The Great American Journey

GAP WALK JOURNALS - VII

Tuesday - September 23, 2008 Day 202 0.0 miles

Total New York miles - 33.2 Walking Days - 94

Washington D.C. miles - 4.6 Cumulative miles 1688.8

What a great day we had in New York City. After having such a hard day last week of trying to find our way around we decided to take one of the tours today. That really is the best way to see a city like this. First we drove to the Arlington Mall across and east of us just a bit. There we left Lady Mag at the Good Year place to get the battery replaced. We asked them to check out other things to make sure it wasn’t going out on us because of some kind of a drain, or other problem.

Then we caught our bus into New York where we signed up for both the downtown tour and the uptown tour. Starting with downtown we went most of the way around seeing such things as the Flat Iron Building, the World Trade Center (New Yorkers still call it that rather than Ground Zero), the bridges that surround the city, and the Empire State Building among other things. At this point we got off the tour bus to take the ride up to the top. It wasn’t a long wait (we were fortunate), and soon we were at the 80^th floor where we had to wait for another elevator to take us to the 86^th floor. We rode up with another couple from California - San Francisco.

At the top of the Empire State Building we took our time looking around and took lots of pictures. It is quite fascinating up there looking down on all those buildings that looked so tall from down below, and now they look pretty small. Amazing.

It was a great experience, but now we needed to head on down again. Back on the ground we went to a Mexican Restaurant on the ground floor for some lunch. We split a burrito in a bowl (no tortilla). Then back out to get onto another one of our tour buses.

Soon we were on the uptown tour where we saw Central Park, lots of beautiful cathedrals, Grants Tomb, a few museums, some beautiful parts of Harlem, and a variety of other things. We got off of the bus to walk through a portion of Central Park. Then stopped at a food stand in the Park to buy two meat K’nishes (I have no idea how to spell that). They were delicious.

Then we went back to wait for the next one of our tour buses with another couple that had gotten off here. They were from Norway, and when they heard about the walk of prayer I am on they told us they too were Christians. Awesome. It just amazes me how often that happens. Our ride took us past a building I had taken a picture of when Russ and I walked through here in July. This particular building had the words of Micah 6:8 carved into the side of the building. It is on 5^th Avenue between 64^th Street and 65^th Street.

At 49^th St. we had to get off, and chose to walk on down to the Port Authority at 42^nd St. where we had to go to catch our bus back to Parsippany. On the way we stopped at a Starbucks where the young man made me one of the best Chai Tea Lattes I have had. I complimented him on it, and he told me to be sure to tell his manager. I did, and they all cheered for him and told me he’s new at this. Awesome.

We also stopped at some gift shops and looked at shirts and other things. After making a couple of purchases we went on to the Port Authority, got our bus tickets, and were soon on our way to Parsippany on a full bus.

When we got off at our stop we picked up our van where they had parked it after putting in the new battery. They had called us during the day to let us know it was just the battery, and that everything else had checked out okay.

She started right up and we drove back to the motel. Dave packed while I downloaded pictures, and did my journal. Now he will use the computer for a bit while I finish up some other stuff. This day was a great ending to our week together. Dave leaves tomorrow morning, but will be back in three weeks to join me for the end of the walk, and then drive home together over about a five-week period.