60,000 miles and the NYU Roadtrip

 

I really need to finish these classes. Then there will be more time for things like driving...and blogging.

 

So it was a Friday night about two weeks back. I was sitting down to do some homework and research when a buddy of mine messaged me. We had been talking about his work coaching cheerleading as a secondary role of his up at NYU. I had half-jokingly said I should come up there and run drills with him in a practice. Well fast forward to that Friday in particular and he mentioned they were starting double sessions for their spring break. Well, I wasn't really feeling doing any homework anyway; so, I decided to load up the truck and head to Philly first to visit the Mrs and then make the trip up to NYU the next morning to see their practices. Thus a mini-road trip was born.

 

 

 



 

 

I kind of take some of the eastern seaboard states for granted since I enter and exit them pretty regularly. Nonetheless, it occurred to me that I might not have a New Jersey road sign picture. It also shows off the new decals I added to the rear of the truck. I do keep a fire extinguisher and first aid kit on deck.

 



 

 

There was even traffic on a Saturday morning. We were a bit slow on the inbound side; it was basically logjammed on the outbound side. It also occurred to me when I was leaving later that evening that NYC can be kind of a claustrophobic place. As many times as I've been over the years for various functions, I still don't know my way around...at all...not at least without a map, a GPS, and some NYC native espousing their knowledge of the multitude of routes and considerations/benefits of each. I'm usually just ready for whichever one will get me out and home; I have no preferences.



 

I made a new GPS mount to move it up from the cupholder location and into my field of view while driving. Adjacent to it is the scanner, which is illegal to have in New York. Fortunately, I did not have it wired up (and it still isn't) as I'm awaiting some free time to finalize the work on my added 6-circuit fuse block which taps off of the dual battery setup. I have essentially all of the material; just need to splice it all together. And then do a build thread and product review.

 

Nothing fancy. Just some skyline photos heading into the city.

 



 Ok, so I'm not sure if this was THE infamous tanker truck from the morning CB verbal throwdown, but things were definitely getting tense on the road up there due to the lane closures. Somewhere along the road on channel 19, a tanker truck must have cut off another driver. The driver mouths off about discourteous drivers, which I can appreciate. There are lots out there with the "me first" attitude. At least on this coast. It seems once you get out into and past WV, folks are a lot friendlier. Another driver inquires as to what happened.

"Well some A-hole tanker driver cut me off and now can't find the skinny pedal"...or something to that effect.

"Oh yeah. Shame".

"Yeah, some driver with _____"

Well the guy recognizes he's being described and pretty much says, "I'm right here".

But now he's doing all the talking. He owns 6 trucks. This is his city. He does what he wants. He'll pull over his truck and wait on the overpass for anyone who wants to throw down the gauntlet. Etc. Etc.

So the original driver tries to defuse the situation and essentially say, "I have no doubt you're a bad @ss and that all you say is true, but you're not going to fight anyone and go to jail."

"I've been to jail. I'm fine on the inside." Etc etc.

On the one hand, it was quite comical as he had the thickest presumably Bronx accent anyone outside of the city could ever hope to imitate. But what wasn't so funny, is that, if you had so much going for you, why would you risk it to prove a point to some other no-name driver.

I stayed quiet, 'cause I have not been to jail, but I did watch scared straight. I'm good.

Dirty windshield. Tried to take a picture of the police substation.

I've never been in the vicinity of NYU to my knowledge. I was quite surprised at the size of their sports and athletics complex given the premium on real estate in the city. From the outside, it is pretty unassuming facility. But there are rooftop tennis courts, several basketball courts, wrestling gym, weight rooms, and even a dedicated practice area where the cheerleaders can use. (There's also a smaller b-ball court that the space doubles as)

In between practices, we went to a neighborhood bar, Pops. I took two pictures of the wall on the other side of the bar where the menus had been colored by members of the staff to change the picture (presumably of the proprietor or the bar's namesake) to other pop culture influences and icons. There were some pretty creative variations.

 

That's pretty much all I got in terms of photos from the NYU trip.

 

 



60,000 miles and counting

 

 

So I reached this milestone this week. It is kind of celebratory and kind of like "Ummm...might need to slow down". This truck needs to not be dead before I even finish paying it off.

 

I have two road trips scheduled for this month. The first is to head down to Corolla, NC and drive on the sand where Highway 12 ends. I may try to jaunt down towards Oregon Inlet before I leave the area just to see some of the sights first hand and figure out any loopholes to the 'no beach camping' prohibition that I've read about for most areas. The few exceptions appear to be on the barrier islands which are accessible by ferry only. Given my inclination to want to leave at a moment's notice, I don't like the idea of having to wait on a ferry.

 

The second trip is for Hogs for Hokies. I'll be riding down with a bunch of motorcyclists. It probably raises the question as to what I'm doing there in my truck. Well, I'm along for the ride and maybe I'll transport some equipment or something so that I'm useful.

 

 

Almost forgot. Funny thing that has happened is the last two times I've made 7-Eleven runs, I've encountered the same family/grouping of girls exiting as I pull into the lot. The first time was maybe two months ago (I don't go there frequently) when the jackpot was relatively high. They actually stopped and waited at the intersection for me to make my purchase and leave to ask me about the authenticity of the truck (due to the Zombie decals). Well, I went in there a couple of nights ago and I recognized them and they started laughing upon seeing me and the now infamous truck. Well the oldest girl (excluding mom who drives) says that a friend of hers posted a picture of a truck in New York asking if it was real. I replied, "That's funny, it might have been me since I was up there last weekend". Then her jaw kinda dropped as she exclaimed, "That's when she posted it, last Saturday".

 

Me and this truck get around. Every now and then I do a google image search to see if I can find pictures of me and the truck from the numerous instances I see passengers (and sometimes drivers) pull alongside and snap photos of us on the road. No hits just yet, but it is only a matter of time.

 

That's about it for now.