Stumbling and Bumbling Into New York City

This post will be much more than my normal Sunday View Out The Front Window post but I do not want to disappoint those that checked in looking for the view.

The view out the front door of the hotel.

And out the window of our room.

I am going to go ahead and post about our Travel Thursday and our first evening in NYC so I do not get too far behind.

We started Thursday in Pennsville, New Jersey just across the river from Wilmington, Delaware. Delaware and New Jersey were new states for both Kelly Jo and Odie. Delaware was new for me. Our first goal of the day was a quick trip into Philadelphia. The quick part got lost in the translation. 

The Benjamin Franklin Bridge from New Jersey into Philly is a toll bridge. 

There are 14 toll booths and all of them were open. 14 lanes of cars come rushing out of the toll gates with horns blasting and pedals mashing as they merge onto the 3 lane bridge. 14 lanes into 3 lanes with nothing but chaos. The person with the biggest bumper, loudest horn, most dents and stoutest nerves had the right of way. 

Oh, I forgot to mention that one lane was closed so it was 14 lanes into 2 lanes. It was quite an experience to be sure.

We drove through Chinatown.

Chinatown in Philadelphia 

Then we drove into the old part of town with the Liberty Bell and Independance Hall.

The main reason for a detour through Philadelphia was so that Odie could eat a genuine Philly Cheesesteak! She was very happy.

We got back on track after looking around a bit and found our room in Secaucus, New Jersey. We took just a moment to breathe and the headed to the train station.

We caught the train at Secaucus Junction into New York's Penn Station. It was quite an experience for us. The hotel shuttle dropped us at the train station and the adventure began. I knew I needed to by a subway card for New York but I had not researched the New Jersey system. 

We stepped up to the machine and bought 3 round trip tickets. It printed 3 tickets and we turned and walked away. We found the right gate then took the elevator down to the correct track. As we were walking to the boarding area a man was running toward us and trying to get our attention. He had our return tickets and our credit card receipt. 

I did not realize that the machine had only printed the tickets from New Jersey. After we walked away it printed the return tickets and receipt.Thank God for the man who had been in line behind us, realized what happened and took the time to chase us down. God bless him!

That was a very nice way to start. We needed the help. Remember, we are international travelers but we must still be hicks at the root of things. 

As we crossed under the Hudson River Odie picked up a new state. Kelly Jo and I have both been to New York but it was Odie's first time in the state Kelly's first time in New York City.

At Penn Station we found our way through the mess and boarded the #1 train for South Ferry. That is the southern tip of Manhattan where the East River and the Hudson River meet. We had booked a Staue of Liberty boat ride on a water taxi for 7:30.

We had nearly a mile to walk but we had lots of time to kill. We watched the boats, helicopters and people.

We ate our first food from a NYC street vendor and watched a trapeze school on a pier. That was really neat.

This is the water taxi we went out on.

The Brooklyn Bridge

It was a nice ride and a lot of fun. We got a great deal from Travel Zoo on the tickets. They are normally $31 each with service fees but Travel Zoo had a sale for $16 each. Never mind the fact that we paid $59 in fares and tips to get there and back and probably walked 4-5 miles! Lol 

$59?? Yep! The train and subway cost was $39 and I tipped the hotel shuttle driver $5. The hotel shuttle could not pick us up from the train that night (Even though they promised they would be available) so we had to pay $15 for a taxi for the 3 mile ride to the hotel. 

$59 is a lot of money but not near as much as driving. The bridge toll is $13 and the cheapest parking we saw was $12.75 per half hour. There is no guarantee parking would be available and the drive could have taken hours because of traffic.

We probably would have went to Manhattan anyway on Thursday evening. We just thought it was kind of humorous that we spent $59 to save $42 on the Statue of Liberty boat ride, Lol

Odie thought I was taking pictures of me and Kelly Jo as we were making faces. Nope, I was taking pictures of Odie laughing at us making faces.

It was a great start to our NYC Adventure. Tune in tomorrow for our trip to the 9/11 Museum and Memorial. 

Davy

Odie's Saturday Report - August 2, 2014

Hey friends! It's Odie here today, hopefully by the time you read this Saturday I am in New York. As I write this on Wednesday morning and we are still sitting in Dodds church parking lot.  I am sitting in the Green Machine waiting on my parents so we can get "On the Road Again!  I was trying to take a nap while I was waiting on them. Is it crazy 57 degrees outside so it's too cold to take a nap. LOL I cannot believe this weather for the end of July! Since a nap was not coming easy I decided to go ahead and work on todays blog post.

On Monday we had a great time at my Mamaw's 70th birthday party!  

Tuesday we met our new friends Nick and Terry and Greg and Jan. 

