Weird Holidays

I got to experience my first official "Gridlock Day" on Friday. I have to say, New York has a weird sense of humor when it comes to declaring holidays. Wed and Thurs the alternate side parking rules were waived for "holiday observances." This was great because it meant there was easy parking at work on a day when I actually had the car. Then on Friday they announced that it was "Gridlock Day" on the radio and the street signs recommended that people celebrate by taking public transit.

As I drove to work, I thought it was mildly amusing, but figured it was just some quirky way these crazy New Yorkers make light of their unfortunate commuting situation. Sadly, no. I found myself sitting on a street watching the cross street be paved in front of me. Then a bunch of cars backed down a block at full speed because they had found themselves in the same situation but without any cones to keep them from becoming trapped.

Then, I had the unfortunate task of driving a 10 passenger van to Queens to pick up a Sid the Science Kid costume for a big event at work this past weekend. Um. Yeah. It took 2.5 hours to make it there. Then, to my horror, I realized that I hadn't googled the return trip, so we had to guess at our route. After circling for 15 minutes on clogged roads with my navigator's phone as our only guide, it became dark and a bit more challenging to figure out the street signs. I soon found myself on a very slow Queensborough Bridge.

Now for those of you not familiar with NYC geography, Brooklyn (#2) and Queens (#3) are adjacent, there is no bridge necessary. The Queensborough Bridge connects Queens and Manhattan (#1). So...we were NOT going in the direction I wanted to go. On the plus side, I can now say that I have driven in Manhattan - and driven a pretty difficult vehicle, no less. On the plus side, with traffic as bad as it was, the police directing traffic didn't seem to notice my totally illegal U-turn to get back on the Queensborough Bridge in the opposite direction to head back into the fray and find our way to Brooklyn.

We finally managed to get onto the right road and crossed into Brooklyn. Yay! My navigator got into more familiar territory and packed away his phone. I'll admit, I was pretty darned concerned as he had me heading onto the ramp for the Williamsburg Bridge (another bridge to Manhattan). We caught the last exit before the bridge and were soon speeding along nearly abandoned streets through the holiday lights of various commercial districts. We finally managed to pull into the museum at 6:30pm or so.

Happy belated Gridlock Day to everyone! Just one more borough and I'll have driven in them all! Bronx, here we come!