Date: 2012-07-11
From: Highland Falls NY

To: Highland Falls NY
Miles today: 0.0

SOS here:Today Trail Mama and I slept in. I took a zero day to spend the day with Trail Mama. We were celebrating our 36th Anniversary. Trail Mama gave me for our anniversary and Orange Bandana to wear on my head for the trail, a poetry vision magnet with a photo taken by Gittel Price of a bird in flight and message by Terah Cox saying "I wish you sky, wind and prayer...and the heart to go the distance" that I will carry with me to Katahdin, and two pullover shirts one gold and the other black (Go figure Bishop Mike)and a book called Traveller, written in the voice of Robert E. Lee's horse. Traveller tells his version of the Civil War. Trail Mama is always good at picking gifts for me and for others.We were just 51 miles from Union Square in NYC. Since we both love NYC, we decided to spend the day there. We invited Headnout and Tagnalong to join us and they said YES. So we left Highland Falls at 10:40 AM and crossed the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan at about Noon. Knowing we wanted our starting point to be Union Square near a major subway hub, we located a parking garage less than a block from there on the internet. The parking garage is one that had an elevator for your car. The car would be pulled into the elevator and taken to the floor where it would be parked. This meant they did not have to waste valuable space in the parking garage on ramps in Manhattan.The first place we went to was the farmers' market in Union Square. The farmers market is very colorful with fruits, vegetables and flowers - it was an incredibly beautiful sunny day and people were every where. I could not resist the walnut cranberry bread - delicious. Headnout was beside himself and could not believe he was in NYC. We were all felt we needed to eat since it was already 1:00 PM.We decided not to eat at the Republic "where you think noodle" because we wanted more choices so we decided to go to Grand Central Station and the dining concourse. We chose to get there by taking the subway - Trail Mama and I's mode of transportation in NYC. So down we went into the depts of NYC to the subway. Since we were only going to be in the city for a day we each purchased a $10 subway pass which would give us each 4 rides a piece. We took the train directly to Grand Central Station and came out of the subway right at the market place. We walked through the market and Trail Mama made sure that Headnout and Tagnlong saw the crystal tree hanging from the ceiling. Before even going into the main concourse we went to the dining concourse to eat lunch. People were everywhere and making a selection on what to eat was difficult. Headnout and I chose chinese. Trail Mama and Tagnlong chose salads. We could not find a table to sit down to so we stood up next to a table that was chest high and begin our feast. A young lady next to me, who was from near Grand Rapids MI (Same as Headnout and Tagnalong) - took our picture for us. She was very friendly and helpful like everyone Trail Mama and I have met in NYC.We wanted Headnout and Tagnalong to taste Junior's from Brooklyn cheesecake. I selected rasberry cheesecake and Headnout selected strawberry cheesecake. They gave it two thumbs up. We said we know of only one other cheesecake that is better and that it is made at our son Joshua's kitchen when he makes chocolate cheesecake.With full tummies we headed to time square - we walked. It was farther than we expected - this would be a reoccuring theme everytime we decided to walk. It was like hiking the trail but no rocks or mountains. Tagnlong saw a person dressed like Alvin of Chipmunk fame and had Headnout take her picture with him. After all of us saw ourselves on the Jumbotron in Times Square, it was time to go to ToysRUs. We wanted to show our friends the Ferris Wheel inside the store. They were willing to ride it so Headnout purchased tickets for all four of us. We got to ride in the M & M car. They loved it - Trail Mama not so much. Trail Mama is not fond of ferris wheels because of the heights. As usual, a store employee had taken our picture in the M & M car. He does this so at the end of ther ride they hope you will buy prints of the picture. Unlike usual, Trail Mama and I did buy the pictures - which included two key chains with the picture and 4 billfold size pictures. We gave Headnout and Tagnlong one of the key chains and 2 of the billfod size pictures so they could remember the ride when they looked at them.We could not be in the Times Square area without going to the M&M store. Boy does M&M know how to market their brand. You could purchase any color of the rainbow M&M's that our in cylander containers that extend from the ceiling to waiste level to M&M faces with crowns to look like the Statue of Liberty. I just love going into that store.Now it was time to go to Chelsea Market at 9th Avenue and between 15th 16th Street. "Chelsea market is at the National Biscuit Company complex, begun in the 