**I stopped posting during this part of the trip, most likely because I didn't check into hotels until extremely late and just wanted to sleep. This is posted as an after-the-fact post to sum up the remainder of the trip
Saturday was a fun day on the Jersey Shore. I packed up my things from the campsite and went on my way. I pulled into Long Beach Island with the intention of doing some crabbing. One of the places said they had some crab traps along with some crab lines I could use. I didn't end up doing that. I wandered around and found a craft fair and bought some nice pieces of hand-crafted jewelry for my nieces and nephew. I also bought something for Delores, the building supervisor/contact person. And one small thing for my mom.
Then I had lunch near Viking Village. It was a Greek-owned place. They served a lot of fried seafood options, called "Off the Hook". I had a grilled seafood sausage, made with 100% shellfish. It was tasty. I drove around and looked at the area. There were plenty of places to shop--I stopped in Viking Village, which had some shops. I grabbed ice cream. I saw the big fishing ships that go out about 50 miles from shore and fish for whatever they fish for off the Jersey Shore. Then I went and did parasailing, which is not worth the 75 dollars. It's a bit uneventful. They put you about 350 ft high on a parachute. The view is great and it's peaceful. I saw the entire shoreline of Long Beach Island. I would recommend other options, like a kayak tour of the state park, where a woman told me her kids saw dolphins swimming and glimpses of other wildlife.
Then I stopped at a bar/restaurant which somebody recommended to me. There was a woman talking about how tourism had taken a hit this year, possibly because of Hurricane Sandy of last October. She sounded like she was struggling. Most of the infrastructure seemed to be in place still, but I did see a lot of damage, especially north of Seaside Heights where I guess the ocean broke through. Apparently a lot of people on the mainland near the bay also got flooded when the ocean water got into the bay and caused it to swell over.
I drove the length of the island looking for a place to eat or that had wi-fi to research where to stay for the night. Finally, I stopped at a cafe that had wifi. The manager was talking about his brother who sounded a bit messed up. Apparently he was at Bonaroo and was licking girls' backs and twitching and such. Sounds like drugs could still have a grip on America's youth.
I decided to have dinner at this German restaurant. I met some friendly people who advised me to head to Sea Shell Hotel for a more lively atmosphere. There was a live band and plenty to do. It was a fun night. I had to check 10 hotels before finding a vacancy. Saturday nights in the Jersey Shore is difficult to find a room.
The next day I was a bit tired from a late night, or rather 3 consecutive late nights(maybe more, wasn't counting at that point). I parked it a McDonald's and decided to go to NYC as the next destination. Before that I stopped and ate a sandwich and did some laundry at a laundromat. I set my GPS for Astoria, submitted a request to stay at an airbnb spot in Queens and drove into the great city of New York. There was heaps of traffic, it was late, I was tired. Finally, I stopped in Astoria, walked around, grabbed a pork souvlaki sandwich, headed to a motel near JFK, slept there for the night.
The next day was an early Monday morning. I felt like a commuter going to work. I had a case of the Mondays without question. I met my friend Roberta at our rendevous just as a fight was breaking out. She was just about to email me from an internet station there since I was 45 min late. Finally, I showed up and we headed to the Museum of Natural History. What a great museum to finally see. World famous exhibits. We had lunch at a Salumeria, which served small plates, mostly cold cuts(prosciutto, salami, etc). We had some brown rice w/vegetable dish similar to risotto and pork ribs in a light tomato sauce. Not very filling but tasty.
Next was strolling around East Village. We arrived by train, stopped and got a map. visited some famous sites of famous people's former apts or bars or studios. CBGB is now a John Varvatos on Bowery. We stopped and ate some Mexican food. Then walked into Soho and the shopping began. She bought a nice cheap dress at OMG,and I bought a shirt and skinny jeans from H&M. Earlier I had bought some sunglasses, which have turned out to be low-quality and not worth the money.
Sat at Starbucks waiting for my charger to charge and confirmed my stay at my friend John's in Queens for the night. Parted ways and agreed that I would drive her back to Chicago the next day.
The next 2 days were fun. We hit the road and ended up staying just past Ithaca, NY. New York is a long state to drive through. It was hot the first day. I had to stop and fill the antifreeze. My car was overheating, I had the AC on fairly high. A nice guy named Jerry helped me out. A drug addict asked me if I had any coke in the gas station. Couldn't have left any sooner from that small town.
Ate Subway for dinner and called it a night. Found a cheap hotel.
Next day drove to Cleveland, but not before stopping and eating at Denny's for breakfast. Roberta was thrilled to eat all food she had not been able to eat while living and teaching in Korea for the past 2 years. It reminded her of home in South Africa. She had a big bowl of grits(which have a different name in her country) along with pancakes and eggs.
For lunch we ate at Cracker Barrel, just before we reached Cleveland. We both agreed the flavors of the food were incredible there. They do an excellent job. I had chicken fried chicken. She had chicken dumplings. The sides were mashed potatos, baby carrots, pinto beans, fried apples, and strawberries. We ate like royalty.
Finally arrived at Rock and Roll hall of fame. She liked taking photos in front of most of the exhibits. I got a photo of me in front of Mick Jagger. I was wearing a very "R&R" outfit, donning my skinny jeans and a southern rock tee with my new handmade stone necklace thing from the Jersey craft fair. Summer of George, bee-yotches....
We confirmed night 2 of the NY-->Chicago road trip in Sandusky, OH. I grabbed Arby's which completed the trifecta of greatest all-American road restaurants.
Just wanted to note how funny and entertaining and generally kind Roberta was on the drive back. She kept me continually singing and laughing with comedy bits of the Chris Rock of South Africa, Mr. Noah. The man is a genius. Some of the funnier bits, which she could recite verbatim, included
-Nelson Mandela's inebriated soliloquy on his out-living Michael Jackson, poking fun at Bill Clinton
-his encounter with a British actor who was so "amazed" at his accent and ethnicity and reminded him not to refer to himself as "colored"(which had a different connotation in South Africa)
-his encounter with an Africaans man who was convinced he was from Capetown and spoke Africaans
She sang countless songs perfectly in the car, including Maria Carey, Whitney Houston, Diana Ross, just to name a few
The next day was a fairly short remaining drive to Chicago. We arrived at around 3 PM at her friend's apt who lives in Edgewater. She was still working. We managed to kill time going to the beach. Having listened to the weather report, we knew the rain had ended for the day. The beach was cloudy and chilly, but relaxing. Still waiting for her friend, we sat at the Dominick's on Foster and Sheridan. Finally, she called and I dropped her with her Chicago friend and thus the mission of delivering precious cargo from NY to Chicago was complete!
Watched Big Brother with the big brother('ekse brara!') and was asleep by 10:30pm CST for the first time in decades.
