Halloween 2011, pretty memorable!

Creepy costume shot on my way down to parade NYC 2011

So, I decided to go forward with my planned trip to New York and subsequent drive down the East Coast on my way to Florida. I was a little worried the trip might not have been the best idea in the beginning. I stayed up really late last Friday trying to get everything together so I could leave the next morning and be in New York at a reasonable time to go out with some friends. About halfway into the drive, I had serious doubts if this was going to happen. The mountains in Pennsylvania were really nice then all of the sudden, all hell broke loose. It started snowing a little at first then went into a full blown blizzard, trees were fallen over the highway, trucks and cars were sliding into ditches and then I started to slide around and decided it wasn't worth risking my life to get to New York on Saturday night. I bit the bullet gladly and found a Best Western in the middle of BFE Pennsylvania and have to say it was probably the smartest $100 I've ever spent. My little convertible is obviously not made for snow driving and not even sure if it's ever seen cold weather. So, not only was it sliding but the engine was bogging, couldn't see out of the windshield with no defroster, it was pretty scary...


At first, the snow was nice :)


Never a good thing when you're driving on the highway only to be staring at headlights facing you! I was going pretty slow though hence my chance to take the shot. This accident was my wakeup call to get off the road...

Getting to the hotel and being able to exhale was awesome! I was so exhausted, I think I passed out around 9:30-10 which never happens... It was nice waking up the next morning with the sun out, burning the snow off the road, and being able to drive on dry pavement. The rest of the drive then went pretty smoothly and it was pretty surreal coming out of the mountains of PA and New Jersey, seeing the city skyline and all of the sudden being back in the concrete jungle. I took the Holland Tunnel to New York and was shocked that it was $12 bucks. I think they raised the price because of the condition of the entry of the tunnel. It looks to be falling apart pretty bad, can't imagine how much it's going to cost to ever fix that thing up...

Once in New York, I was able to meet my friends and we went to a sports bar to watch the Lions kick some major ass. Can't remember the last time I was proud to root for the Lions in a different city, pretty cool!

The next day was Halloween and we decided to hit the parade. I actually took the train down to Houston St. and was going to meet my friends for dinner and purposely didn't eat because it was pizza and pasta and you need a lot of room to eat all those carbs. Little did I know that once I got out of the subway and onto the street how many people were going to be out and I almost didn't make it to the restaurant. They had the streets blocked off with barriers and weren't letting anyone cross 6th ave, ugh. So, if you can imagine the mouse in the maze trying to find the cheese, that was me ;) I went up and down side streets only to be turned away everytime trying to cross over. Finally, I looked up the street and noticed hoards of people crossing 6th and I ran as fast as I could to try and get across. I finally ended up in the middle of a mass of people who were watching the parade and realized I had to get into the "crossing fenced lane" and had to run all the way back and re-enter if that makes any sense. I finally did get across and it was such a major relief, I felt like I had won again, one guy against thousands of people in a city I'm not overly familiar with... that pizza tasted great! ;)


Contained craziness in the village


Creepy skeletons at the parade


The next day I went down to my little park and took this shot of the finally finished skyscraper that they were working on everyday last year which is located next door to the Hope Lodge bldg. So much quieter here :)

I wanted to wind this up by mentioning that while all of this is fun, exciting and adventurous, I do it with a heavy heart knowing that my family is going through some hard times right now and a fellow Hodge Warrior Mike Reed is struggling pretty bad in his fight. Please take a minute to check out his Caring Bridge site which you can find a link under my blogs lists and leave an encouraging message if you can. It's been one thing after another for the guy and my heart goes out to him and his family. Also, looking forward to digging into the trenches with my Mom when I get back to confront her beast and give it hell. I've got names of 5 doctors now who have been recommended to me from other doctors so we'll have some good options. Even though I'm out here, my heart is in Michigan with my family and always in my thoughts. Love you guys!

Chris