8/20/17, “The Return Journey”
Scarsdale, New York
For a day that pretty much just
consisted of getting a bagel for breakfast, smoking a cigar and a half, and
sitting in a passenger’s seat for about 200 miles as we drove home, and
stopping at Blimpie for lunch, it certainly felt like a long day. A very long day. I have only been awake for about 11 hours,
and almost half of it was spent in that passenger’s seat, the three-hour drive
that took closer to five, not even counting stops.
While the morning was perfectly relaxing,
having my favorite for breakfast, the afternoon and The Return Journey was
about as stressful as it gets. For the
third (and last) time in five weeks, my weekend has ended the same way: stuck
in traffic on the section of I-95 N known as the New Jersey Turnpike. Clearly we were not the only New Yorkers who
decided to go to the Jersey Shore this weekend.
I don’t have much to write. In
fact, that opening sentence pretty much describes the entire day, and I have no
desire to make my readers feel the same stress we felt during The Return
Journey. I will simply provide enough
text to flesh out the entry to surround the pictures I want to showcase.
After I closed last night, I soon went to bed
and woke up around 8 AM. I got ready and
awaited my grandfather’s arrival, who came downstairs shortly after I did. We soon headed out to pick up newspapers and
breakfast. I got the local Sunday paper
to add to my collection, and then we went to Yianni’s Cafe to get our
breakfasts. I got my favorite, whole
wheat everything with scallion cream cheese and lox, along with two coffees
(one for right away, the second for later, as they did not have any coffee in
the house), and he got grilled cheese sandwiches for himself and his wife.
When we got back home, he cleaned the table,
and we sat down with our newspapers and breakfasts. It was an excellent breakfast, and I was
quite content. After breakfast, I
started on my second coffee and lit up a Fuente, smartly using the empty cup
from the first coffee as an ashtray.
That was followed by a PDR, and my parents soon arrived. We all sat outside until it was time to
leave. My reader will note that, of the
11 hours since I woke up, I spent about 3 hours in that chair and 5 hours in
the passenger’s seat of my parents’ car.
We said our goodbyes and got on the road around 1:30 PM, expecting to be
home around 5:30 PM.
That did not happen. We got stuck in a little bit of traffic on
the Garden State Parkway, but it wasn’t too bad. Soon enough, we found the Blimpie, which
seemed to one of the few Blimpies still open, and it was part of a Coldstone
Creamery. Needless to say, I did not get
the iconic New Jersey hoagie experience I thought I would. I ordered their signature sub on a whole
wheat roll, along with chips, and it was just too much bread, so I put the
inside of the sandwich all on half of the roll.
It was good, but I would choose Subway any day over it.
We got back on the road and were doing all
right until we got to I-95. There was
traffic. A lot of traffic. Just like there was two and four weeks ago
when I came home on that same road. When
we got to the George Washington Bridge, it was brutal. It took us an hour to get from Fort Lee to
the other side of the bridge. It should
have taken about ten minutes.
Once we
were in New York, we headed up I-87 to Yonkers so that I could stop at DSW for
some new shoes and Starbucks for a coffee.
Both places had lines. Long
lines. Everything was taking longer
today than expected. I was now tight on
time so that I could properly space the posts of this entry, dinner, and Game
of Thrones. As soon as we got home, I
relit my cigar from this afternoon and raced to go outside, where I sat down
and proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close, along with closing
out this trip with the words I have been waiting to write for pretty much as
long as I have closing out trips in this manner. Next stop: Hawaii and American Oceania.
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