Just Jul Lee

Rental Cars, Trains and Delays

Rental Cars, Trains and Delays
DATE: July 24, 2005

I managed to leave the hotel at 5:30 am (the time I expected to, believe it or not!) and get into my Toyota (my RENTAL Toyota) and do the reverse trip over again. It is rather smooth sailing for me to get to the small town to fill up the tank and get breakfast at McDonald’s (McGriddle meal…YUM!) and I zoomed off to the Harrisburg International Airport for the last time this year. It may appear that I’m getting smarter but I wouldn’t bet too much money on the, friends !

I returned the car, drag my much heavier luggage to a cab and head for the train station.

I am just under an hour early for my train and so I sit and wait, munching my breakfast sandwich and listening to my muse. She was very talkative that morning, talking a mile a minute and telling me all the wondrous worlds she’s seen lately and wanting me to express her travels in writing. I smile as I listen to her. She’s come back, after all, the least I could do was listen. I wish again for a laptop and the train arrives.

I boarded the train, reading Harry Potter and fully prepared for the long trip ahead of me. The train ride is about 4 hours long, or something like that, and so I figured I had a long while of uninterrupted reading. I had all, okay MOST, of the treats from my welcome bag, water, a book…a GREAT book, and the knowledge that the was long and there was NOT a food trolley. Thus, I was prepared for anything.

Almost…

The trip was smooth. I actually got a little shut-eye though I’m not sure if I truly needed it. Then, I heard the conductor say that we are a mere 12 minutes out of NYC and I think, already? and thus the train comes to a complete stop.

I sat, trying to concentrate on Harry Potter whose problems far outweigh my own but my gaze continued to stray to the swaying tall grasses outside my window, the nearby busy highway, the water tower with SECAUCUS written on it in bold, black letters and the same plane circling the sky above.

We sat there for 30 or 45 minutes, me staring at Harry Potter’s life story and the swaying grasses while the conductor told us over and over again that there was a delay in Penn Station, though he doesn’t know how long and that as soon as he hears something he’ll tell us.

Finally, they took us back to Secaucus and we sat in the train station there for about five minutes, the last words spoken over the intercom ringing through my head like a bad melody. “We’re going to pull back to the Secaucus station. If any of you want to get out and stretch your legs, feel free to do so. We don’t know how long we’ll be there but we won’t leave anyone behind. We came together, we’ll leave together.”

As I sat in the seat and gazed at the pages before me unseeing, I see the other passengers milling about outside my window. Suddenly, someone is shouting and all the faces looking toward the train look intensely scared. The shouting continued as the people began moving slowly toward the train. Oh great, I thought to myself, this is it. I’m going to die.

Thankfully, the yelling was just the porters telling everyone to get back on the train for we had clearance at last to arrive at Penn Station.

I discovered that a guy had purposefully left a briefcase in the bathroom (loser!) so that folks would think there was a bomb and Penn Station would be evacuated, which they did and it was. There was no bomb, by the way. Just a briefcase and they did catch the guy (loser!). They evacuated, halted incoming trains and searched the whole building. No small feat.

We arrived and I unloaded myself and my bags, climbed the stairs into a mad crowd where I heard once person say, “Is it always like this?” to someone next to her as I made my way past. I reached 7th Avenue and hailed a cab. I was off, at last, to the Belvedere Hotel and my NYC vacation!

Upon arrival, I checked in, paid the $300.00 deposit on the room that I knew nothing about and go upstairs to room 1410 (the number of my street address, by the way) and waited for my mom and friend PJ to arrive.

My mom arrived about an hour and a half later and we chatted and waited for PJ. Finally, (sheesh!) PJ showed up and we headed to Time Square and the market set up there.

We strolled about, checked out booths (I bought an awesome dragon bracelet!) and ended up at a pizza place for dinner.

We got back to our room, watched a little TV and go to sleep.