dhermann1
I'll Lock Up
- Messages
- 9,154
- Location
- Da Bronx, NY, USA
I had a great Christmas this year with my niece and her husband near Ithaca, NY. Good times, family, animals (including horses!). Much fun.
But my trip home turned into an adventure. The bus to New York was only an hour late, not bad at all, considering the blizzard conditions. But my trip home on the subway was harrowing. A trip that should have taken 45 to 50 minutes almost became an all nighter.
Once the train got above ground, in the Bronx, things slowed down drastically. Because of signal problems the train waited up to 10 minutes at every stop instead of 30 seconds. Finally we reached East 180th St., which sits on ground level. The train hit a small up hill stretch and just died. It shuddered and lurched violently. After a half hour of this, and having moved about 500 feet out of the station, they announced they were going back to the previous station. The tracks were totally frozen, and there was no power from the third rail. We finally got the the previous station and they tossed everybody out. We were on our own! I had traveled 250 miles, only to be stuck barely a mile form home.
I staggered out into the night of the South Bronx, among with several dozen other people.
Finally a gypsy cab driver pulled up to me and offered me a ride home. That alone was an adventure. People in New York do NOT know how to drive in the snow.
So I was finally safe at home, 4 1/2 hours after reaching my subway station.
This made me recall another blizzard adventure, from around 1979, when I was wandering around the Plaza at Lincoln Center in knee deep snow, and a couple came out and offered me tickets to the opera they were seeing at the State Theater. They had decided to bail out, and they handed me their tickets. So I saw the last two thirds of Girl of the Golden West.
Anyway, those are two very different but memorable adventures I've had in blizzards. Anybody got other interesting stories of survival and weirdness from blizzards?
But my trip home turned into an adventure. The bus to New York was only an hour late, not bad at all, considering the blizzard conditions. But my trip home on the subway was harrowing. A trip that should have taken 45 to 50 minutes almost became an all nighter.
Once the train got above ground, in the Bronx, things slowed down drastically. Because of signal problems the train waited up to 10 minutes at every stop instead of 30 seconds. Finally we reached East 180th St., which sits on ground level. The train hit a small up hill stretch and just died. It shuddered and lurched violently. After a half hour of this, and having moved about 500 feet out of the station, they announced they were going back to the previous station. The tracks were totally frozen, and there was no power from the third rail. We finally got the the previous station and they tossed everybody out. We were on our own! I had traveled 250 miles, only to be stuck barely a mile form home.
I staggered out into the night of the South Bronx, among with several dozen other people.
Finally a gypsy cab driver pulled up to me and offered me a ride home. That alone was an adventure. People in New York do NOT know how to drive in the snow.
So I was finally safe at home, 4 1/2 hours after reaching my subway station.
This made me recall another blizzard adventure, from around 1979, when I was wandering around the Plaza at Lincoln Center in knee deep snow, and a couple came out and offered me tickets to the opera they were seeing at the State Theater. They had decided to bail out, and they handed me their tickets. So I saw the last two thirds of Girl of the Golden West.
Anyway, those are two very different but memorable adventures I've had in blizzards. Anybody got other interesting stories of survival and weirdness from blizzards?
