The Great American Journey

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VII

Monday - September 22, 2008 Day 201 0.0 miles

Total New York miles - 33.2 Walking Days - 94

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6 Cumulative miles 1688.8

Today was spent at Ellis Island and Liberty Island after taking almost two hours to get there through rush hour traffic. Dave and I both said that we’d rather drive in Los Angeles, than in Newark, NJ. Maybe that’s because we’re more used to California’s freeways and highways, but truly the traffic here is crazier than anything I’ve seen anyplace. And we had traffic like that last night when we drove down there as well. I did enjoy walking through Newark - or at least it was okay.

Well, we arrived in time for our 9:00 a m ferry and enjoyed the short cruise to Ellis Island. When Russ and I were at Ellis Island we were on a tight schedule, so didn’t get to see much. But now Dave and I got to take our time (to a certain extent) and really see the different displays, the drama about one person arriving at Ellis Island, and the video about the Island.

We talked to a couple of people in the Genealogy Research section. They were delighted when they found out that Dave was a representative of the Czech and Slovak Genealogy Society, and were immediately ready to help with anything.

We ate lunch in the café at Ellis, then went to Liberty Island to see the Statue of Liberty. We had tickets to go inside the base. You’re allowed to go up to the top of the base, but no further - this since 9 11.

After finishing up there we headed back out to catch our ferry back to Liberty Park. We walked to our car from the ferry, then got ready to go only to find that we had a dead battery again. Now we know we need to get a new battery. Knowing that AAA will bring out and install a battery, we called them to see about getting that done. But we were told that they don’t do that in this county. Oh, well. We still had them come out and give our battery a jump. It was 5:00 p m.

Now we were supposed to be at a church to do a 10-minute sharing tonight, but it didn’t look too positive right now. I finally got in touch with Bonny to let her know. A little later she called back to say it was okay with Pastor Melvin if we wanted to come a little late, or if I wanted to come over on Wednesday night for that group that would also be okay. We decided not to try for tonight since we didn’t know if the car would start afterwards or not. And I told her I’d let her know about Wednesday.

Ultimately we got back to Parsippany and to the grocery store where I picked up some salad to go with our leftovers for dinner. Then we checked the time for Goodyear Automotive to open in the morning. We figure it should work out really great for us to get the car to them in the morning, then catch the bus into New York, and take a tour through the city. We can leave the van with Goodyear to put in the new battery while we’re seeing New York City.

And now, it’s time for me to head to bed. Take care everyone.