Home Alone!

Oops I added the pictures after the text, which in blog language means it comes first. These are some snapshots of New York City, read below for the story.

Time Square

Central Park

Lifesaver Nicole!

New York Cabbies

This is Whitney. This is probably my last time writing on the blog. (bittersweet) I am now at home in Austin and about to start working for my church until I go back to A&M for my last semester!

This trip has been full of adventures and incredible scenery, so it was only appropriate that my return home had one more left.

Homeward Bound

I tearfully left Kevin at the Barcelona airport on June 3oth. My itinerary was to fly to New York City-Chicago-Austin. I only made it to NYC. After waiting 7 hours in the JFK airport because of bad weather my flight was cancelled to Chicago and I was stuck in NYC for the night.

I quickly called American Airlines and asked them for the first available flight out the next day and they told me they had an 8:40am flight to L.A. and then to Austin! I asked there was a different flight that didn't involve me having to fly across the country and then back to get home!

After a series of events and a couple of hours, I found out my friend Nicole was living in NYC for the summer and offered to take me in for the night! So, because I wasn't in a rush to get home I decided to book an evening flight and enjoy a day in New York! (I have never been to New York.)

I took the subway and blissfully left Kevin's huge body bag at the airport. Kevin took my backpack for the rest of his trip and in return gave me all his souvenirs and stuff he wasn't using to take back home. What a good sister, right?

Moving this story along, I stayed with wonderful Nicole and her sweet roommate Holly for the night. And then took on New York City the next day. I felt no shame in being a tourist. I went to Central Park and Time Square with my camera out clicking away. I ran into other tourists from Ireland, Canada, and Spain. It was fun being back in my home country observing the foreign tourists. I was just them yesterday!

I took the subway to far west Manhattan to visit my aunt. After figuring out the hard way that Uptown and Downtown directions are not small details, I made it to my aunts with a small detour to Harlem and seeing Yankee Stadium. What a great day. See, having your flight cancelled isn't always a bad thing...

We cut time a little close, so I took a taxi to the airport. I got to flag down my first New York taxi. And I'm feeling pretty cool.

An hour and 20 minutes later, I am jumping out of the taxi (which did not know the concept of smooth driving) and flying through the airport with Kevin's huge body bag trying to check in. I am 10 minutes late for check-in, so I miss my flight!! I am tearfully standing in line and I notice the girl behind me wearing cowboy boots is crying too. We had missed the same flight! So Kenna, and I become BFFs in our 40 minute check-in line. She is a girl from Dallas who just finished her first year at fashion school.

Dun dun dun...I get to the front and the not very friendly check-in lady grills me on why I missed my flight! She then books me on a 9am flight the next day. Kenna was on a 6 am flight, so I asked my lady about the 6am flight and she said, "You wouldn't make that." ouch.

I hail another taxi (this has lost all appeal now) and trek down to LaGuardia airport to maybe fly standby on a 7:30pm flight that night. I get there and am told promptly no, there is no chance of me getting on. I said no problem, can you direct me to the luggage storage. She tells me there is none. I say, no no, maybe you didn't understand, I just need a place to store this massive, heavy body bag and small duffle. She said firmly no, it is a security issue "we can't just go storing bags around here."

I schlep out to the street with all my crap to find another dang taxi to take me back to Nicole's. I find out that it is illegal for taxi drivers to pick up passengers in the departure zone and that I needed to walk downstairs...with all my crap. Or, I could buy a $5 cart! This nice man ends up giving me a squeaky cart to get me downstairs!

Wheeling toward the taxis, I get approached by a man asking me where I was going and that he could take me. I thought he was a local being nice and giving me a ride. So as he is loading my luggage I ask, "Who are you?" and he said "I'm a limo driver, baby!"

Long story short. I become fast friends with the guy. Who is the owner of this limo company. And by limo, I am in a nice Denali. I end up sitting in the front having a dance party with him. And end with him asking me on a date that night.

I get to Nicole's with the massive body bag and face 3 flights of stairs and no elevator!! (My bruised shoulders and I are not having charitable thoughts towards Kevin right now.) At that moment, a young, athletic guy walks by the top of the stairs. I yell out "Strong MAN!" but he doesn't hear me because he has his ipod on. Shoot! So, I hobble up one flight, and I spy him doing his laundry and breathlessly say "what are you doing? Can you help me!" He graciously hauls the body bag up to the room and was like "this is really heavy. what happened to backpacking Europe!"

AHHHH! KEVIN!!!

We made friends with Peter, from 5B, and had a good laugh. And bringing this long tale to a close, I enjoyed another night in New York, and my favorite limo driver had one of his driver's pick me up the next morning to take me to the airport. No, I did not go on a date with him :)

Thanks for listening guys. It was quite a trip!

It will be fun being on this side now waiting for Kevin's updates!

I hope you are enjoying the backpack Kev! Miss you! You're the best Aggie brother ever! Enjoy the rest of your adventure!