In Transit

There is something to be said for city living relying solely on public transportation. Think about no car payments or pricey insurance with two consecutive speeding tickets (not me, my hubby). Never would you have to haggle with a car sales person for an entire afternoon until out of sheer exhaustion you purchase the vehicle to "get it over with." No more sweating/freezing/crying at the pump watching the dollars fly by at $4 bucks a gallon. Instead you show up at the station, slide your handy metro card through the greasy card slot and "stand clear of the closing doors" as the train car speeds away to the next stop. The investment is nominal at about $80 for unlimited chances to sit back, relax and let some other knuckle head get you to where you need to go for 30 days. I doubt anyone is driving an insured car, fillin' er up with gas for less than that unless you call yourself "Uncle Buck." As a little bonus you are forced to get-cher rump in gear and walk more, you know, a couple blocks here and a couple blocks there but every little bit helps. The NYC subway system is pretty easy to use once you get the hang of it. One helpful hint to get ya moving like a crabby New Yorker in a hurry is this: Ready? Uptown vs Downtown vs Cross town. Every single time you get on a train you are going to need to know if you are headed uptown (i.e. Central Park, Upper West Side, Upper East Side, eventually Harlem, and the Bronx) or downtown (i.e. Soho, Tribeca, Financial District, Battery Park, and eventually Brooklyn). Crosstown means just that smarty pants, going from the West side of things (lined with the Hudson River) to the East side of things (lined with the East River). Here's where they throw you one little side winder. You gotta watch for the "local" trains that stop at every station and the "express" trains that only stop at the larger transit stations with lots of connections (i.e. every single train stops at Grand Central Station). OK fine, so enough the transportation lesson-you get the point. It's A. Easy B. Cheap C. Convenient with an added fitness factor.

So on the flip side of the subway tracks taking the train will take a little more time and planning. Your not gonna "buzz" up to Central Park for a couple of hours then to Soho for lunch and then to the upper East side to your favorite antique store and back home to Tribeca. Instead you need to get a game plan before you step out the door so you can make the most of your time in the city. Second, we (as in all us car owning, gas burning, global warming folks) take for granted the "luxury" of being able to park our rig right in front of the grocery store, load (or if at Byerly's have them loaded) into your car so we can drive into our attached garage and unload them easily. In the city market trips are often and for a small amount of items and when you go on a complete bender at the Triple B (Bed, Bath and Beyond) you'll fork out $20 bucks to have your goods delivered later that same day. These are just the facts Mam. So having a car is A. Fun (depending on the kind of car) B. Flashy (again depending on the kind of car) and C. Convenient too. So whatever your typical means of transportation... the grass may always be a little greener on the other side of the median.

Later today... I finally get a camera cord and change up some of these stock photos to BCup photos. Tomorrow... One of my favorite spots in the big apple.