Day 206 to New York City

We left Philadelphia earlier than planned hoping a loop around the city would avoid traffic.  Once again our GPS took us for a joy ride through the New Jersey suburbs of Philadelphia and up the coast.  The turnpike toll were pretty high.  For the 150 mile journey we doled out $74 at four different toll booths before reaching Jersey City.  It was flat countryside most of the way with a small town at the intersection of major highways.  It was gloomy as well with the sun only peeking out here and there.  It didn't really start to get dense until we were about 15 miles south of Newark.  Wow...rural property that close to the city.

Once again...still trying to get this thing to not take us on wild goose chases, Senior GPS had us heading toward the Holland Tunnel even though according Google maps, there was one exit left before committing to be in the center of Manhattan.  As we paid the last toll, the attendant assured us there was an exit before the tunnel.  So crossing our fingers we drove through the toll booth and just before the tunnel entrance was the exit for Jersey City and the RV park.  Whew, that was a close one.  We can't imagine what that would have been like to be driving our streaming 55' rig in Manhattan at noon.

We arrived early to discover a basic RV park at the harbor.  Literally a full service marina with views of the Statue of Liberty, Battery Park, and Freedom Tower.  Electricity, Water, and a dump-station. The WiFi was sporadic and broadcast TV was spotty, but for $89 a night, we couldn't have asked for a better spot.  The subway was a four block walk and we could be at the World Trade Center in fifteen minutes.  We set up camp and headed into the city.  It took us 15 minutes to walk up to the station.  From there we took the Port Authority Transit Hub (PATH) to the WTC station.  We walked around the memorial, crowded with tourists and lines too long to consider seeing the memorial.  Funny how folks are smiling, laughing, and taking photos in front of the memorial fountains.  We both remarked the lack of somberness for such an austere memorial.

We settled on lunch at a local cafe in the financial district, then walked down to Battery Park where we had a beer at the wharf.  We walked up the east river to Pier 11 at 33rd street and caught the ten minutre ferry back to the New Jersey Liberty Harbor and our RV.  Sweet.