We got up and Megan did her last bit of packing for London. She had been waiting for this day for a few months and she was very excited to begin her journey. It is always fun to watch her sing and dance around as she gets ready.
We loaded the car and headed towards JFK airport. The airport was only 50 or so miles from our hotel in NJ but 50 or so miles in this region can seem like 200. We had intentionally stayed away from NYC to avoid the crowds, cost, and distractions that it can bring. We love it there but we had a different purpose on this trip.
Our drive led us across the Varrazano Bridge.
A VERY COOL AND VERY BUSY BRIDGE THAT DELIVERS THE DRIVER TO BROOKLYN
The toll for this bridge is $15 if you are paying cash and $10.66 if you have EZ Pass. Yay for EZ pass!
I got to run across this bridge in November, 2013 when I ran the NYC Marathon.
LOTS OF RUNNERS INSTEAD OF LOTS OF CARS
POLICE HELICOPTERS HOVERING JUST OFF THE SIDE OF THE BRIDGE
Running across this huge bridge to begin my 26 mile journey through the boroughs of NYC was an amazing experience. Being able to do this with all the roads closed to vehicular traffic was, by far, the coolest Marathon I have ever done. The number of spectators that show up to cheer the runners along is mind blowing.
OK....back to 2016.
We made it to the airport in fairly good time. Traffic was definitely heavy but we had planned for it. We had decided that Rob would go in with Megan so that he could help her with her suitcase. Packing for three months is hard and her bag was heavy. I stayed in the car with the girls and we proceeded to drive around, and around and around. The cell phone lot was fairly hard to get to and I was not really interested in getting too far away.
YIKES
Megan's flight left from Terminal 4 and there was a nice, tidy little loop that I could stay on. I chose that over all the loops I would have had to take to get to the cell phone lot. It is like choosing to wear shoes when you walk over glass vs going barefoot.....just less painful. I did try what seemed to be a local trick. It seemed popular to just "pull over" at random and just sit and wait. It also seemed popular to have the police come behind you and tell you to leave. I only did that twice. I understood why they did not want us stopping at random.
Rob finally called me and said that Megan was in the security line. I looped around again and picked him up.
We then went into Escape From NY mode. We love the city but we were ready to head back to Wisconsin and the motor home. I drove while Rob navigated. He was looking at all the GPS maps and trying to keep us out of the worst traffic. We got a text from Megan as we were on our way and she said that she had gotten through security. She described it as "a hellish place." She was at her gate and had already met another student on the way to London.
We actually got away from the city with very little stopped traffic. Driving around the area is not for the feint of heart but with me driving and Rob navigating, we made it work. We pointed Clark west and we were treated to a gorgeous sunset,
Megan text us that she was on board and that the plane was "fancy."
We stopped a few hours later and caught a bit of sleep.
Thursday was a driving day. We started in PA and our goal was Wisconsin. We had left Lewis at a RV park just outside Green Bay and we had 870 miles to go. We would never drive this far in one day if we were in the RV but we were in Clark and it was a repeat route so we decided to just get it done.
The journey was long but not hard. Our backs and legs said otherwise but we were so happy to get back to Lewis. We unloaded the car, got the girls settled and had dinner. Everyone was exhausted and our bed was a much welcome sight.
We were home.
Another great day in this thing we call life.
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