I dozed off occasionally between Philadelphia and New York City but I really woke up when the sun began to rise and I realized the bus was in New Jersey. I wanted to take it all in. I wasn't quite to NYC but I was so damn close! The next thing I know the bus is going through the Lincoln Tunnel and it took everything I had to not burst into tears. A feel of exhaustion, relief, excitement, and victory all in one. I had made it.
Getting off the bus at the station, I was a little nervous. I knew how far my hotel was from Penn Station had I taken the train but I was unprepared for the bus station even though I did have Google Maps. I just wanted to get to my Hotel at this point.
I wish that I was arriving at the Hotel with a better impression. Instead, I was someone who hadn't showered in three days and had not emptied my bladder in 24 hours. The bus had no restroom facility for wheelchairs and the one time when I did get off one bus to transfer to another there was no time to find a restroom. To this day, I don't know how I did it nor would I do it again.
I got to the Hotel and after checking in...I couldn't get to my room fast enough. I was about to find out just how wheelchair accessible the room was. And it turned out that Yotel Hotel was everything they advertised the room to be. Plenty of room to move around but, most importantly, there was a large walk-in shower. After washing the stink of the past three days off, I got a tenth wind and got my room settled and just stared out the windows for awhile. I was tired and my chair needed to be charged so I decided to take a nap.
What was supposed to be only an hour nap turned out to be a 3 hour nap and damn it felt good. So being rested and my chair getting a boost it was time to head out to NYC...for the very first time. I didn't want to go very far from the Hotel on this first day so I went to wander around Times Square. Seeing as how I was starving I bought a Lobster Roll and sat at a table and just people watched. There were just so many emotions going through me. NYC was no longer an idea. I was making memories. And I felt like I was finally where I belonged.
Later in the evening, I was back in the room and called my brother to ask him if he could buy me a plane ticket back to LA on Saturday. I felt like crap for asking because he had helped me out much the same way when Greyhound stranded me in Las Vegas four years before. And a last minute ticket from NYC was going to cost a lot more. I just knew that I couldn't handle another 2 1/2 days on Amtrak so soon after what I had just gone through. And I figured for what I would get from the refund of my return ticket from Amtrak that I could pay my brother back pretty quickly. Well...
I called Amtrak to begin the process of a refund after speaking to my brother and it turns out that when I thought I was getting the Chicago to NYC leg of my trip refunded and used on a Greyhound ticket...Amtrak was refunding my return trip so I actually had no way home. Thank goodness for my brother & his wife helping me out.
And this ended my first day in NYC. Wednesday was set to be my first full day and I was so excited to get to be running around the city all day.
That was the plan anyway...
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