New York City, Part 2

First I have a medical update. About two to three months ago I started getting a really painful sore throat after chemotherapy treatments. It only lasted three or four days but I was having so much fun, just tending my garden, visiting with friends, going with Al to the Krystal Breakfast club, enjoying time with Dorothy, and traveling. Al and I and our neighbors were also fighting two battles in City Hall. What fun! One was to keep another liquor store from going in our neighborhood and the other was to slow down the speeders on our roads. We won both issues! Anyway, after the second chemo with the painful sore throat, I told myself that I was not going to get sick anymore. I was having too much fun living! And I have not had that sore throat again!

After our visit to Ground Zero, we went to the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum. We took a taxi to the docks on the Middle East Side of Manhattan. Taking a taxi in NYC was something I had never done before. It was nice to see the parts of the city that are above ground, on top of the subways. The truth is, I could not afford taxis when I visited before, but now Al and I can! We were glad on this trip. It was a wise decision, considering the heat and the stairs one has to climb up and down inside the subway system. If we return in cooler weather, we can take the subways.

The Intrepid is a decommissioned aircraft carrier that the city converted to a museum. Al actually sailed with this ship when he was in the navy on a destroyer. The museum also has a submarine and is getting one of the space shuttles. And the flight deck and the hangar bay of the carrier were filled with military aircraft, planes, bombers, and helicopters! And Al took a picture of every single one of them!! I got a picture of Al standing in front of a jet that he flew in, an F8U Crusader, the fastest jet plane at that time!The planes had their wings folded up, too. That is the way they are stored on aircraft carriers to save room. I went up into the island (the decks above the flight deck) and climbed up to the bridge. Of course it was not air-conditioned, and once I entered, the walkways and stairs were too narrow to turn around and go back out, with other people walking in. Traffic was one-way. Again, God was with me and I was slow, but I made it up and down the stairs.

We learned that the on-base housing where my cousins now live is located in Fort Wadsworth National Park! Just imagine, living in a national park! Construction began in 1846 and it was complete by the time of the Civil War. The government found a really creative way to mow the lawn; they bought a herd of goats! You can see them on top of the hill in the picture – our tax dollars at work! With efficiency!! Al took this picture, or as our priest put it, “The old goat took a picture of the goats.” At the park we had a lovely view of the harbor and the fort’s four-tiered gun batteries.

One picture shows the Intrepid. See the tiny people standing at the railing? That gives you an indication of its size. Also shown are Al and the F8U Crusader; a view of a few of the many aircraft on a small portion of the deck; a view of the decks above the flight deck (that’s me on the right by the stairs, wearing a blue shirt and black pants); pictures of Fort Wadsworth showing the gun batteries and a view of New York Harbor, and the lawn-mowing goats. Note the double-decker bridge by the goats; that’s one way to solve the traffic problem.