Road Tripping….New York to Niagra Falls
The next morning I woke up with one thought on my mind….Niagra Falls. Niagra Falls had always been something I heard about and saw post card pictures of, but I had never been there. Everyone seemed to have seen them at some point in their lives, but I had yet to see this natural beauty, and I was determined that the best way to start off my summer road trip would be to get away from NYC, but also start somewhere not too far away. Niagra Falls is definitely not in NYC, but it is one helluva drive from Long Island…440 miles or about 7 hours and 22 minutes away from my house according to Google Maps. However, 440 miles wasn’t that daunting of a task since Kenyon was 550 miles, so I thought…great, it’s over a 100 miles shorter than the drive to Kenyon, and instead of seeing grass fields and having to do school work at my final destination, I get to see the Niagra Falls instead. I called the HI Hostel in Niagra Falls, NY and booked a room for the evening and at around 2PM I left my house after calling my cousin and letting him know that I wouldn’t be able to sit down and talk about jobs that afternoon, I had a road trip to take as he agreed that this is the best time for me to do something like this and that we’d talk when I returned from the trip.
Getting through NYC traffic is by far one of the most miserable experiences one can ever live through. Some New Yorkers feel as if they’re superior drivers to the rest of the world, I happen to fit into this category, because the traffic is always tight, and you have to pay attention to everything and everyone in order to keep your car and yourself intact. However, anyone can drive in NYC, even an infant, when there’s gridlock and you can’t move your car more than 2 inches every 20 minutes. Since I was heading northwest, there was no reason for me to head through Manhattan, thank goodness, but getting through the Bronx was a completely miserable experience. Traveling from one side of the Bronx to the other side, a 5 mile distance took nearly 2 hours, and then once I finally thought I was through New York City traffic I was caught in traffic for another 3 hours after getting off of the Pallisades Parkway in New York. I had gone 100 miles in 4 hours and still had 340 miles to drive. I called everyone I could possibly think of during that 100 mile stretch as I began to seriously doubt if this road trip was really worth the trouble. I realized how much I despised driving during this stretch and how my ideal road trip was turning into nothing more than an extension of me sitting on my ass in traffic in New York, instead of Israel.
When I was finally able to drive around 70 mph after taking 5 hours to go 100 miles I was determined to arrive in Niagra Falls at a reasonable hour so I could wake up and spend the next day admiring the falls. There was no way I was going to make the fireworks that were sent off every Friday evening which was unfortunate but as long as the Falls were there the next morning I was driving the entire night if need be and make my road trip a reality.
It was interesting how I kept telling myself while I sat in traffic that I was going to take a road trip no matter what because I decided that the anxiety of not knowing if I’d enjoy a road trip was bothering me more than any gridlock or any other problem that may arise on the trip. I wanted to know if this was a form of traveling I’d enjoy, and if it was something I’d be interested in doing again some time in the future. After driving for 10 hours, 4 of them in gridlock, I arrived at my hostel with the perfect directions from my Pioneer GPS car program and immediately crashed in my 10 bedroom-male dorm before I was even able to take off any clothing. The next day had to be better.
Tags: Travel
