NY or Bust - Day Five: Columbus to Port Jefferson Station

Just so everyone knows, I am writing this from my new store in the Smith Haven Mall in NY! Of course, the first place in town I went to find was my Starbucks :)

As tempted as I was to spend an extra day in Bexley, by the time I woke up, I was definitely ready to hit the road. Part of me almost wishes something bad or extravagant had happened, so I'd at least have a cool story to tell. I feel like traveling across the country and not having any great stories to tell is a bit of a letdown. Well, except for that awesome night in Kansas City (thanks again for that, Rob). Oh, and I guess I did get to be there for my best friend having her baby. Maybe the trip wasn't completely boring...

Everything yesterday went really well. I felt like I couldn't get out of construction all the way from freakin' Pennsylvania to New York, but it actually didn't slow me down too much. And thanks to being in the middle of nowhere, maintaining that 'steady speed' wasn't a problem (no, no more cruise control, it was too hilly). I've honestly been surprised at how nice most of the states have been to drive through. Pennsylvania was actually a pretty state to drive through. Going over the Appalachians was very nice scenery, even though they're only very cute little mountains, barely bigger than Roxy Anne, it seemed like. The East Coast definitely doesn't know how to rock the mountains. But they get A+ for effort and still being pretty.

Getting into NY was actually pretty darn exciting. Of course, I had to turn on 'Empire State of Mind' by Jay-Z and rock that as I was driving. Passed through Brooklyn, Queens, and got a killer view of the Manhattan skyline! I got into town at about 6p, and made it the next 60 miles to my uncle's house a little after 8p... Honestly, the traffic on the Parkway wasn't any worse than in any other city I've had to drive through. But after being on the road for about 9 hours, I was ready to be done. At one point, it took me about an hour to get five or ten miles. Not fun driving.

Along the way, I had to pay a couple tolls. In Kansas, it was about $2 (yeah, Kansas has toll roads...), one in Jersey that was about the same, I think. Then I paid one in Jersey that was about $12, and coming into NY, had to pay $8. The only problem with tolls is you need to pay with cash. I'd stopped at an ATM when I got gas to make sure I had cash on me, but when I got there, I couldn't find it anywhere. I thought I must have accidentally handed the last toll guy my $20 instead of a $1. So, freaking out a little, I grabbed my change bag and started counting out quarters to pay the $8. I felt like a retard, and the toll guy was pissed. Luckily, though, I found the money laying on the floor. That was about the biggest problem I encountered along the way.

I wanna take just a minute to give a genuine thank you to everyone who helped out, or called, texted, gave me a place to crash (or booked me a hotel room), prayed, or anything else. According to Google Maps, the route I took was 3,189 miles. I just traveled over 3000 miles in the course of five days with absolutely no serious incident. No accidents, didn't get pulled over, never ran out of gas, didn't even so much as spill any coffee on myself. This is, to me, totally just one more sign that this is what God actually wants me to be doing.

What do you say to family when you haven't seen them in 11 years? I didn't remember anything about my uncle's town, or even what his house looked like. So, I found what I thought was the right address, walked up to the door, and saw him inside in the kitchen. He said, 'Come in, man!' So I walked in, gave him a hug, and said, 'Hey...' Haha! It was great. There's definitely going to be some getting to know each other and feeling each other out, but after 11 years I can just show up in NY and say, 'Hey,' 'cause we're family.

I called my other uncle last night, Mike, and I don't think I got a whole heck of a lot more than ten or fifteen words in. He sounded really excited to have me here, and couldn't stop talking about his son wanting to see me, or him coming down to visit, or me heading up there, asking me questions about the drive, and on and on. It was great! One of my cousins might be down tomorrow to have a BBQ at my uncle's house. It's great to be here with family, and I already feel like I'm part of the family - which, you know, I always was, but more than just a surface level. I'm getting to be a part of their lives!

So, today, I am taking it pretty easy, hopefully getting stuff rearranged in my room, and gonna cruise around town a bit to find out where to go, hopefully track down a decent church, and probably head down to the beach for a bit - yeah, as I'm writing this, it's 58º and cloudy in Medford, and it's 86º and sunny here... suckers ;) I'm sitting in my new store new, and already got a great welcome. It's in a mall, so I doubt this'll be my new hang out, as it's not conducive to sitting and relaxing. But the partners here are great! I told them I was scared that nobody in the store would actually be friends with each other, but they told me they all hang out all the time, and are apparently going to the beach at least once this weekend. So it looks like I may not have as hard of a time meeting people as I expected. Also, across from my store is a Cheesecake Factory and a California Pizza Kitchen.

So, since I've been sitting here for a while already, and I don't think I want all my coworkers to find out how much time I actually spend at work when I'm not working (not yet, at least), I think it's time to do some exploring of Long Island. I'll continue to put photos up on Facebook and keep everyone up to date on exciting goings-on out here.

Thanks again for everyone's thoughts, prayers, and support! I'm living in NY!