All my clothes are wet. It rained hard enough, and long enough, to soak through our rooftop carrier, and my leather duffel bag. I have one dry shirt, pair of shorts and jeans left. The rest of my clothes are hanging in various places around this motel room. Hopefully I can at least find a dry pair of underwear in the morning.

Before all the rain, we stopped for lunch at “Bob's Your Uncle Pizza”.

 'twas rather good pizza. We're currently in state #8, which is Nebraska. Tomorrow we will reach Fort Collins, CO where we'll crash for the evening with old buddy Mike. For now, TIRED. Will Sleep. G'night.

Tuesday was movers day. I was still asleep when they showed up to take away all the furniture and boxes. We were also nowhere near done packing. 5 hours and gallons of sweat later, it was believed that Reub's apartment only held what would fit in his SUV. That turned out to not quite be the case. So, things were donated, shipped away and thrown out. Most of Wednesday was spent doing this. We finally got everything done and were ready to hit the road at 10pm Wednesday night. I know, kind of a late start, but the thought of another night sleeping on the hardwood floors of the now empty apartment was not appealing, so we hit the road.

 We actually put in some good miles before crashing out at 3am in western Pennsylvania. The next morning was brunch at The Cottage Family Restaurant.

 Then, DRIVE. Lots of driving later, we crash here at Cool Springs motel on highway 421.



Yes, that 421. We're near the northern terminus of 421. I grew up on or near 421. My mother lives on 421 currently. Boone is on 421. I was just in Wilmington a little over a month ago, which is the southern terminus of 421. Seemingly appropriate that we'd sleep a few yards from 421 on Reub's move to California.

That's all for now, time to, you know, drive some more.

Upon arriving in NYC, I was greeted by the ongoing heat wave they've been experiencing. Saturday's temperature was well beyond 100. Sunday was on its way to matching that level of heat when a sudden thunderstorm swept through dropping the temperature by 15-20 degrees. The heat was so de-motivating that I didn't even do any sight seeing the first 2 days I was there.
Finally, Monday brought more comfortable weather and I ventured out into the city. Reub gave me a pocket subway map and directed me towards the nearest station.

Getting to Manhattan was simple enough. I just got on the train going that way and got off at Grand Central Terminal.

 I took the time to take some photos, then made my way out to the street. I was thinking to myself, “that was easy, I think I've got the hang of that”. Mmm hmm. So, as was my plan, I wandered essentially aimlessly around Manhattan. I found the Chrysler building and gazed at its art deco goodness.

 I eventually found my way to the Empire State Building and ascended to the 86th floor observation deck. Many photos were taken.

 After the ESB, the plan was to make my way to lower Manhattan to an electronics store Reub had recommended for finding an fm transmitter for our iPods so we could play them in his car on our road trip. I called him to get directions and he told me how to get there on the subway. It was simple enough, but I was more concerned with how to get to the subway in the first place. This concern turned out to not be unfounded. I started out on foot, headed South. As I went along, I glanced down each side street looking for a subway entrance. After nearly an hour walking I was beginning to wonder what I was doing wrong. Finally I struck out on a random side street, and after resting on a park bench, finally found a subway entrance. The store was easy enough to find and I found that which I sought. By now, Jodie had called me about getting together for dinner in Greenwich Village. So, back to the subway I went. As I was studying a larger subway map on the wall, a nice security guard asked if I
needed any help and I told him I was trying to figure out how to get to Greenwich Village. He told me about two options, one of which was very complicated and involved several trains. The other merely involved one train and some walking. That's the one I chose.

I took the train to canal street and headed west on foot. During this time Sean also called and I invited him to join us. To make a long story short, I chose poorly. After two hours of walking and constantly failing to make the correct turns, I finally limped and stumbled my way to the restaurant almost on time. I even got there before the others. But, after nearly 7 hours of grinding my feet into the hard pavement, I could barely stand. Dinner offered a needed repast, and much conversation, restoring my strength. After a tasty Ethiopian dinner, we walked to a nearby park to continue our chat, then eventually found our way to a bar that had live jazz, pool tables, ping pong tables and other fun stuff. Jodie had to be on her way
, but Sean and I played pool for a couple of hours. After that, I actually had a bit of luck with the subway, as I was barely able to catch the last train back to Brooklyn. Then I hobbled and moaned my way back to Reub's house on the throbbing lumps of pain that dangled from where my feet were once attached.

Its now my third day in the city. Reub has much to do to prepare for his move, so I'm getting out of his hair for a while. Now that its so nice out, i'll take the opportunity to be a tourist and see some of what I didn't get to see when I was last here. Now, for me, cities are what I try to get away from when I go on vacation, so I'm looking forward to hitting the road in the next couple of days. But I may as well take advantage of what's available to me while I'm here. I'll probably have pics to post tonight.

In This Episode, Mark Invents a New Way of Hailing a Cab, Taking two cabs and a plane to get from Reuben's Apartment to…Reuben's apartment.

