Traveling Roadmantics: New York and Grad Alley

Monday, May 20, Day 28

A catch up day, we spent it cleaning up the camper after almost a month on the road, and packing for our trip to New York. We met our cousin Jane and her son Kevin for dinner.

Tuesday, May 21, Day 29

We headed into New York on the Bieber Bus. We got there really early and got an earlier bus. It was crowded and we didn't get to sit by one another, but I met a delightful woman, Monica Willard, who is the President of the Committee of Religious NGO's at the United Nations. She has a fascinating job working with various groups from different "faith traditions" to develop businesses. One example is growing roses in Afghanistan to make perfume. There is no importation of perfume, but they can grow this particularly fragrant rose to make perfume for the market. And it is being done by groups from various ethnic and religious groups , the idea being that if they have a commercial enterprise together there is less likelihood of war. Look her up on the web and you will find some very interesting information!

We got out of the bus underneath Times Square, and went across the street to Lindy's for lunch. Lindy's is a real New York institution, famous for their cheesecake.

This saying was on the wall. I know it is not legible, so here goes:

Customer: "Waiter these are very small oysters."

Lindy's waiter: "Yes sir."

Customer "And they don't appear to be very fresh."

Lindy's waiter: "Then luck for you they're small."

The prices on the sandwiches were astronomical! We opted for a turkey sandwich, which was $18 and came with a small piece of their cheesecake. It was actually a very generously sized sandwich! And good!

We met our family at Washington Square for Cassy's first graduation event, called Grad Alley. It was hot! 92 degrees and humid. This is the first really hot weather we've had on our trip. Here's Cassy's grandfather Cesar, our son Jack and John

Dixie, Maria, Cassy and Mary, Cassy's grandmother.

They had street performers and snack stations set up in an area set off for the event. We had red bracelets with tickets on them for the various items.