I'm driving Laura T. out for the day. I was scheduled to pick her up around 10am at Liz's at Grand Army Plaza. Athough I've walked there many times, I had little idea of how to negotiate the many one way streets at the entrance to Prospect Park.
But, thanks to my new GPS Droid Navigator, I was sure I'd easily manage it. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Somehow, buoyed by my misplaced confidence, I managed--and dear lord I have no idea how I did this--to get myself on a one-way road going into the park. As I tried to rectify that error, I ended up going the wrong way once again (by wrong-way, I do not mean I was heading in the wrong direction--I mean I was heading directly into traffic going the other way.
It was not night, so I could see clearly, and since I've learned that a car going the wrong way is quite visible to everyone else I was remarkably calm. Also--I have decided that I am protected by my California license plates. This is perhaps illusory but I like to think that there is a bit of extra tolerance (in Brooklyn?) extended towards a little old lady from California driving her old Camry with a fading Obama sticker and California plates trying to straighten herself out in Prospect Park.
In any case, I did get manage to figure it all out--and picked up Laura on the corner of Flatbush Avenue (I did give up trying to get right in front of Liz's building).
we drove straight down Flatbush Avenue, over the Manhattan Bridge, down Canal Street, through the Holland Tunnel--and on to Hampton Township. I have finally mastered the western route from Brooklyn--though I am still easily flustered on the eastward journey.
It was a warm and drizzly day. We stopped briefly at the house, then I dragged Laura to some of the many stores on Route 206 in search of assorted cleaning and bathroom supplies-Bed Bath and Beyond, Rite-Aid, Lowe's and Walmart.
Well supplied, we decided that before we plunged into our cleaning efforts, we'd have lunch at the Hampton Diner (my kitchen is not yet open for service).
By now, the day was fairly well advanced. It began to seriously rain, and we plunged into our cleaning efforts. I'd bought shower curtains, bath mats and rugs and began scrubbing in the kitchen while Laura exercised her skill with the Shop-Vac.
After a few hours of good work, we decided we'd had enough cleaning fun and headed back to the city. Another excellent diner meal--this time at the Jefferson Diner on Route 15. I thought I'd master that tricky entrance to the Holland Tunnel--but my previous efforts had been when it was light. In the dark, I got quite befuddled and we roamed around Jersey City a bit before heading through the Tunnel, across Canal Street, over the Brooklyn Bridge and straight down Flatbush Avenue to Grand Army Plaza.
Full disclosure (as well as the symmetry of the day) requires me to sadly admit that although I was just minutes from Sarah's house--a straight shot down Flatbush and then a left--I ended up hopelessly lost. My GPS wasn't working (I didn't remember that I could just shut it down and start it again), and due to construction on Flatbush, I couldn't make my turn, and cleverly confusing Atlantic and Flatbush Avenues, I spent most of the midnight hour driving bewildered, though calm, through deepest Brooklyn. I eventually found my way to State Street--but it was so late--almost 1am, it was not so easy to find a parking place--so many circles before finally resting for the night.
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