NJ & NY - Yr 1, Day 358

New York, New York

(break into song here!)....

As I write this, I am at Mitch's sister, Doris's apartment in Manhattan.  We left Columbia, SC at 3:30pm on Wednesday and drove straight through to NJ, arriving at our destination at 8:00 am.  We stopped several times at rest areas along the way to take little catnaps.  I have night blindness, so I drove until it started to get dark.  We got off at an exit in Roanoake Rapids, VA (just north of the border of NC) and stopped at a pizza place for a quick bite to eat.  Mitch then took over the driving.  By then, there were severe storms most of the way so he was driving in blinding rain for the most part.  Grueling ride!  I then took over the last 120 miles when we crossed the border into NJ, as it was finally daylight (but still raining).

Unfortunately, the person we had to meet (John, who has the keys to the locker) wasn't available until 11:00 so we had some time to spend. We drove around Fanwood, even passing our old home.  It was a weird feeling and in some ways it felt like we never left - everything was so familiar.  Mitch popped into his favorite bagel store and they were thrilled to see him.

The cleanout was a lot easier than I was anticipating as well.  For one thing, being that we had a small rental car and were not planning on keeping 90% or more of the items, we were figuring making at least 5 or more trips to the local thrift shop to donate.  John told us not to worry about it; that anything we left behind he would take care of!  That certainly saved us a few hours right there.  We were also very fortunate that everything we needed fit in the car.  We had been anticipating the need to take stuff to the UPS store and have it wrapped and shipped.

So after packing up, we headed into NYC where we spent the night and are spending this morning.  Then we head over to the Bronx where we will spend Shabbat with my dad.  Heading back to Raleigh on Sunday.