We left for New York, early as usual, departing home at 4.30am. Little did we know this was going to be our longest trip ever to get to our hotel, some 16,000kms away. Everything started normally, we were lucky and were upgraded to first class, which is always nice when it happens.
The flight over was fine. We always have a bit of fun as we dine together and have too much to drink, getting a little giggly. But, eh, we are on holidays, so we like to enjoy the entire journey.
We land into LAX and the weather is gorgeous as we transit to our NYC flight. All good.
We then strike delays, there are snow flurries sweeping across New York and we could be in for a long afternoon as we attempt to make our way across the country. The pilot pushes on an we eventually get to NYC a little late, but not too late.
As the aircraft lands we see about a foot of snow on the ground and it is currently snowing. Well, we’ve never seen this before. We get through immigration easily and collect our back, clearing customs and out to the cab queue. Its about a mile long, we are dressed in short sleeves and are about to wait for an hour for a taxi. Ever thinking Mardi, has packed our coats in one of our bags with easy access, so we pull those out and put them on as we wait and wait and wait for a cab.
About 90 minutes later we finally get to the head of the queue.
We hop in the cab and head off. It’s a fixed fare, which is great for us, but as it turns out, not for the driver. The normal 45 minute or so journey takes three hours tonight. Traffic is simply grid locked and we sit for 15 minutes on a number of occasions not even moving. At one point, at the 59th St bridge, we sit for 30 minutes and not move. The cab, when it does move, goes into a slide on the ice and snow covered road. We hear on the radio that there is a 30 car pile up just past the bridge. We are going to be hear a while.
Eventually we sneak our way through the traffic, the driver is quite angry, this one job has cost him his night and all he has earned is our fare, so we tip him nicely when we arrive at 6th Avenue and 44th, our corner.
As I step out of the cab I stand I a foot of wet, sloshy snow and ice. M eft leg soaked I try and keep my right leg dry, to no avail. Then as I finally extract myself and get to the sidewalk the driver calls me. Our credit card has declined. I try again and thankfully, it works the second time. Mardi is waiting on the sidewalk with our bags as the snow falls, she looks freezing, which is how I feel now with two wet legs. Can sorted we walk to our hotel.
It’s s short walk down 44th, 100 metres. Its cold and past midnight at this stage so the streets are pretty empty, but its an effort dragging our bags. We make it to our hotel and feel the instant warmth: our home away from home greets us with warm, welcoming arms.
Check in is smooth and we get to our room, another warm blanket of comfort and familiarity as we finally arrive, some 36 hours after leaving Canberra.
We unpack and are hungry. Its New York, so I pop out and find a 24 our diner and get some food. We enjoy a quick snack before hitting the sack. Our eighth adventure in the big apple is about to begin.
