Trucking Around the Big Apple

Jim took a trip in March to spend the weekend with Jacob in Manhattan. They started the weekend by going to a Jazz club to listen to Brinna, Jacob's cousin, sing in a band. Jacob had a great time listening and dancing to the swing music. Jim had a great time listening to Brinna sing, eating a New York cheesecake with raspberry sauce for dessert and even dancing once or twice.


After a fun night out on the town, they retired very late to Jacob's new apartment in Harlem. It is a 2nd story studio apartment in an authentic brownstone building. The next day at about 10:00 AM they rented a U-haul cargo van somewhere on the middle west side of Manhattan. Neither Jacob or Jim were terribly excited about driving the van. Jim had never driven in Manhattan period. Jacob had a little bit. Jim got elected somehow and off they went. Their goal for the day was to not hit anyone or be hit by anyone.

Jacob had lined up a number of pickups of inexpensive furniture in various places in Manhattan. A the first stop, they found the motherlode of good deals with a young attorney who was relocating to California. They were able to get a kitchen table, a leather couch and a bunch of other good stuff for cheap.
They drove back to uptown Manhattan to drop off the full van of stuff at Jacob's apartment in Harlem. Then they got really brave and drove to Ikea in New Jersey. The Google map they studied at Jacob's house ended up not being accurate at all. They followed it for an hour into New Jersey, but could not find the Ikea store. They called Tori in Florida. With her keen sense of direction and help from her computer and phone, they were able to get re-directed and found the Ikea store in just 20 more minutes. They were a long ways lost. Tori directed them right to the place they needed to be.



They shopped at Ikea for a while, loaded up a great collection of modern furniture in their van, and headed back towards Manhattan. On the way, they stopped for a great New Jersey local specialty meal at Wendy's. Since it turned out to be the only real meal of the day, it was much appreciated.

Once they got back on Manhattan Island, Jim took a wrong turn. Jacob told him to go right. The sign said go left. Jim had one second to decide. He followed the sign. Big mistake. They ended up on a one way dirt road which went up the north side of the island. But, the wrong turn made this adventure into a true Wilson family vacation. We say it is never a Wilson trip unless it involves a one way dirt road next to a cliff. Usually we are in our truck and camper in the mountains of the West, but a cargo van did just fine for this trip in upper Manhattan.

After dropping off the Ikea load, they made one more trip down into Manhattan to pick up a bed including a mattress and box springs. The bed and box springs were on the 5th floor of a 5 story walk-up. A five story "walk up" is a five story apartment building with no elevator. The apartments all had 10-12 foot ceilings, so each flight of stairs was pretty steep and tall. By the end of that pickup hauling three loads of bed stuff down the stairs, Jim was a little tuckered out, but he made it. They took the bed all the way back up to Jacob's apartment and then returned the truck back to the rental place around 11:30 pm. Although they got honked at more than a few times, they did return the van with no dents or scratches, having met the goal for the day of not hitting anyone or being hit. They took the train back to the apartment, grabbed some groceries for the next day and retired for the evening.

The next morning they got up, arranged a bit of the room and then dressed for church. They had a good time at church. Jim was particularly impressed at how friendly they were to him and how they said kind things about Jacob. Dads always like to hear people say good things about their kids.

We returned home after church and arranged more of the apartment. We also had a bite to eat, having the breakfast we skipped for lunch. Cereal and fruit never tasted so good. After a little more construction and arranging, Jim had to leave for the airport. He took the train to a busy part of Harlem, then caught a taxi to LaGuardia Airport for the ride home to Boise.

The pictures above and below are of Jacob's apartment. The courtyard is the view to the rear out Jacob's two big picture windows. The other pictures are of the street where his apartment is.


Jacob's building is the reddish brown one on the end between the white "brownstones" and the tall gray square building. Its on a really cool historic street called Convent Avenue.

This church is just down the street from Jacob's apartment. It looks like it is well over 200 years old.

Jim can't wait to go back to New York. It was a great weekend vacation.