Road To Hatteras - Part VI:  Big Apple Bound
by Dee Dee
It's been almost 10 months since I posted Part V of my GP posts. The hard time I had getting Part VI written, has now also become a part of this journey. That drive thru the Hamptons, around the outskirts of NYC and on into Jersey 2 1/2 weeks after 9/11 was:  surreal, unreal, haunting, heartwrenching, gutwrenching. As I thought about the horror & heartbreak all in NYC had gone thru/were still suffering thru, while I drove by at a safe distance in the comfort of my car on that stormy, windy day in slow motion traffic...my thoughts drifted into the slipstream of many ponderings, lyrics and memories.
 
'If I ventured in the slipstream
Between the viaducts of your dream
Where immobile steel rims crack
And the ditch in the back roads stop 
Could you find me?'

[verse from 'Astral Weeks', by Van Morrison]

So any way I tried to write it, I knew I sounded like a trippy space cadet, no doubt about it. I tried rewriting it all too many times... often questioned myself as to why I should even be spending so much time trying to write about an experience that was sobering & so beyond 
sad. It's something everyone has been reminded of over and over again in the media, even more so as we approach the anniversary... and so far removed from the wonderful, beautiful time I had in Hatteras with A.S. folks who I love so much. It would've been much simpler to just skip all of this part...and more than that, what does it have to do with surfing?...not much, directly.

All in all, trying to write about driving thru NYC that day in late September was a huge road block for me. I was distracted. Had meant to stop in NYC on my way to Hatteras to pay tribute; bring flowers & light a candle at the WTC site in most humble remembrance; attend the funeral service of an NYC Fireman, Policeman and/or Port Authority Officer (Mayor Giuliani had asked all who could, to do so)...or lend a hand in some way, although I was doubtful my going there could really help at all. I'm not skilled at rescue work, but I should learn to be. [I appreciated how Mayor Giuliani told the world that the way we could help was by simply not being afraid to come to NYC and to support the local economy, even in some small way. It all might sound at first like just simplistic or materialistic stuff that doesn't help to heal hearts... but it gave those of us who aren't skilled rescue workers another way to contribute besides/or in addition to sending money, goods, donating blood]. I had not planned well how to enter the city to do that, hadn't ever driven through NYC, knew I'd get majorly lost if I veered off one of the major highways, wasn't sure which bridges or tunnels were open. 

So when it came right down to the moment of actually doing it, I was afraid to go there & I was ticked off at myself for being afraid to go. I decided then and there, that I would make plans as soon as I returned home to go stay in NYC for awhile, as I wrote of in Part V in October 2001:

I hoped to finish my Hatteras report to A.S before going. But, when I was still writing it into November...I decided to put it all aside and go to NYC the day after Thanksgiving. Before I left I posted an OT piece called 'Big Apple-Bound."

I don't know how it must've sounded to those following my Hatteras posts, when all of a sudden I change course and announce I'm going to NYC. I wrote that post just trying to muster the chutzpah to go despite big fears I still had about it. Then when I returned, the first post I write is about working at Dole Pineapple factory when I was a teen. I had been trying for two hours that night to write up my Hatteras posts, but hadn't gotten far...so instead, I was a derelict and launched off into one of my OT posts, because it was easier to do. 10 months later I am finally posting the rest of 'em.

The experience I had in the streets of New York was a very heartening one. Foon and I had a great talk about the City & why he loved it so, the last night we were in Hatteras. What he told me definitely enriched my visit there, as I got to watch for & see first hand, many of the aspects of NYC that he had spoken of (thank you, Foon!). Actually going there was a much more positive experience than what I wrote about driving around the outskirts of NYC, headed to the Outer Banks. So before I post what I wrote about that dreary day (I wrote it back in November of 2001)...I wanted to share a few of the beautiful gestures I witnessed on the Sidewalks of New York, where kindness was indeed overflowing:

I headed for the Big Apple about 8PM, day after Thanksgiving. It was another windy & cold night. There was hardly any traffic on the road, except for me and semi-trucks. I listened to the Doors music the entire time....especially 'Riders In The Storm' & 'Love Street'. I arrived in the Bronx at 12:30 AM, Saturday morning (supposed busiest shopping day of the year) and despite best laid plans, came upon a fork in the road that I hadn't seen on the map & promptly got very lost. I stopped at a gas station (just as the song 'You're Lost, Little Girl' came up on the Doors tape again) where a guy was sitting in a booth that had bulletproof glass windows and a tray to open for people to drop money in to pay for gas. I held my NYC map up to the window & speaking thru the money tray, he tried his best to help me find me my way.

Thanked him very much, got back in car, found my way back to Cross Bronx Expressway, didn't find the exit he spoke of, ended up going over the G. Washington bridge into Jersey, paid the toll. Got off at the first rest stop...asked a family if they could point me in the right direction, bless there hearts, they got me there. Arrived at the place I was to stay (near Carnegie Hall) around 1:30 AM. It had very discounted rates, in an effort to bring people back to NYC. The street sweepers were out & a few cars of kids cruising...otherwise, the streets were deserted.

After checking in, I went across the street to a deli. I ordered a large grapefruit juice and got in a conversation with the host from Bangladesh & the cook from Guatemala. They felt like talking a lot about what it had been like in NYC since the 11th. They told me it felt like a ghost town...usually the streets at that hour would be filled with people getting out from shows & the deli would be SRO. 

At 2AM, the deli closed. I bid my two new friends aloha and went up to the room I'd rented. I was still too journey proud to sleep. I turned on TV. There was a great channel called New York One, which was all news & commentary about the city. I watched for awhile, trying to get a better idea of where would be best to go to pay tribute the next day. My room was very small, old, a bit rundown, but with lots of character & the price was right. Out one window was the view of another old highrise 15 feet away, out the other was a very silent New York street. I suddenly felt very lonesome, turned off TV & hoped to fall asleep soon. 

[That was the last time I ever felt lonely in NYC...more about that, in the next part, which will be posted later tonight. Am posting this part now, so I won't spend more time proofreading it]
Posted to the alt.surfing newgroup
From: corrall@attbi.com (corrall@attbi.com)
Subject: Road To Hatteras(Part VI): Big Apple Bound
Date: 2002-08-25 11:58:28 PST

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