New Jersey, July, 2005
July 25 3:15 a.m. Shut off alarm clock and get up.
July 25 4:00 a.m. Wander downstairs to get into the cab.
July 25 5:45 a.m. Board plane to Toronto.
July 25 6:15 a.m. Hold on as the plane takes off. Try to
sleep
without a pillow.
July 25 7:00 a.m. Buy a turkey sandwich from the flight
attendent for breakfast.
July 25 11:55 a.m. Land in Toronto; Rush down jetway; race
to the buses to go to Terminal 2; Go
through US Customs; Accept a buggie ride
from GTAA employee; buy another
sandwich for lunch (yucky this one); board
plane for Laguardia.
July 25 3:30 p.m. Land in New York City. Gather luggage and
wait for shuttle to the city.
July 25 5:00 p.m. Get off bus at Grand Central Station
without a clue as to what direction I need
to walk. It is 97F with humidity of 105F.
Go to Starbucks... buy water, not coffee.
Figured out I had to walk about 12 blocks
to hotel, so decided to try to flag a cab.
Found out that night on my tour that doing
this at 5 pm shift change is almost
impossible. Gave up and crossed street
and got doorman for the Grand Hyatt to
get me a YELLOW TAXI!! My first ride in
the famed cabs... ok.. they are the same as
any other city.
July 25 5:30 p.m. Check into my hotel. No A/C in the room
but decided it might just be turned on.
Hotel is Best Western President on 48th
between 8th and Broadway. My room was
1405 and it was a twin. About 100 sq ft
room. The bed and tv stand and bathroom.
That is all that would fit.
July 25 6:00 p.m. Ate dinner @ Bennegans (it was close ok
and I was hot.
July 25 6:45 p.m. Go back to room for a few minutes. It is
78F in there now. Call the front desk and
they say someone will be up in a bit.
July 25 7:15 p.m. Go to the Grayline pickup for evening tour.
It
is a beautiful evening with the temp. down
to about 85F. Great tour and lots of great
pictures.
July 25, 2005 10p.m. Back to the hotel to find the temp. in my room
is
about
79F still. Call front desk and they advise
that
I never called earlier. Told them to please fix.
They said 10-15 minutes and someone
would be up. An hour later I was trying to call
the
front desk again but no answer.
I went down to the desk and security finally
helped me. He came upstairs and looked at
it and said, "this won't be fixed tonight."
Yes, I was hot and not because of the AC not
working! If they had acted on this on my first
phone call, I could have gotten a new room.
But now the hotel was sold out. Security
was great and brought me a fan but I wasn't
about to pay full price for this room.
A few phone calls later and it was time to
sleep.
July 26 8:30am
My plan to rise at 6:30 was changed due to
last
night's activities making me go to bed so late.
I got up and did the morning
routine. Was not hungry so I just went to the
Grayline tour.
MORE TO COME... STAY TUNED... AND I KNOW YOU ARE ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT!
