When it is so seldom that I can get back to the east coast there are always a lot of people I want to visit in a short amount of time. Perhaps that is how we’ve become so good at putting a half hour into twenty minutes (see Sweet PA). I have some relatives on Long Island, just outside of New York City. My great aunt just turned 95 and it was not an option for her and the rest of the crew from Long Island to come to Reading for Christmas. This meant that if I wanted to see them we would need to travel up there. This was part of the plan when we rented the 15 passenger van.
So after church on Sunday morning, we loaded my brother’s family, my family, my aunt and my parents back into the 15 passenger van and began our way to Long Island. We only made two stops, one to get gas and one to eat lunch. We also has little traffic delays, but I could sure tell how the traffic was different than North Dakota.
My family was looking forward to seeing the Statue of Liberty as we got onto the Verrazano. It is a great vantage point when looking north. Sadly, it was foggy and we couldn’t see it at all. Personally, I couldn’t take my eyes away from the road for a second. I was doing everything I could to help my family get a view while I tried to make sure that I was in the correct lane without getting into an accident.
After going across the bridge I take the exit and go down along the shore of the New York Harbor. As a consolation to not seeing the Status of Liberty we got to see a cruise ship pulling out of the harbor. To many, this may not be that big a deal. When we live 100 miles from the geographical center of the North American Continent, we don’t see ships like that very often.
Only 24 miles along the Southern State Parkway and we are there. I’m not usually excited to be done driving, but at that point I was ready for a break. More importantly, I was ready to see my great aunt and family. The last time we saw them our oldest would have been four and our daughter would have been turning two. They have not had the chance to meet our youngest yet.
At the house on Long Island were my great aunt and her son and daughter. It was great to see them. The house is a great size for the three of them, but when the thirteen of us arrived on scene it got a little squished. I spent some time visiting with my great aunt, as well as my mom’s cousins (who I call aunt and uncle) while the kids found their way outside to play some hide and seek.
My great aunt kept insisting for my uncle to get a chair for me (and others) even though I kept insisting that I had sat long enough in the van. She also kept insisting to go to the kitchen and help do stuff in there. She refused to believe that we had it under control. I helped do dishes later in the evening. She couldn’t quite tell who it was that was helping. I insisted it was my uncle who was taking care of it. In my defense, I was told to make myself at home.
This was a point to me to realize how much different life is there than I have seen it. We have visited on Skype a few times over the years. There is no substitute for being there in the place. I was trying to show my great aunt a bit of what life is like here in North Dakota by looking at things on my iPad, but it wasn’t the same. It is one drawback to having brought my life out here. It was still a great visit, and it came to an end all to quickly.
Soon enough we loaded back into the van to start our trek home. I told my dad that I would drive to where we get gas, then have him take over. This meant that I was getting us out of the city. This time enough fog had lifted that the family could see the lights of Lady Liberty as we crossed the Verrazano. It was enough to excite them.
I should have figured that things were going too well on this trip. Just at the point that my dad was going to take over driving he fell and hurt his back. It wasn’t that much further home and I pushed it as much as I could. Once home and everyone was unloaded, my dad and I got into a different vehicle and drove to the local hospital where we spent the rest of the night. I am happy to say that my dad was okay and had no major injury.
So it was, Monday morning, 370 miles and twenty-one hours after I woke up on Sunday, I said good night to my family and went to bed. Not the first time, and it won’t be the last time. Most importantly, it was all worth it.
View of the North 