It was a beautiful fall day as I restarted the journey. The hills are a little larger in Pennsylvania than Wisconsin, but they were still dotted with blaze orange. It was hunting season in Pennsylvania, bringing to mind the movie the Deer Hunter. It’s one of my favorites (Meryl Streep is hot!), but I hope I don’t get as crazy as Christopher Walken (I have my de Niro beard going). Getting past the thoughts of Russian roulette, I noticed that even the barns are different in Pennsylvania. They use more stone and are not your typical rectangle layout, but form a short T. Up and down over the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania, I moved closer to my first new state of the trip, New Jersey. Right around the border I emitted a “whoa” as I rounded a bend and was affronted with a huge rock face that had been uplifted at a 90 degree angle to how it was formed. It was awesome. New Jersey, not so much (Jersey girls aren’t trash, trash gets picked up on Thursdays).
I stopped for gas just over the border and found that it’s a state law that someone has to pump the gas for you. It’s full service in Jersey (I guess that’s one way to keep unemployment down)! I started sweating the closer I got to NYC. I don’t like driving in big cities, especially one I’ve never been to and have no idea where I ‘m going. I kept waiting to hit traffic, but it never came. I crossed the George Washington Bridge and tried snapping a few shots. I wasn’t in Wisconsin anymore that’s for sure. I made a wrong turn or two, but picked Blayne up without incident (although I was still sweating pretty good). Now we had to head to Newark to pick up Fields which meant driving through Manhattan and the Lincoln Tunnel. Traffic was pretty slow, but we pushed our way through because we’re from Wisconsin. We emerged on the other side in Jersey and thought the apocalypse had befallen the Earth while we were underground. Dilapidated buildings, rundown infrastructure and just an overall hellhole describe Jersey. I think I found a new “worst state in America.” The airport wasn’t too bad to get around though. We were a bit early so we toured the terminals while we waited for Fields arrival. I was tempted to ask a cop if this was JFK. While wasting time, we saw probably 20 cop cars with their lights on, pulling cars over. It was a little crazy. Fields arrived and we headed on up to Tuxedo, New York to meet up with Riles.
He greeted us with hugs, handshakes and Zywiec. He stocked his fridge full of the Polish beer, which may not be a very good beer, but it was free! The Badgers were playing in the inaugural Big Ten Championship game against Michigan St for the right to play in the Rose Bowl. We threw on all the Wisconsin gear we had, be it Badger or Packer, and headed to bar. Characters is a smallish bar in Sloatsburg, but Riles is a regular so we were made to feel at home with random shots of Jameo throughout the evening. Needless to say, we won and tied one on.
The next day arrived with the promise of a Packer win. We moved just slow enough in the morning to miss our train by less than a minute so we had to wait an hour for the next one. You can drink on the trains so we ran to the store to get more beer because of our hour setback. We finally hitched a ride on the train and were at the Meadowlands in no time. Our plan was to wander around the parking lot and snag some beer and food from Packer fans tailgating, but we never made it that far. There was a “tailgate” right by the stadium that we ended up at because we severely needed food and the beer was convenient too. We made friends with a couple young ladies, one of whom thought I looked just like the guy from the Packer Rock Anthem video (if you haven’t witnessed the greatness, youtube “Packer Rock Anthem”). I disagree, but I’ll take it! The one girl was from Green Bay and her parents have a Packer bus that they took to the Super Bowl last year and are planning to do the same this year. I asked if I could tag a long and she said I could. Needless to say, I left the tailgate without a number so I’ll always have to play the “what if” game with her and the Packer bus…
The game was great as the Packers came away with a last-second win. The Giants fans were stupid as anticipated. They started leaving after the Packers went up 8 in the 4th quarter, because I guess that is too much to overcome. The Giants tied it up with under a minute left, but the Pack marched down the field and Crosby sealed the win. Boom!
Monday came as we had to drive Blayne to LaGuardia. Things did not go as smoothly as planned, but no one died (we think). We spent the rest of the afternoon at bar before heading back after dinner. It was a low-key evening as we recovered from the weekend. Tuesday, Packer stock went on sale so we all became NFL owners. It feels great being an owner of the greatest franchise in NFL history. We got moving and headed to NYC to be a tourist and attend the Jimmy V Classic at Madison Square Garden. We missed the train by a minute, of course, and had to wait over an hour for the next one. The joy of being a Packer Shareholder helped assuaged the annoyance of the wait.
NYC welcomed us with a warm drizzle. We putzed around the city, taking in Times Square, Central Park, Broadway, Radio City Music Hall, Macy’s (omg! The shopping was faaabulous!), Empire State Building and other sights. To get out of the increasing rain, we headed into Lucy’s right by the Garden and spent the next few hours tipping a few back. Game time arrived and the Garden beckoned. Madison Square Garden is the mecca of college basketball. It was only half full or so but you could feel the energy that exuded from the arena. It was awesome. Mizzou won the first game and Marquette won at the buzzer in the second. Bob Knight and Digger Phelps sat 15 rows in front of us and were besieged by gawkers and fans all night. Dicky V and the Schwab were also in the house. It was a full house for ESPN, that’s for sure. After the game we got some food from a street vendor and it was excellent. We arrived back at Riles place late and I’m glad I didn’t have to work the next day.
New York was fun, but I was looking forward to branching off on my own and getting out of civilization. I needed a little wilderness to rebalance myself. This morning I accomplished my goal of being the first person in America to see the sun rise as I scampered up Cadillac Mt. in the early dawn. You’ll hear about that more in future posts. I leave the relative safety of Bar Harbor Monday, for the wilds of central and western Maine. I hope to talk to a moose and see a little snow. We will see where the next week takes me. I’m looking forward to it!
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