Weekend in New York City

Saturday and Sunday was spent mostly in NYC, walking around Central Park and enjoying the uniqueness of it all. I woke Saturday and walked a loop of the park, for old time sake. I used to run this park every week when I was doing the Marathon from 1994-2006. It's hard to believe that this is a man-made oasis in the center of the concrete jungle, but it is. It runs from 57th street, across from the Waldorf Astoria Hotel up to 110th street in Harlem... It's bordered by Columbus Circle, Central Park South and West and 5th avenue... The entire park is 6 miles around and 1.6 miles around the center by the reservoir. Saturday, the park was jammed with runners, walkers, bike riders, tourists, and horse carriages. My vehicle was parked on 70th and 5th (another free spot) so I walked up to Jackson Hole and had breakfast... My sister called and invited me to her friends home to see the girls before I left and hang out at the pool.

Crushed in traffic again...(I can't help it, I love driving in the city). I made it to Athena's house around 3:30 and hit the pool with the girls... Cannonballs and relaxing in the hot tub. Looking through old photo albums and laughing at the pictures...(I even had hair in some them). By the time the girls got ready for bed, I was ready myself. Figured the ride back into the city would be better than if I left earlier... WRONG! 1 and 1/2 hours to get back to my hotel room...(but I did find another free spot on the east side--too good) By the time I walked around and people watched with a cup of joe (24 hour Dunkin Donuts on 8th ave.) it was after midnight and I had to leave to go upstate about 7 am the next morning... Oh, and of course it rained that afternoon while we sitting around the pool...

Drove up to Newburgh Sunday morning in sunshine and high spirits... Tarry Brae is a nice little course in the Catskills and the weather looked promising... Got pretty hot on the back nine and the course was extremely wet...(no roll on on any shots). Got the drizzling rain on a couple holes... (It's official, rained on every round of golf here). Played fairly well although Billy came within one shot of taking the title (great round, Billy), I managed to squeak by him on the last hole. Another stop at the ice cream "parlor" after the round, then I went to Billy's and tucked away my clubs in his garage and said farewell... Was going to take the Thruway down and negotiate into the city from there when I actually listened to the traffic advisory telling me that traffic was stopped around Route 17.. (what luck! who listens to those things?). So I hung a U turn and took 84 to the Taconic to the Saw Mill to the Henry Hudson and made great time until I got into Midtown. Only cost me 3.75 in tolls going that way...(don't get me started on how much toll money I spent... Jeez!). I also scored a parking spot around the corner from the hotel, good til the following morning...

Monday morning, checked out, and packed the car and headed back to Jersey to UPS one of my bags back to AZ and "lighten the load". Revisited with the work peeps and bid my farewells and climbed back into the car and took 1 and 9 up to the airport (no more freaking tolls!). I dropped off the car...(over 1900 miles driven in 13 days) and took the monorail to the terminal towit for my flight back to Arizona... Around 4pm we started boarding and just before we left the gate, the captain announces that a "seal" needs to be looked at and the maiintenance crew is on the way. 30 minutes later, we taxi to the runway and get in line... Captain announces that number 2 engine is not working right and we have to go back to the gate and run tests... Please stay in seats so we can run the tests ("we may not be able to go to Phoenix today" is one of the options). At 6:30pm they annoounce that all is well and we'll be going... (still on the plane from 4:15). At 7 pm they anounce that we're going, but not on this plane (Whew!) and we should de-plane and then re-plane o the plane in the next gate. So we do and we finally take off for Phoenix at a little before 9 pm est...

Landed in Phoenix at 2am est (11:00 pst) and was exhausted. Steve got there and took me home (thanks, man) and it was sure good to be in my own bed again...The adventures of the weary traveller have come to a safe conclusion.