is great. It’s great to be somewhere we’ve never been. We’re a little apprehensive about the million dollar ride back to the airport and our venture into the Big Apple but we’ve come this far so let’s see what happens. At least this week, the hotel is majority Packers fans. I (Kelly not so much) could get use to this.
