Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Thrill ride.

My trip home was lovely. By 3am PDT on Wednesday I had been up for almost 48 hours, with a cumulative 5 hours of sleep in the interim. Totally worth it. The rest of the week was spent lazing around, eating lots of red meat (thanks Mom!), shopping, and being silly with the fam.

As if to make up for my previous experience, my flight home on Sunday went swimmingly. I had a window seat, the movie was enjoyable, I had brought plenty of snacks, and we landed a half hour early. I had booked a seat on a SuperShuttle to take me home, since we were originally supposed to land at 10:30pm. And given my track record with air travel, I wanted an alternative to the 2+ hour subway ride home that wasn't a $60 cab ride.

My driver, a small Senegalese man, picked up myself and another passenger at our gate. Though we spent the next half hour driving from terminal to terminal picking up 8 more people (four of whom spoke animated French with the driver), I thought that as long as I was home by midnight, it would be worth it.

And then we hit the Van Wyck. They say nobody's ever beaten the Van Wyck, but our driver came as close as anyone ever has. He was weaving across lanes, swerving out to the shoulder to bypass lanes of traffic. He was cutting around cars turning onto off-ramps, and veering back into traffic mere inches in front of another car's bumper. My fellow passengers gasped and clutched their seat belts as tightly as possible. The French guy next to me was swearing under his breath and documenting everything on his camcorder. I can only hope the video is now somewhere on YouTube.

Being the farthest uptown, I was the last passenger dropped off. We pulled up to my building at 12:03am. Touché, SuperShuttle.

5 comments:

  1. "No one's ever beat the Van Wyck"..oh my gosh you just made my day. I am picturing her (Elaine, of course), hair all over the place, sweating bullets, and mumbling incoherently about the Van Wyck. And I am giggling uncontrollably.

    Well played my friend, well played.

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  2. Your driver double-tweeted his Senegalese pals with the following:

    "I never knew I could drive like that. I was going faster than I've ever gone before, and yet, it all seemed to be happening in slow motion. I was seeing three and four moves ahead, weaving in and out of lanes like an Olympic skier on a gold medal run. I knew I was challenging the very laws of physics. At Queens Boulevard, I took the shoulder. At Jewel Avenue, I used the median. I had it. I was there. And then, I hit the Van Wyck. They say no one's ever beaten the Van Wyck, but gentlemen, I tell you this... I came as close as anyone ever has. And if it hadn't been for that five-car pile-up on Rockaway Boulevard, that numbskull would be on a plane for Seattle right now instead of looking for a parking space downstairs."

    Your visit was supernal. See you in 17 days!

    Dad

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  3. you always say things in just the right way.... and the boy i'm dating right now wants to read that book you're reading. he has a great interest in zombies. i'm just thrilled he wants to read it because it has pride and prejudice in the title.

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  4. as soon as you said "and then we hit the Van Wyck", I started laughing all by myself in my little apartment. Props to your dad for commenting the whole quote...I think that all of the things I miss about having a TV, my 5 and 5:30pm Seinfeld on TBS takes the cake.

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  5. I read some blog on a similar topic, but I never visit it again. Unlike, your blog that I added to my bookmarks and I’ll be your constant visitor. It’s time to avail this Detroit city tour for more details.

    ReplyDelete

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