1890's in what is now west Chelsea, the ovens baked everything from Saltines to Oreos. Those ovens went cold a half century ago, when the company moved out. In the 1990's, the investor Irwin B. Cohen organized a syndicate to buy the principal National Biscuit buildings, from Ninth to 11th Avenue and 15th to 16th Street. Over the next several years Mr. Cohen reinvented the older complex. On the ground floor, he and his designers, Vandeberg Architects, created a long interior arcade of food stores, now a well-known destination in west Chelsea - an area that itself is oven-hot these days, with million dollar lofts being created in the onetime leftover factory district. To walk through the Chelsea Market is to stroll through a sort of postindustrial theme park, carefully festooned with the detritus of a lost industrial culture, interspersed with food stores and restaurants." The quotation above was take from the Chelsea Market website. Chelsea Market is a must see when you are in NYC. Chelsea Market is also the home for the Food Network on cable TV. Of course we did not leave Chelsea market without sampling from a milk store: Trail Mama had milk of course, Tagnlong ice cream and you guessed it Headnout and I had strawberry milkshakes. We sat on a big stone curved bench and drank or ate and watched the shoppers go by of all sizes and shapes. A great place to watch New Yorkers in their enviroment.This left us with only one more stop before heading back to our West Point Motel in Highland Falls NY. It is the public park that is at this point a mile long and projected to be a mile and half when finished. The park is located on an elevated rail line running through Manhattan's West Side. It is seeing NYC from a different perspective on a beautiful landscaped path above steet level. Trail Mama and I especially like the gentle water fountain with just enough water to take off your shoes and get your the bottoms of your feet wet and all four of us did. At one turn as we walked towards 18th street we caught a glimpse of the Empire State Building towering over the buildings close by - WOW!After our third long walk of the day we managed to get the subway back to Union Station retrieve our car and take the road back to George Washington Bridge and the Pallisade Parkway so we could return to our motel. Travel Mama, Headnout and Tagnlong thanks for an unforgetable day and Oh Yes thanks Trail Mama for sharing thirty-six years with me!Now I would like to tell you about the day that Jutta said I do to me and I to her on July 11, 1976. It was a very hot hard to breathe Sunday. We drove to the Emily Flynn nursing home in Marion IN where we would exchange our wedding vows to each other. It was a small wedding family & friend wise and a big wedding attendee wise. How is that possible? Well family member were our son Jeff, our parents Jim & Carol Summers & Lloyd and Marcile Biberstine, Judy Biberstine (a sister-in-law), Renee Biberstine (another sister-in-law)and our witnesses Becky (Judy's sister) and Bob Gibson. The friends who attender were Rich and Elise Green and Grandma Bosell (She took care of Jeff as a baby and our contact to the Emily Flynn Home). Big as to wedding attendees because all of the residents knew the bride Jutta and they wanted to see this stunningly beautiful jet black haired lady marry this groom who they did not know. (Jutta and I only dated for six weeks before we were married - We just knew we were right for each other.) It was an awesome day for me Randy Williams - trail name Popcorn. After the vows the bride and groom, family and friends gathered in one of the airconditioned rooms for cake and punch. I would like to add that the parents of both the bride and groom were subdued and not sure these that Jutta and I knew what we were doing since we had known each other that long. You see they had met the other ones spouse for only the third time on the wedding day. They had not know their childs spouse for more than six weeks. I guess you might say we did just know we were right for each other.Besides the boiling hot day we would also have the memory of the Chevy Vega (Jutta's car) coming to a rolling stop on I-69 just south of exit 10 when the clutch went out. After walking back to exit 10 (no cell phone back then) we called to have the car towed. We rode in the tow truck which Jutta managed to get the price for the toll to go from $25.00 down to $10.00 - even $25.00 would not even be close to the cost today. We called a college friend of mine, Mike Troyan, who picked us up in his Pontiac Firebird and drove us to Rich and Elise Green's where we spent our first night as newlyweds. Rich and Elise (who had come to the wedding) were great host.Now the problem was how were we going to get to Brown County Inn in Brown County State Park for our honeymoon. I had a car, a dodge colt with a Mack Truck Dog hood ornament but the brakes were bad. What we did will be continued tomorrow.It is already way past my bedtime and I have 15.8 miles to hike tomorrow. Goodnight.