Back in 2011, I directed a community theater production of Hello Dolly. It’s one of my all time favorite shows. My dear friend, Julie McDaniel (pictured), played the lead role, and we had a marvelous time with the project. When Janet & I saw that Dolly was coming back to Broadway starring Bette Midler we agreed that it was a “must-see’ event. We arranged to go with Mark and Maria and ordered our tickets in September for the April event. We also figured while we were in New York, that Autumn might enjoy seeing Anastasia for her birthday as it was one of her favorite movies as a child.

When we moved Autumn to New Jersey after the wedding, we unloaded our pickup full of her stuff, and then proceeded up to Newark to stay at the Robert Treat hotel in downtown Newark.  I chose it, because at the time I didn’t know much about staying in New York, and it was really close to Newark Penn station where we could hop on a train and go into the city.  Another bonus was that it offered free parking, a very rare thing in that part of the country. Knowing Autumn would be joining us, and that Janet would be flying into Newark airport on her way back from KC from her Grammy time, I booked the hotel again for this excursion.

Janet was scheduled to arrive at Newark in the early part of the evening, so I drove down to New York earlier that day to park and walk around. I love bookstores and wanted to visit the Strand bookstore and see how it compared with Powell’s City of Books in Portland, OR. (Not even close :-)) Some of my wandering included the grounds of city hall and lunch at a Mediterranean eatery for a huge hommus bowl and pita bread slices.

I left Manhattan and checked in to our hotel to wait for Janet. Midway through the afternoon she began texting me that her flight had been cancelled, but she was being rebooked on another airline to La Guardia, and she was arriving around 9:00 PM. Not wanting to take my car from the lot and forfeit my free parking, I decided that trains would be the best route. It’s amazing how far you can go with only a couple of train changes. From Newark Penn Station I took the PATH to the World Trade Center and then took the E train all the way from WTC to Queens. There you have to get on a bus to get to La Guardia.  I made my way to the baggage claim area where I knew she would exit and began to wait.

If you’ve flown much you’ve probably seen people who wait for business travelers as they exit the secure area holding signs with their company name or the name of the traveler. Lately I’ve noticed people using iPads or their phones as the signs. I knew that after a long day worrying about flights she might enjoy a little humor so I opened a Google Doc on my phone and typed the name “Janet Dancy” and held it as I waited for her to come through the exit. As soon as she saw me, she began laughing, calling me a goofball. It was the perfect remedy for a stressful day. We did the reverse trip on the trains and made it back to Newark around midnight. As we waited for the hotel shuttle, we witnessed an angry man put his fist through the window of a taxi that had refused him a ride due to the excessive amount of chains he was wearing. Good thing we called the shuttle.

The rest of the weekend was fantastic. Autumn came the next day and we spent time buying her an outfit at Macy’s and adding a performance of CATS to her day. She loves both cats and the musical so it was a surefire win for her. She joined about 500 other 90’s  00’s girls at Anastasia, and Janet got to see her boyfriend, Ramin Karimloo as the villain in the story.  The next day we took Autumn home and then returned for dinner and Dolly with Mark and Maria.  The show was everything we hoped for, and probably one of the best Broadway experiences I’ve ever had.

All the traveling and sightseeing is really paying off in my new abilities to rearrange my plans and make successful trips even when things go awry.

“Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.” – Helen Keller