We gladly introduced them to Acapulco.  I think they enjoyed our pick of restaurant.  I knew Greg and I were going to be fast friends when he pulled out his phone to get a picture of his food. LOL.  I enjoyed hearing about all of their RV travels! We had a real nice visit.

As Dad already mentioned we went to hear the Isaacs Sunday night.

They were awesome. 

Mark Capps and Odie

Davy and Zac Shumate

Revival at Beechfork Holiness Church near Wartburg, Tennessee ended on Sunday morning.  As soon as possible we headed the Green Machine toward Athens, Tennessee for the evening.  It just so happened that one of the Isaacs bus stops for the weekend was in Athens that night.  By now you all should know I was very very happy!  We had a wonderful time getting to visit with them before the concert!

A little before 6:00 we slipped into the church.  I am so glad that our seats were reserved because the place was completely packed!  Our front row seats quickly became second row, when they added a row of folding chairs in front of us. There were folding chairs every where. People were sitting on the floor and standing along the wall.  I would say the Isaacs have a few fans in the area! There were several new fans made that night as well.

A young bluegrass group named Forgiven did a wonderful job starting the evening off with a song. Their bass player was unable to make the concert but Ben did a marvelous job filling in for them on the bass. 

Then it was the time we all have been waiting for! The Isaacs took the stage and opened up with "Walk On".

For the next hour and a half it was beautiful singing, lots of laughter and a few tears that made for an amazing night.  They sang many songs, and I cannot remember all the list.  Each song was performed with superb talent that completely blows me away!  The Isaacs will forever be my favorite group and my favorite people.

It was an inside concert, but it was hotter then a lot of tent revival services.  At one point in the concert the thermostat on the platform was registering 85°.  We were all quite sweaty by the end of the night.  The Isaacs did not let the heat stop them from giving an outstanding performance!

A special highlight of the night was when they sang "I Wanna Be There". It is always special for me to be in the crowd when they sing this song they wrote about me and Gordon Mote. It always brings me to tears!! When my alarm goes off daily on my phone it is set to my favorite lines of the song.

She's always dreamed of walking, folding up that wheelchair and being free.

She loves to hear the story of how Jesus healed the lame man.

I know one day she's gonna walk just like he can.

I am looking forward to that day!  I hope it happens today but I am determined to trust God. As Dad says often, "We are going to believe God to do our miracles today and live for Him just like He already has!"

Lily

Sonya

Mom took Becky for a wild ride in my chair

All too quickly the last note of He Ain't Never Done Me Nothing But Good was complete. It was time for them to start loading equipment into their bus so they could be on the road.  The time came for us to say goodbye. 

I told you several weeks ago that my aunt Lily Isaacs now has her autobiography available.  

You Don't Cry Out Loud is a wonderful read that I highly recommend. You buy the actual book or buy it as a download it in Kindle. It's available for order in print or on CD at http://www.lilyisaacs.com/p/place-order.html. Also it is available for download on iTunes. Even though i have read it, I plan to listen to it during our travels on this current trip.

In other exciting Isaacs news. Sonya Isaacs Yeary and her husband Jimmy will make Ayden a big brother early next year!  I am so excited about their new addition. 

I am finishing this up on Saturday and we are now in the NYC area. The 9/11 Museum was amazing yesterday. Dad will be posting pictures shortly.

Thank you for coming along for the ride!  Who knows where where we will end up?  Have a great weekend! 

Odie

New York City

We are in New York, New York! Well at least we are during the day. We are staying across the river in Secaucus, New Jersey at night. Watching us make the trip into NYC and back via shuttle, train and subway has got to be hilarious! We do not have a clue how to find the right track, how to pay, where to get off or how to get to street level when we do. It is a riot.

Some how we are making it and probably entertaining the locals while we are at it. Some of them have been very helpful though.

We are all taking lots of pictures. I will try to get them posted early next week. I have a couple I will share now. I took these pictures Thursday night. The first one is the Statue of Liberty on the left and the Freedom Tower on the right. It looks like they are leaning toward each other.

The second one is Kelly Jo and Odie with the Brooklyn Bridge in the background.

We have tickets for the new 9/11 Museum today at 12:30. I am really looking forward to seeing it. I am sure it will be a sobering experience for all of us. We will take all the pictures we can there too.

I have a few pictures from this past Sunday night. We closed revival Sunday morning so we drove about an hour to Athens, Tennessee to hear the Isaacs. They were them awesome selves and we enjoyed it tremendously. We very seldom have a night off and are near the Isaacs at the same time so it's really neat that it has happened twice in 60 days. It was a great night!

Odie plans to post about the Isaacs tomorrow so I will leave you with just a few pictures. Thanks for reading.

Davy

They were singing to an overflow crowd so they turned and sang to the folks sitting in the choir section a few times.