19. Car Trouble, Goodbye New York

Thursday 30 July.  At eleven Cathy's brother, John, takes me to pick up the VW in Queens.  The van breaks down on the way back, stalling in traffic.  I get it towed back to the dealership from the Mobil Station at 61st and York.  The mechanic says the engine just has to run the dirt out of the system, give it five tanks of super unleaded and things will be fine.  The accelerator cable is also broken.

After the car is towed by Phil (backwards), Cathy and I go to John's apartment.  It's on the first floor (American second floor) on tree lined street, 7th near ?  I think you have to be a New Yorker to appreciate the good points: Roof patio with nice neighboring gardens including a wall of ivy, cross ventilation, one of the stations of the cross inside the front door downstairs.  But it has bad parts too: neighborhood graffiti, a feeling (to me anyway) of scariness that comes with a lot of people standing around with nothing to do in the nearby housing projects.

From the flat we walk to Bombay for dinner.  Great music, bongos and sitar, we bring our own beer.  (Guinness lager.)

John's Apartment

No Explanation Necessary!

Friday, 31 July.  I attend  7 a.m. mass again at St. Vincent's on Lexington at 65th/66th.  It's a beautiful church with wooden altar carvings.  Thursday I stopped in before nine and heard priests/brothers (Dominican) singing a mass or office.  Lovely!

 In the morning I go for a run then walk to the post office.  When I return around twelve the dealership calls to say the car is ready.  Thomas, Jeffrey and I take a cab over to pick it up.  On the way back we are stuck in bumper to bumper traffic over the Queensboro bridge.  The car stalls again, just as we are getting off!  How thankful I am that the car does not stall on the bridge which has no emergency lane!

We make it back to the hotel and, though it stalls a few times, I manage to keep the car revved up enough to avoid problems, as we load up and head back across the bridge on our way out of town (no slowing this time).  We follow the route east through Queens to the Triborough Bridge, then head west and on to the George Washington Bridge.  The roads and bridges are in a very dilapidated condition, with litter everywhere.  Goodbye, New York, where life is hard and rough!

We leave around two.  It is a humid day with showers, but around 70°.  We have picnic lunches in the car with sandwiches from the Backstage Deli.  (The deli is just around the corner from the hotel; we had breakfast there as well.)  They have a real system for coffee with milk, plus fresh OJ at the market next door.

There are a surprising amount of hills as we leave New York.  After New Jersey we drive into the Poconos: very pretty, passing over the Delaware River as we come into Pennsylvania.  We drive on and on, through tornado watch weather, and make it to the Ramada in DuBois, PA (pronounced "dew bwas."  Similar to the "wils barry" pronunciation for Wilkes Barre.)  We go for a swim before a dinner of very spicy chicken wings.