Birthday Weekend / NYC - Part Uno

Ok, so I'm writing this perhaps somewhat untimely. A couple of weeks may have passed since the events discussed here took place, but with the holidays and getting sick and other random excuses preventing me from blogging about it, now seems like a perfect opportunity to catch up. So join me as I hit rewind...

It's the first week of December. I have thoughts in my head about doing something fun (gasp!) for my birthday, which aside from a few notable exceptions, have generally outright sucked balls. I mean that in the bad way. But what to do, where to go? I just got a free Southwest round-trip award, but it seemed like it'd be a waste. Plus, I enjoy the company of others every now and then, and no one would be able to fly somewhere on such short notice. So that left the road trip option. I eventually settled on NYC as the destination of choice, being my favorite city to visit and all. So half-expecting my string of bad birthday luck to continue, I asked my buddy Clint if he wanted to partake in said adventure, and to my surprise he said yes! This was three or so days prior to departure, leaving very little time for planning. Nothing like a bit of pressure...

So with plans calling for leaving Friday evening (sparing us from wasting the majority of Saturday driving), Thursday night was spent searching for hotels, deals, and such... with not a lot of success. Two hours of either of us searching online left us with nothing. Tired, we promised to do a bit more research the next day. Like we had a choice.

Friday rolls around. Clint suggests a Days Inn in Parsippany, NJ, about a half-hour outside the city. Much cheaper than anywhere near NY, allowing us to pay a bit more for something nicer the next two days. Finally, around 6-ish and sitting in my apartment ready to go, I Hotwire a seemingly nice Sheraton in Secaucus. Seems like a safe area, public transportation to the city seems readily available, and best of all it's not Newark.

Ideally Manhattan proper would have been lovely, but my budget just couldn't justify the exorbitant weekend rates. Someday...

So, we start packing up to leave and -- oh! quick aside. Kristin finally calls back (I only left about 5 messages) and I demand that her and Jess stop over quick so I can say my goodbyes. Not everyday my best friend leaves for Tennessee, ya know. We all have a quick chat, there are hugs a plenty, and we all go our long and separate ways.

Dinner at McDonald's ("num nums!") and we're off. The drive through Ohio was uneventful sans a scary encounter at the Love's truck stop in Y-town (when a big burly guy dressed in pink says that he really likes your shirt, it's time to stop fueling and go). Pennsyltucky had its scary moments -- namely presumably higher-altitude areas that received a good amount of snowfall. Sure enough, each time the roads were only bad for about a mile or two, and then it was perfectly clear again.

Cross into Jersey, get the car re-fueled (if I can't pump my own gas, I expect full service -- and you not asking if I want my windshield cleaned is NOT full service!) and make it to Parsippany around 2am. Check in to our gorgeous hotel (which was undergoing massive renovations), where we discover that the continental breakfast is at the Fuddrucker's the Days Inn shares a parking lot with.

I have a feeling that starting on that note, Saturday's going to be pretty interesting.