Saturday Reunion Trip


My alarm went off at 4:15 yesterday morning. Yes, 4:15 A.M. on a Saturday morning. I jumped out of bed and quickly ran to the bathroom to take my shower and get ready for my exciting journey to NYC! I'll admit, I have never driven to NYC by myself before, and I was a little nervous. I was in the car by 4:50, and the only customer in the Wawa. I poured a gigantic, well needed 24 oz coffee, and picked up a 50 oz water bottle. I quickly exited the Wawa, turned on my GPS and was on the road to Teacher's College by 5:05 A.M. I didn't hit any traffic and was speeding through the toll of the George Wasington Bridge when I ran into a snag. Red brake lights, lots of them. I came to an abrupt stop and thought to myself...well it's 6:46, the GPS says I should be there at 6:57. This abrupt stop might mean I won't arrive until 7:30...no big deal I'll still be an hour and a half early for the keynote address. After holding my foot to the brake pedal for 15 minutes I realized I was in a serious jam up. 5 hundreths, yes, 5 hundreths of a mile in front of me was an accident that shut down all lanes of the George Washington Bridge. I shifted my car into park and sat back. By this time other agitated drivers were out of their car attempting to get some answers. There were no answers for 2 hours. Finally at 8:35 I shifted my car out of park and into drive. Once I passed the accident I saw the three open lanes in front of me, just waiting for cars to busy them once again. My GPS man spoke to me, and I followed his directions. I hit no more traffic, found a parking garage and found my seat in the Riverside Church around 8:50, still 10 minutes until the Keynote address! Lesson learned - If I left 5 minutes later I would have been late, If I would have left 5 minutes earlier I would have been 2 hours early! Oh, the joys of traffic!

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