There is no officially sanctioned Bob Spelled Backwards vacation event scheduled this summer. So I invented one. Sort of. Let me clarify. One of the reasons we aren't having our mostly annual Bob beach trip to Sunset Beach this year is because Reuben decided to move to LA, from New York, that week. So I found myself with a block of approved vacation time and no plans. So I invited myself along on Reub's move. And I decided to begin starting way too many sentences with the word “so”. So yesterday morning I drove from San Diego to Los Angeles, Got lost on Santa Monica Blvd, and eventually found my way to Reuben's apartment to be. Once I got there I knocked on the door of the superintendent, Simon, a personable old Russian guy. By this time, I was extremely pressed for time, because all my built in cushion had been used up while I was failing to find the right road to turn on to get to the apartment. My instructions from Reuben, and our plan, was that I would leave my car in his new parking spot, get his keys from the super, and leave some stuff of mine in his new place. Unfortunately, somewhere between Reuben, The landlord, the property manager, and the super, that plan had failed to be communicated. Simon was somewhat expecting me, but hadn't received any instructions from the landlord/manager, so he didn't feel authorized to give me Reub's keys, let me into his apartment, or let me park in his space. So an entire two week trip, meticulously planned out, was hinging on this one guy feeling comfortable. I was out of time, I didn't have time to drive to the airport and find parking and negotiate long term rates, and I had a cab waiting to drop me off there. I told Simon that I was kind of locked into this plan and I was just going to have to leave my car there and tell him to just have it towed if that's what needed to happen, and I'd deal with it when we arrived. Don't get me wrong, Simon is a super nice guy, he was just in a pickle. And so was I. So he called the landlord, no answer, and he called the manager, no answer. Reuben had said as much when I'd ask him to call them as well. But Simon was persistent. He called each of them, back to back, 3 times, until the landlord finally answered. Simon gave the landlord a brief explanation of what was going on, and asked me to speak with him, which I did. The landlord gave the OK, and the plan was a go. Simon was still uncomfortable with giving me Reuben's keys, but at that point I was content to cut my losses and just get going while I could still catch my flight. So I headed off in the cab.

About that cab…
When I first arrived at the complex, I parked in an available space because I thought that Reuben's space was occupied. After getting out of the car and looking closer, I realized that was not the case, so I got back in the car and backed out of the space I was in so I could park in the proper spot. At the time I was on the phone with Reuben, breaking the cellphone while driving law California has. Suddenly, my backward progress was impeded. I looked in my rear view mirror and saw a wash of yellow. There was  a taxi there. Apparently he'd pulled up to drop someone off across the street. I finished parking, got off the phone with Reuben, and walked over there. The driver was looking concerned, and examining a scrape on his front bumper. I apologized. He started saying it was no big deal and was ready to dismiss the whole thing, which surprised me, but maybe since he was double parked (essentially in the middle of the street) he was worried that he might also be in the wrong, and his job might be in jeopardy as a result. At this point, I said, “Actually, I need a ride to the airport, if you're available”. He perked up and said sure. Needless to say, I gave him a big tip.

On the plane I sat next to this really nice couple of folks. They were seemingly very intelligent, clever and kind. This was a stark contrast to the people that were sitting behind us. For most of the trip, I was rocking out my bran new noise canceling headphones. But towards the end, with my movie over and my ears sore from the headphones, I took them off. At this point I was introduced to what had been going on for the whole flight behind us. There was a 20 year old girl, who managed to convince me of her idiocy in remarkably few sentences, getting hit on by a slurringly drunk guy, successfully. The very witty couple next to me had been laughing and/or gagging over what they'd been hearing for some time now. At first I thought it was a travesty that this cute young girl was actually entertaining the flirtations of this coarse, slurring oaf. But, after hearing her speak for a while, I decided they deserved each other. Perhaps I'm just too cynical. Ah well.

Once in New York, the cab hailed me. I stepped out into the cab area, and a dude walked up to me and asked if I needed a cab and I said sure. I know, noob NY move. I realized my mistake when he lead me to the parking lot instead of the cab area, and invited me into his sedan which was completely stock except for some door magnets advertising his cab services. I went with him anyway. It sounded like an adventure. Perhaps I am foolish. He got me to Reuben's apartment with haste. He did over-charge, but not enough to cry over. Disaster averted.

Now I'm in NYC for the next 3 days or so, until Tuesday morning when Reub and I climb into his new car (which just arrived right now, actually) and head out on the road from here to LA. We still are debating various routes and methods, including the entirety of Route 66, Possibly visiting Mike in Colorado, or various other options. With it still being insufferably hot in NY, and Reub's apartment not being Air conditioned, I'm ready to go right now. But, when will I be in NYC again? I should have a look around a bit while I'm here.

More episodes to follow. And, oh yeah, I'm updating the blog again.

Pics from Reub's apartment: