NYC, day 1

Whaddya know? We made it to New York!

We left Memphis late Saturday morning -- a couple of annoying little things put us behind by three hours or so -- with no real destination. The plan was to drive in the general direction of New York as far as we could go and worry about a hotel when we were sleepy. This footloose approach to travel isn't in my blood; I at least like to have a general outline of the 5 Ws (and one H!) in mind when I'm on the road.

Memphis to New York is about 17 hours in theory (16 hours in practice), and we drove about 13 and a half hours of that Saturday. Ended up crashing at a Comfort Inn in Mechanicsburg, Penn. Sunday, we took a short side trip to Hershey, Penn., for the sheer kitsch factor of going to a place called Chocolate World.

It's strange that you can't pump your own gas in New Jersey. What's up with that?!

I did most of the driving from Memphis to Mechanicsburg and about half from Mechanicsburg to Manhattan. Despite my motion sickness, I wanted Paul to navigate New York. And I'm glad I did. Yikes.

Our hotel room is beautiful but insanely small. I feel like I'm stuck in a sliding puzzle, having to navigate around our bed and luggage to get to the bathroom. Paul barely fits in the shower. (I find that funny, but he doesn't think it's amusing.) My only other complaint is the room is really hot, and we have no control over the thermostat. We slept with the window open last night! :)

The clamshell feel of our hotel is negated by its fantastic location. We are a block from Wicked and a couple blocks from Rockefeller Center. Very cool.

The housesitter said the cats are doing fine, but I sure do miss them. It's strange to type on the laptop without Joe plopping herself on the keyboard and erasing half of what I've written. Eh, I shouldn't worry. I know they're being spoiled out of their fluffy little skulls.

Time to grab the guidebook and pick a couple of things to do today. Times Square (and thus Midtown Comics, et al.) is within walking distance. Maybe we'll head that way this morning.