The Dubious Adventures of Missy, Snags, MBC and Jeff Jay, NYC 2007

Missy said to me during our trip to New York City, “You guys wouldn’t have as many adventures as you do if you didn’t travel with directionally challenged me.”. This is true. We’ve suffered many a detour because Missy has this thing about second guessing herself. This is most discouraging when she makes these bad decisions with the map on her lap, but alas that is the crux of the matter. We don’t let her forget the many times she has been wrong and god knows she always remembers the once of twice she has actually been right. But as MBC always says, “She may be a pain in the ass, but she’s our pain in the ass and we love her.” Snags, Missy’s husband says, “Speak for your self.”

But directions and adventures is a lot of what our trips to New York City are all about. Much to the horror of some of our more skeptical friends, we use the subways. Almost the first tthing we do when we land in the City is buy the seven day unlimited Metro Pass. ($24.00) This is a deal in that we are moving all about the system. The Pass includes passage on the subway and the bus system.

New York is a city of people that walk. And as a visitor you will too unless you have unlimited money. There are alot of expensive things in New York and a car is at near the top of that list. Only the independent spirit of Americans in other cities allows them to discount and ignore the high price of owning and operating an automobile. Parking and the other ineffciencies of automobiles in the city, help place this problem in clear focus except for those who drive for a living.

Directional disorientation often occurs in the subway. You enter the ground level ramp and walk down. The subways run at defferent levels and often the stairs twist and turn in what appear to be odd angles and directions. With the loss of references, street signs, the sun and landmarks, you are reduced to making sure you are going in the right direction, by relating to the uptown, downtown on the signs. Downtown generally means toward The Battery. Uptown means away from The Battery. The Battery is the southern most tip of Manhatten Island.. Once you get that down cold all you have to do is orientate all of you destinations from a subway station and you’ve got it made, as long as you can fugre out North - South, East -West when you get above ground from the subway. MBC reccomends a compass.

When this unlikely troop is in New York City, we are centered on Times Square. This means that we are more thna likely to take the S train more than one a day. The S train is the shortest subway line in the bunch. It travels from Grand Central Station to Times Square with no other stops. Being as we were staying at the Thirty Thirty the closest subway was the 6. All trips to and from Times Square included a ride on the S. Seamless and flowing travel back and forth required a timed arrival at the S platform. Missing one meant minutes to wait for another one, but somehow that wait seemed to be the longest.