Day 80, April 14, The drive into New York City



While we're not exactly staying in New York City, we're dang close.  It's difficult to believe, but I actually found an RV park almost next door to The Statue of Liberty and directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan.  It's the most expensive RV park I'll ever spring for by far, but it feels pretty darn safe and the location can't be beat.  Because the park is actually in Hoboken, NJ, we needed to learn the New Jersey rapid transit to get us across the Hudson as well as the NYC subway system, which was as big a trial as it was error. 


Besides learning the subways, we wanted to make a trip across town to Queens where I was fortunate to find a place to rent storage for Bambi and the truck for the two weeks we'll be taking a break from our USA trip.  Next Monday, we fly to Provo to attend Christian's university graduation (Way to go, Widge!  It's been a looong time coming, and we couldn't be more proud!) followed by a family celebratory cruise.  I was super nervous about leaving Bambi for 2 weeks in NYC, but after extensive research and numberless texts and emails, I found a woman willing to store both truck and trailer in her backyard which is just across the highway from LaGuardia, the airport we'll be using.  Anyway, we wanted to make the trip to her place in Queens to lay eyes on this house and yard and make sure we feel good about it.

Took us almost all day long to drive from Philly to Hoboken, set up the trailer, figure out both the New Jersey rapid transit and the NYC subway, then Uber the last few miles into Queens.  We found the storage house&yard, and it looked just dandy.  Relieved and assured, off we trundled across town once more for our Manhattan Temple appointment.

The Manhattan LDS Temple is most unique.  It sits only a couple of blocks from Central Park and one block off Broadway and is nothing spectacular from the outside; looks like just any one of the million or so office buildings in New York City.  Except for the angel Moroni statue on top, one would never know what lies within this office building.  Space in Manhattan flows upward, and so does this temple.  The ordinance rooms are all on different floors of the building which are uniquely accessed by elevator.  As well, the decor of the ordinance rooms and the celestial room was different from any we've ever been in before and was, of course, absolutely stunning.  Was such a privilege to be in attendance. 



We got a wee bit lost on the return trip and had to retrace subway stops, it did rain a bit on us as we wended our way home, and we were out past dark which is something I'd rather not do, but all in all we succeeded in all the goals I’d set for today, and we made it home safely to snug wee Bambi.  Hold on now for four eventful days ahead exploring all the sites of New York City!  

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