New York Review.
Lots of people. Lots to do. Central Park is an amazing stretch of greenery in a concrete jungle. The hot dogs are hot, the ice cream is cold, and Central Park seems to be very safe; much more so than the average downtown Houston park.
However, if you're in a wheelchair, stay at home. I brought my 82 year old mom along so she could see her grandkids sing at a Lincoln Center Concert. She's not wheelchair bound but is not as spry as she once was. We took the chair just so she wouldn't have to rush along. BUT, subways have no wheelchair access outside of Grand Central. Many of the elevators they do have are so full of urine and puke odor that it's very hard not to be forced to add to the bouquet. For all it's liberal correctness, if any other major city in this country was as ADA unfriendly as New York, it would be shut down by the ADA cops in no time. Even Avery Fisher Hall where the kids sang had no seats carved out for wheelchairs.
Not really what I expected.
Thanks to my cousin Mark for putting us up and playing 42 with us until late onto the night. Mark makes the best BBQ brisket outside of the Texas border. Of course he's a transplant so it's to be expected. (42 is a really cool "old school" domino game that many in my family are hooked on)
Driving through the Appalachian mountains was a never ending cycle of one beautiful vista after the next. Finding out that the Pennsilvania turnpike was a toll road was a bummer until I found out they only charge about .10 per mile which is doable. I'm used to the Houston toll system which is about $1 per mile. The turnpike is very well maintained with rest stations every 50 miles or so and each one has a Starbucks coffee shop. My wife is hooked on Starbucks so that was nice. And yes, a cuppa Starbucks in Houston tastes the exact same as a cuppa Starbucks in Kentucky, Tennessee, the Virginias and even New York. I guess they figured out a way to filter the water properly.
I recommend driving across the country if you ever need to travel and have the time. The scenery and the people we met along the way is worth the few days it takes. Flying someplace is like riding an elevator; we get on in one place and get off on another. How boring is that?
I took my pistol but left it with a Gunsmith in Easton Pennsilvania.
http://www.waltersgunsmithingllc.com Walter did a trigger job and lightened up the slide release a bit for me. I picked it up on the way back and the work he did was superb. If anyone is ever travelling up to "No-Gun-Land", I recommend going this rout.
But one sign really did stand out on the trip home and was one that I was very happy to see:
