Our trip to New York City began in earnest as we arrived in Moline, Illinois, and discovered we had left Ben's driver's license on the printer. I had been copying it so I could order Ben's birth certificate from Arizona, so he could get a passport, so we can go to Montreal and Oaxaca this year. I didn't give it back. Fortunately, he had an Indiana I.D., but because it was expired, he had to undergo an extra-special level of security, complete with wanding and patting down and other procedures that sound more interesting than they really are.
We spent a lot of time taking pictures en route to New York, to get used to our new Sony A100 camera, which we hope to use not only for future work assignments but for plenty of spectacular travel pictures as we document our various wanderings. Before we reached La Guardia, we had taken over 400 pictures. I won't subject you to them all--many are just plain ridiculous, but it was good practice.
We also got to know each other again, as happens every time we travel. Although we live together, Ben and I live largely on different schedules. He's a night person, I'm a morning person, and we often pass each other in the hallway as I'm getting up and he's just going down. When we are awake at the same time, all the daily work, family obligations, kids, and household maintenance seem to take precedence and we lose track of each other. When we travel, we find each other again--I noticed almost as soon as we were airbourne how our relationship gathered itself up and remembered what it was. It's one reason I like to travel with Ben. We also travel well together--neither of us gets easily ruffled by setbacks. We like to wander along through the world looking at beautiful things and eating good food and just being out there. It's nice.
Our long layover in Detroit gave us the opportunity to play in the airport. We came out of the gate in front of one of just two or three bars in the airport that allow smoking. So of course, we had to stop in for a drink. Ben had a bloody Mary and I had a bloody Maria (same thing but with tequila instead of vodka), plus some unfortunately sub-par nachos to tide us over.
After that, we played in the airport, in the psychedelic weather tunnel with the moving sidewalk ("It's the future!" we kept exclaiming), and in front of the cool futuristic fountain.
We rode the monorail (again, the future!), then finally ended up in one of the other bars that allow smoking, where we enjoyed tall glasses of Samuel Adams. Then, we were off to La Guardia, with not a single delay (other than the unfortunate expired i.d. incident in Moline). We took more silly pictures, of course. I feel sorry for the poor girl sitting next to us.
In NY, we met my friend and fellow writer Caroline, who is also a Saluki breeder, looking perfectly at-home in a hot pink leather jacket, waiting for us by the baggage claim area. She would soon come to hate, despise, and utterly loathe New York, but at this point, she was still optimistic. We caught a taxi and rode together into the city to meet my friend Nikki, a Manhattan-based writer and a fantastic poet. I had arranged for Caroline to stay with Nikki, to get her to come to New York and attend the Dog Writer's Association of America awards banquet, where she would be receiving a prestigious award. She hasn't been here in 15 years. I suspect she won't attend for another 15, but more about that later.
In the meantime, we wandered around Times Square for awhile. We are staying at the Milford, and we were waiting for Nikki to get home so we could drop off Caroline's things. The Milford has a new set of elevators--you tell them what floor you are on, and they assign you to a particular elevator. Inside it, there are no buttons. It just takes you where you need to go. It most certainly is an elevator of the future.
Times Square (always futuristic, straight out of the movie Bladerunner, although of course that is supposed to be Los Angeles) was typically crowded and frenetic, but Caroline--who lives in a small north Florida town--felt perfectly comfortable. Oh, how little we all suspected that the week would unfold in a way that would turn Caroline forever against the city I love so well...
Next up, our fantastic and inexpensive dinner at Pam Real Thai Food in Hell's Kitchen.
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