The trip started about a month before break when I
emailed my uncle to see if we could stay at his house in Connecticut. He lives
about an hour from NYC and Boston. It was the perfect place to stay. I was more
than excited to be going back to NYC and going to Boston for my first time. I
was even more excited that I was going with my best friend Hannah. Hannah and I
had been best friends since I was in sixth grade and she was in fourth. She lived
next door and we were always together. We
spent the next month planning everything. We talked about the amount of money
we would be planning on spending, gas, driving and what we would be doing when
we got there.
Finally it was time to be on our way. I spent the whole
day Thursday packing, not knowing what I would need for the thirteen hour drive
there and for the few days I would be there. I said my goodbyes to my family
and headed to Hannah’s house for our slumber party, as we were leaving the next
morning. We laid in her room all night talking about the trip and how excited
we were to go. It was next to impossible to sleep.
When the alarm went off at seven the next morning, it was
entirely too early. But we got out of bed and started to get ready and pack the
car. When we walked outside we noticed there was a light dusting of snow on the
car and ground. After a quick stop at
the gas station, we got on the interstate, programed the GPS and began our long
trip.
I
started the first shift of driving. As we got onto I-70 west I knew that our
trip was truly beginning. Hannah and I lit our black and milds (we were trying
to be cool) and started to enjoy the trip. I remember I had my jacket on and
decided that I needed it off. So I unbuckled my seatbelt and started to remove
my jacket, while I was still driving and smoking. Realizing my black and mild
was almost out I decided to throw it out the window.
The wind decided that the black and
mild needed to come back into my car (while still lit) and hit me in the head
and then falling in between the seat and middle part of my car. This then
scared the shit out of me and I started to swerve all over the road. I was
screaming, swerving and frantically searching for the smoking item next to my
seat, I hear Hannah say “There’s the cops!”
“Shit”
and then I realized I was speeding, so I slowed down and passed the state
trooper at 77. The blue and red flashing lights were the highlight of my day.
“Do
you know how fast you were going?”
“Uhh
like 75?”
“No,
77. And you weren’t wearing a seatbelt. Can I see your license and insurance
card?” I handed her my license and searched for my insurance card, only to
realize it was one that was expired (three weeks later I got a letter saying my
license was going to be suspended unless I mailed in proof of insurance). The
officer then brought me my ticket for not wearing a seatbelt and warning for
speeding.
I never knew it would take me four hours to get out of
the state of Ohio. I have always thought that Ohio was so small, but four hours
to get out of the state? It was even worse going through Pennsylvania. I had no
idea it was going to take almost a third of the trip to go through the state.
The trip went great, except that it was snowing on and off as we were driving.
Both Hannah and I were disappointed that we could not drive with the windows
down and music up.
It was about nine at night when we arrived to my uncle’s
house. We talked about the trip and our plans for when we would go to NYC. We
agreed that we would go the next day since it was the only day my uncle didn’t
have to work. This made sleeping that night almost impossible. We were both way
to excited to go to NYC. Eight came too early the next morning but it was an
early morning I was more than happy to be a part of. It was a twenty minute
drive to the train station, and then an hour to Grand Central Station.
I love Grand Central Station. The ceiling is so high, not
to mention it is decorated to fit the start constellations. It is so beautiful
inside and I love when I take that first step out of Grand Central and into the
huge city. The city just opens up right in front of you; the sky is blue with
the contrast of the dark buildings against it. No matter where you would look,
there was a building going into the sky. The hustle of the city took me in and
I became overwhelmed with the amount of cars and people that filled the city.
Time Square was the first stop we made. People filled the
sidewalks and streets as they walked past the stores that lined the roads. We
made our way through the crowd of people to a restaurant called “Ellen’s
Startdust Diner”. This is a diner that has hopeful Broadway stars working. They
wait your tables and then put on musical numbers. All the people that work in
the restaurant go to school to be actors and to be in musicals. Many of the
people that work there go on to be in musicals.
After
lunch, we walked back out in the city. We began our journey to the Statue of
Liberty. We walked for a bit and then got on the subway. I love riding the subway;
it makes me feel like I am actually part of the city. Little did we know that
when we got there we wouldn’t be able to take the ferry to the statue because
Hannah had mace in her purse. We took
the typical tourist pictures with the statue in the background, and made our
way to ground zero.
I’ve been to New York twice; both times I wondered what
it would have been like to see the Twin Towers in the skyline. Instead, I got
to see the Freedom Tower being built. Looking around the area where the Twin
Towers once stood, it was weird to see all the apartment buildings and business
that surround the area and how it must have been when the towers came tumbling
down.
We spent the rest of the day walking around and meeting
with my uncle’s friends. We caught the nine o’clock train back to Connecticut
and drove back to the house. Needless to say that both Hannah and I were
exhausted after the last two days we had, and spent the next day in bed. We
decided to go to Boston the next day, which I was so excited about. I had never
been to Boston and was looking forward to going.
When I woke up in the morning I felt terrible, but
decided to keep with the plan of going to Boston anyways. We got ready and were
on our way. Being from Ohio and never having to deal with tolls, it was
interesting to drive through three of them on the way to Boston. When we got to
the second one, we drove right through the “fast lane”, because you didn’t have
to stop and pay someone. An hour later we were in Boston and finding our way to
the underground parking garage that my uncle had told me about. After we had
parked the car, we walked up to street level, and the cold air had never felt
better. At that point in time I had felt way worse than I had that morning when
I got up.
Hannah and I found a little convenience store so that I
could get some Advil for my now pounding headache. I took the pills, dry swallowing
them, and we started walking down the street. We stopped at a corner, trying to
decide which way we should go, when a smell (which was very nauseating) hit me
like a ton of bricks. “Wow that smells good” Hannah said to me
“No
it doesn’t” I said and I immediately looked for something to throw up in, it
was just my luck that there were no trashcans nearby and I knew that I wouldn’t
make it into a store. I threw up right there where I was standing on the
street.
“Do
you need any help?” Two Indian men asked me after I stopped.
“No
thank you.” That was when our trip to Boston ended and we decided to drive an
hour back to Connecticut. From the five minutes I spent in Boston, I can say
that it was a beautiful city.
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