As you can see, my road trip turned out to be rather enjoyable. There’s nothing in the world like a weekend of non-stop hot monkey love sightseeing in New York City.

My mother and my host both scared the daylights out of me with “You’re driving into New York City?!?” Uh, yeah. So I approached the Holland Tunnel with fear and trepidation (as if those aren’t the same thing). But it was a piece of cake. I don’t expect you to believe me, but New Yorkers are the most courteous drivers I’ve ever seen! I think they may have the attitude of “Its going to take longer than it should to get anywhere, and we are all in the same boat, so we may as well help each other out.”  Sure, Missy, I’ll let you in this lane. Go ahead, your turn to cut in front of me. Oh, I have to wait through a green light because you are blocking the intersection? Thats nothing out of the ordinary.  The alternate explanation was they saw a blonde with Kentucky plates and decided it would be best to steer clear! The traffic was a breeze, unlike interstate traffic (which I am used to), where its bumper-to-bumper rude tourists going 85 mph. New York drivers are really more like small-town drivers, there’s just lots more of them. I'm sure it helped that all the other tourists parked in New Jersey and took a bus over. Of course, I got lost trying to follow the useless Mapquest directions. There’s a whole other post to write on that! But I wasn’t in a hurry, and I found the way to my hotel in due time. I HAD allowed time to wander around lost.

My host, who begged for privacy did not give permission for identification (one hint, he’s hotter than the Naked Cowboy), walked me all over Manhattan. I bet we logged between ten and twenty miles over three days. I saw Times Square, Washington Square, Chinatown, Little Italy (which was rockin' on Sunday, believe me), Soho, Broadway, Wall Street, Park Avenue, Ground Zero, St. Paul’s, Central Park (where we took a romantic carriage ride), the Empire State Building, Toys R Us (with their 3-story ferris wheel in the lobby), the Apple Store, and Benihana’s. Believe it or not, Ground Zero didn’t affect me that much. It has been scoured and sanitized and rebuilt over quite a bit. St. Paul’s is a different story. Although they hold regular services, they have kept items from 9/11 as a sort of museum display. You can see the memorial objects left at the site, posters of missing relatives, and greetings from all over the world. That made it personal, and made me (and everyone around me) tear up.

The Empire State Building impressed me, but not for the reasons you might think. There was a crowd waiting for tickets, but we bypassed them. My host just flashed an ID and we were waved on through! This happened at every gate, every line, every elevator. They would even hold the doors open for us! We did stop for the metal detector; to do otherwise would have been bad form. At one checkpoint, he flashed his ID and the usher said "What? Whats that? I ain't never seen that before!" We just had enough time to break our forward motion when she slapped him on the arm and said "Gotcha! Haha! Go on, now." I was as amazed with the way we got to the top as I was with the spectacular view.

We watched the final game of the Athletic Cup in a nice pub near Times Square, where we met Donald Trump a man named Glynn from Liverpool who can speak Welsh. Do YOU know anyone who can speak Welsh? He was in NYC visiting his girlfriend, who is “a producer at one of those networks you have here... I can’t recall which, but its the one that has The Early Show.” Ding ding ding! I’m looking for a media job!

All in all, I had a lot of fun. Well worth the long trip, although next time I will try to plan far enough ahead to book a plane ticket instead. Ya know, when you spend Saturday and Sunday walking for miles, then spend 15 hours Monday sitting in the driver’s seat, your muscles are going to be sore on Tuesday. But since this isn’t a personal blog, and has no personal content, AND because Raggedy missed the long lists of links while I was gone, how about some links?

You MUST see this dog who has overcome her disability in a unique way!

The Ten Types of Women You Should Avoid, from the American Inventor Spot.

Net Anecdotes has a new domain and a new name! Update your link to Anecdota.

Do you have a Macintosh laptop with a motion sensor? Then try out this software that makes it into a Light Saber, and get back with me on it! It just sounds too cool to be true. (Thanks, Bill!) Video demos here, and here, and here, and here.

Even if you know nothing of soccer and didn’t follow the Athletic Cup, you’ll enjoy this video on futbal strategy.  And Wulfweard has the last word on England’s feelings.

The song Loituma was featured in the Garden post, the girl swinging the onion, remember? OK, here’s a page full of different versions and remixes.  Here’s Arbroath’s favorite.  And mine.

Asswriting is a Flickr photoset dedicated to examples of butt-propaganda in the LA area. While the photos are funny, the commentary on the photos is just as entertaining. Lifted from PAgent, and congratulations on your new site and new domain!

Thought for today: I'd explain it to you, but your brain would explode.

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