A boy to the city...
We attacked the road with one mission, to make it to our new home. I-76 out of Denver, finally meeting up with I-80 East, our path for the next 1000 or more miles. Driving, especially not thousands of miles, is never thought or mentioned as people’s favorite past times, so dread of the open road was prevalent in the first hundred miles. But as is the case in many of life’s journeys the whole scenario worked its self out and we found our little routine with the road.
Alternating every 200 miles, we both navigated through vast landscapes, which changed and transformed with each eastern bound mile. Highlights in my memory will be the big round moons I stared at with wonder each night, the rows and rows of corn in Nebraska and Iowa, and the foggy backdrop of the Delaware River at two in the morning as we came closer to the city. There is of course that one thing I wish could be mentally deleted, and that would be of course the lavish hotel we stayed in at the corner of Urine and Murder in Des Moines. So tired when we pulled into the parking lot of the hotel with no name that claimed to be a Howard Johnson that we neglected to care about the hygiene of the establishment. Give us a damn bed, shut the lights out, and pretend we are at the Four Seasons. When we awoke and the exhaustion blinders were removed, we hurriedly, I mean sprinted out the door. The experience made us feel so icky that coming up on our second night we decided to gun it to the city rather than take-up at another horrifying roadside hotel. I just couldn’t handle asking for a room with a king bed and a side order of pee stains on the walls.
After gaining our travel momentum and gunning it through Pennsylvania, we cruised through New Jersey, and saw the skyscrapers that will replace the mountains in our daily skyline viewing. Through the Lincoln Tunnel and “Hello Manhattan”!! We had done it. We were officially here. We have flown into the city many times, but something about driving in with the Prius full of our belongings really smacked us in the face. We have really moved, thousands of miles away from where I have called home for 24 years, and into this gigantic famous city. We chose to drive down 42nd street, giving us an entirely new perspective on Times Square and Broadway. Even though we had seen the sites, even watched the ball drop two New Year’s ago, our eyes were wide and we were in awe of what we would now call home.
Passed Grand Central Station, and a right onto 2nd Ave, we are almost there. 35th St., 34th…27th…23rd…20th and then around the block to 1st Ave. Turning left 21st St, it all hit home. Although we have had our apartment for months, we would not be leaving this time. We were here to stay. The Prius, our eco-friendly road warrior, pulls up to our building and there we are again, wide-eyed, gazing at our new home. Like a secret mission, we slyly unload our boxes and belongings at 4:30 in the morning, being careful to not wake the neighbors. And then it is finished, and we lay down to rest as the city awakes.
We had a great first day and got a lot accomplished. It was surprisingly peaceful in the city, at least to me. We walked the streets doing some errands, and I felt at ease with the turbulence of the last month. We set up our apartment, which is now live able until we can order and wait for our furniture to arrive in the next couple months. For now our apartment resembles many thrown together living quarters in the city, expect it just me and Gil, not 20 actors/models/waiters or 15 flight attendants living in a studio. Just us. Of course our apartment does come with the traditional transitional surroundings, complete with an air mattress/floatation device, stereo and lamps on the floor providing plenty of that low light ambiance that us gays love, and my “Mr. Robbins” director’s chair as our main sitting area, at least until it is in my classroom. But this is now home.
It is 8 o’clock p.m. eastern standard time, and my partner on this wild ride is conked out beside me. I look out our big window and see the sky changing into night. The same sky I always look at, but now with much different surrounding. We really did it. I really did it, and this journey, this adventure has officially begun.
