I loved watching Bugs Bunny cartoons when I was a kid. He always seemed to come out on top of almost every situation. But in the real world, that's the type of thing that requires a lot of work. Soon, I'll be taking a cruise out of Brooklyn, and I figured that I needed to take a test trip using Metro North and the NYC Subway to reach the Pier 11 ferry terminal, and I'm glad I did this, as I found out that I will need to change my plans for this journey.
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Shortly after I finished lunch, I decided to trek into NYC by train. Since it was a weekday, I was glad that I was not wheeling a bag - for reasons I will discuss in a bit. I had some GI Tract issues which delayed me a little, and I ended up leaving for Croton-Harmon station later than planned. By the time I got there, the usual supply of available metered parking spots (freed by people returning to Croton in the early afternoon) was depleted, and there were several cars hovering in the lanes of the lot waiting for spaces to open. I was in luck - a space opened up just in time for me to both pay for parking and to make it onto the 3:45 pm express to Grand Central.
Around 4:40 pm, I arrived at Grand Central, and browsed the holiday court of stores before heading to the subway. Since the Lexington Avenue line (#4 & #5 trains) runs along Broadway in lower Manhattan, I doubted that I'd use it to reach Pier 11, as it is a long walk from the Wall Street station to Water Street. This ride gave me a good reason to nix this line for use - It is not an ADA accessible station. It would be a major effort to lift my bag up the stairs (as there are no elevators at the station) and then walk th the pier. On my way to the pier, I noticed that the 7th Avenue line (#2 & #3 trains) would be just as bad a choice to reach the pier. So what should I do? I figured that I'd walk to South Ferry and see if there was a bus that runs along Water Street, and figure out how to take it from the Staten Island Ferry terminal to Pier 11. Although I didn't see the downtown bound M15 Bus, I did see uptown bound buses, and knew that I could reach the ferry terminal without problems. (I'll deal with the return trip when I get back to NYC.) And the South Ferry subway station is ADA accessible. So, now I had a plan.
Once I got to South Ferry, I took the 7th Avenue local to Times Square, then transferred to the 42nd Street shuttle to reach Grand Central. While at Grand Central, I decided to look at the Long Island Railroad Terminal. They did a nice job on it, and the rest rooms look much better than their counterparts in the original Grand Central. (I say that, as they do their best to make the restrooms stay clean at the original Grand Central, but they look the worse from many years of overuse.) But soon enough, I had to return to the Metro North zone and board a train with only 5 minutes to spare. I'm glad I did so, as the train was a super express that didn't even stop in Harlem.
Soon enough, I was back home and in for the night. It was a long day, but only because I did a lot of walking. My legs were telling me to call it a day when I reached Wall Street. By the time I walked to South Ferry, my legs were cooperating with me and didn't mind the exercise. I wonder if I will feel the same way when I do both legs of this journey for real in a few days.
PS: They were preparing to light the Financial District's Xmas Tree as I walked along Wall Street. Glad I didn't stay to see it, as I'd bet that the area would be a pickpocket's paradise in a little while. I certainly don't want to visit DMV again, nor do I want to dealing with stopping stolen cards again!
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