'The pier lights our carnival life forever. Oh love me tonight and I promise I'll love you forever'
Anybody who knows us well - and that isn’t many people - know that we are quite a private couple. We don’t have a wide circle of friends and spend most of our time in each other’s company. So I think we surprised ourselves by agreeing so readily to spend a day in New Jersey with four people we hardly knew. We didn’t have to think twice. It just felt right.
For someone, like me, who is a little shy the internet is a Godsend. I wouldn’t have dreamt of telephoning Sinead or Ceinwen after meeting them in Dublin (chatting on the phone isn’t my thing anyway) but finding them on Facebook and chatting on line - no problem.
I hesitate to bang on about being ill again. Having cancer wasn’t life changing for me. I didn’t feel I needed to jack in the job, spend all my money and sail off around the world before I popped my clogs. I didn’t ever feel as if I was going to die but it did make me less reticent, gave me more of a just do it attitude knowing that:-
1. Whatever goes wrong in life can usually be put right.
2. It doesn’t really matter what other people think
So if our day didn’t work out it wouldn’t be the end of the world. If we hated each other we didn’t have to see one another again.
As it turns out we have become good friends.
Planning our trip to Jersey via FB was a great way of getting to know each other a little before we actually met up. By the time Mike and I set off for the U S A I was sure our day together was going to be a highlight of the trip.
So we are on a shuttle bus heading into NYC. The familiar shapes of the skyline are ahead of us and I am so excited. Coming into the outskirts of the city a van driver cuts us up. Our driver leans on his horn, sticks his head out the window and swears at him - welcome to New York City. The noise of the car horns was overwhelming and constant and exciting and soooo New York - I was hooked.
We got lost between the shuttle bus drop off point and the hotel (a slight confusion between the avenues and the streets but we soon got the hang of it) and I was told off for jay walking by a guy on the sidewalk - it was getting dark and I was pulling my suitcase, rushing after Mike, scared of losing him.
The hotel was an oddity really. It was housed in a terrace behind 42nd Street - a fabulous location - but because it was joined to other properties on both sides (and possibly the back) there was no view unless you had a room overlooking the street. Some of the rooms didn’t have a window at all! To be fair there was nothing wrong with the room. It was very small but clean and the bathroom was lovely. It just lacked any cosiness or atmosphere. Hotel 41 web site
Our most important jobs on our first day in NYC were to find Madison Square Garden (so we knew where to pick up our tickets) and Penn Station to make sure we could get to Newark Airport to pick up the car for our day on The Jersey Shore.
Onwards then to Ground Zero - couldn’t go to New York without paying our respects. A trip on The Staten Island Ferry was followed by a day of walking. We walked from the ferry to Pier 17, over the Brooklyn Bridge then wended our way back to the hotel down Broadway.
Friday morning we were up at 5.00am and off to meet Sinead, Steve, Ceinwen and Hywel for a trip on The New Jersey Transit to Newark Airport. Hywel had gamely volunteered to drive for the day and we were picking our car up at the airport.
The weather was fab - very cold but really bright and sunny. First stop Freehold - oh the excitement when we saw the first road sign for the New Jersey Turnpike and Freehold - I was really here!! We played The Wild The Innocent and The E Street Shuffle (to get us in the mood for Saturday) and The River disc 2 - I don’t think Sinead explained where disc 1 was.
Ceinwen had come armed with The Rock and Roll Tour of the Jersey Shore. (This guy obviously had it too) so we parked up and took photos at all the appropriate places. Then… where to go for breakfast? Mike’s love of diners took us to the Freehold Grill. Lucky choice because the food was good, but more so, because this is the place where a lot of the Long Walk Home video was shot. We didn't know this when we walked in but the waitress sussedus (possibly because of Ceinwen‘s T shirt) and told us the story.
So off to The Holy Grail that is Asbury Park. We popped in to The Stone Pony. Took photos of ourselves standing on the stage. Ceinwen and I bought a T shirt.
We had lunch - don’t know what time it was - could have been a late lunch - at The Langosta Lounge. link here Browsed around the few open shops, checked out Madame Marie’s (no one was there) and Tillie who is painted on The Wonder Bar (a copy of The Palace original I think).
The boardwalk was pretty much deserted - presumably not a place the locals go to on a cold Friday afternoon in November. It’s a little dilapidated, a bit tired, but you can just feel the atmosphere of the place - maybe you have to be a Springsteen fan - but although there was nothing much to see beyond the derelict (but rather beautiful) casino to the south and the Convention Hall to the north it didn’t take much imagination to transport yourself back to the 70s and 4th July - Sandy, the boys from the casino, them silly New York girls. It was just magical.
I have a favourite photo of Bruce. He is leaning on a car which is parked in front of the Convention Hall. One day I was going to have my picture taken with The Asbury Park Convention Hall behind me and this day had come. We took the photo from the wrong side though so, damn it, we are going to have to go back!
Are you up for it guys?
