I made it, and I lived to tell the tale

and here is the tale.

My New York Trip - April 15-18, 2007

The trip started off with a bust. Bro stayed at the gf’s place and slept in, so right off the bat we were about an hour off schedule. Not that big a deal except that it’s a good 15 hour drive to New Jersey from home and I wanted to get it started as soon as possible. After a couple of phone calls he was on his way.

We left Charlottetown around 6am and we were across the bridge and into Salisbury, NB around 8:30am. We got lost in Fredericton, which was ok. After consulting the map a few times, we were soon on our way again. We jumped to listening to the radio and my copy of Wigfield along the way. We crossed the border around 1pm and promptly lost an hour. We got called into the Border patrol office. Not as big a deal as we thought it would be. We filled out a form, they checked over the car, and that was that.

We met up with a truck driver friend of ours, and we followed him from the border at Calais straight through to Dysart’s truck stop, outside of Bangor. We made a bit of a pit stop here, long enough for a bathroom break and a bite to eat.

Our belies full, we were again on our way. It seemed like we were driving forever. All the major cities that I’ve seen on TV, we bypassed. Boston, Providence, New Haven. It seemed so surreal. Then I saw the sign that woke up the butterflies. It read New York, this way. That’s when all hell broke loose.

We got lost in the Bronx, missed a ramp, I think. I’m not exactly sure where we ended up, but we found a cop, who was nice enough to direct us a bit. We managed to find our way to the Midtown Tunnel, and to Manhattan, where we promptly got lost again. We wandered around a bit, looking for the Lincoln Tunnel, but found the Holland Tunnel instead. Somehow, we ended up on the New Jersey Turnpike, lost again. It was here that we discovered the hard way that toll booth operators on the NJT are nasty to tourists. We wandered around New Jersey until we found the street we were looking for, then went up and down that street until we found the hotel.

We did nothing on Monday, except sleep and watch TV, since it was near 8am when we finally got ourselves settled. We had driven for 24 hours, and it took at least an hour to get the room, and then another hour to set my dialysis machine up before we could just rest. I got a phone hooked up so I could go online and call my mom. I was also able to hook up with Gaia Faye, to make sure she was still going to meet us.

We slept in on Tuesday, so we didn’t leave the hotel until lunchtime. We managed to find the Lincoln Tunnel this time. We got lost in Manhattan again, trying to find the Statue of Liberty. We gave up on that and just went to the studio. There was about 30 people ahead of us, so I knew we weren’t getting a front seat.

We were there about 45 minutes before Gaia arrived. Around 5:30, they let us in. As Gaia said, we were numbers 30, 31, and 32. I spent the time waiting in the holding area talking to Bro and Gaia, and watching the security guards do their work. At one point, one person was kicked out. They had jumped the line, and did not have a number. I also found out that the titanium end on my dialysis tubing will not set off a metal detector.

We were brought into the studio, and all I could think was how dark it was in there. We were set up to the back row, and it wasn’t until we were seated that I actually took a look around. I finally saw the actual layout to the studio. I got a look at most of the things on the shelves. The only real problem with where we were sitting was that the camera (and the person in front of us with the big ass fro) blocked our view of Stephen. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

The warm up guy (Jeff, we think his name was) came out. He was funny at some points, but I think for the majority of his time, he was grasping for material. He was kind of cute though. No one touched the desk, which was slightly disappointing for me. I’m not sure why, I always wanted to Windex the desk. Again, I’m not sure why.

Finally, Mark the stage manager came out, and gave his spiel about cheering when he waves the paper, and to not clap during the table of contents. Then, the lights went down, and music began to play. Like Gaia, I’m not sure what the music was, but for some reason, when I hear that music, I think of space. Weird, I know.

And there he was. Stephen Colbert. I don’t know if he did the familiar victory lap with high fives, because when he came out, everyone stood up. I tried, but my legs gave out and I couldn’t lift myself. He asked everyone to sit down, and began the Q&A.

I almost didn’t ask a question. It took me a minute or two to grow a set of thatchers and put my hand up, but I did it. I asked my question, which I am omitting for security purposes. But I will say that he did not answer my question, and what he did do upset me a bit. I kept that bit to myself. I didn’t mention it to Gaia, and didn’t even say anything to Bro about it until we were about halfway home.

After this, he started the show. It was pretty uneventful, except for the 2 times he had to start over, like Gaia said. During the Tip/Wag segment, I do believe he was yelling at me, and a few other people, for saying bears before he could get it out. I’m glad they didn’t edit that out. It was funny. Then, the show was over. He thanked us for coming, and we left.

It only took us a minute or two to convince Bro that we had to wait around to try to meet Stephen. I will say, it does get cold in NYC after dark. After the crowd dispersed, we noticed two other girls who appeared to be waiting, so we started talking to them. We kept watching the door, and people kept coming out, but it was never him. We only took our eyes off the door for a second, and I heard Bro saying “that’s him,” but he was down the street, around the corner and gone before any of us could do anything. We started to leave, but then I heard someone say that he was coming back. So we waited. It didn’t take long. About 10 minutes later, he came walking back. One of the other girls asked him for a picture. It was at this point that we noticed that he had been walking with Paul Dinello. I recognized his voice before I saw his face, which was really cool. Gaia and I got a picture with Stephen, and in my nervous confusion, I stood next to Gaia instead of Stephen. I asked them both to sign my copy of Wigfield. Stephen said he would, Paul said no, then smiled and signed. We thanked them, and then parted ways.

Bro and I then tried to make our way back to the hotel. We circled Manhattan several times, again, trying to get to the Lincoln Tunnel. At one point, we drove past Madison Square Gardens, unfortunately, it must have been just as the hockey game was over, because there were people everywhere. We made it back into New Jersey, and by sheer luck, made it back to the hotel.

We slept in again on Wednesday morning, and were again late in leaving. We left New Jersey sometime between 11am and 12pm, eastern time. We left the way we were supposed to come in, across the George Washington Bridge. We did pretty good, not getting lost until we got into Fredericton again. We only stopped along the way for gas and coffee, getting our first taste of Tim Horton’s coffee in a few days, just outside of Hartford, Connecticut, I think it was. And, in case you’re wondering, yes, they do have Roll up the Rim in the States. We got home about 5:30am Atlantic time, and went to bed.

Here is the picture that was taken with Gaia's camera. if you think I look terrified, it's because I was terrified. *L*
I couldn't get it to post properly here, so I just linked it.