I’m New Yorked Out

Day 10 in New York City…

I arrived a week ago last Friday, had Saturday on my own then the Road Scholar program started late Saturday afternoon. More about all of that later…

The program ended mid day Thursday and as planned I shifted to a different hotel. The hotel where Road Scholar put us up was nice but REALLY expensive. I stayed the first night there at my own cost - when taxes and all were added in, it was over $400, and then on top of that they added a non-optional “services fee” that was another $40. So for my last three days I moved to a Pod Hotel.

The concept is that the the rooms are tiny and bare bones and therefore it’s cheaper. I thought the room was fine! In some ways better than the one I had at the New Yorker. I actually had a view out my window and the shower didn’t leak all over the bathroom floor.

So I had Thursday Friday Saturday and visited the 9/11 memorial museum, MoMA, and Metropolitan Museum of Art. Each of those was exhausting and pretty much all I wanted to take on for one day. Plus I went to Hamilton on Friday night (it was great!).

All of which is to say, I was really ready to go home this morning, Tired of the crowds and noise (including someone who decided to put on a concert outside my window at 1:45 am last night). I had learned that Uber is now doing an airport shuttle from a couple spots in Manhattan and there was a pickup spot a block away from me. Plus, the subway line that I would have normally taken from my location was shut down for the weekend so it seemed like a no brainer.

The shuttle was on time. I boarded with two other people and everything was going fine until we got to 7th Ave and it was barricaded off. We were forced to turn right. Kept going down 7th Ave, every cross street was barricaded and traffic just kept getting heavier and slower as more vehicles were diverted on to 7th.

But, I had allowed myself plenty of time so I wasn’t too anxious. The woman sitting in front of me started freaking out a little because her flight was boarding at 10:30 am, it was almost 9:30 am and no sign ahead of being able to turn and go to the airport. Finally we asked the driver to ask one of the cops manning a barricade. She said “you can get through a couple of blocks up”. She lied.

I finally decided to google “traffic in Manhattan today” and learned there was a GIANT bike ride called the Five Boroughs going on. I actually had heard of this ride, some of my friends have done it. I found a route map - check it out - Manhattan was cut off top to bottom.

Click to View Show Anyway

Eek. Now I was getting nervous. We talked to another cop, this one was honest and said there was no way we were getting through. Well shit. The other woman asked to be dropped off. I asked them to take me to Penn Station. The first day when I arrived, I took the Long Island RR to Penn Station so I figured that might be an option.

They dropped me off, I googled and discovered that the fastest option (if I RAN to a subway three blocks away with my heavy backpack) would take an hour , so I was still likely screwed.

Meanwhile I’d been planning on grabbing coffee and breakfast at the airport after I checked in, so I hadn’t had a bite to eat and I was getting hangry. I figured as long as I was screwed I might as well get coffee and a bagel, sit down and try to figure out something.

I looked to see if there was a later Delta flight that I could change to. The only option would have had a plane change and gotten me in at 12:30 am, plus would have cost me $785 additional. 😬

So I figured I was better off trying to get a hotel for one more night. I found a flight out of JFK tomorrow morning that was only a $20 change charge (although it’s main cabin instead of comfort plus). I consulted the Hotel Tonight app and was able to book a “boutique” hotel for about $150. My third hotel haha! The cheapest one yet, and I think I actually like this room the best so far. I’m on the 21st floor so not as much street noise. And I can get Netflix on my TV! (the Pod hotel just had one local news channel for some reason).

Of course there always has to be SOME kind of a snafu. The hotel clerk was having trouble with her computer and couldn’t get the card reader to activate for me to do a security deposit. That took 10-15 minutes. Finally she figured it out and then one of the two elevators had an out of order sign and the other one wasn’t coming. A maintenance guy said “we need to reset it”. (Maybe turn it off and turn it on again? Haha). If I didn’t have to find dinner at some point I think I’d just stay up here. No more adventures! I’m New Yorked out. Plus it’s raining.

Wish me luck tomorrow.