What started in the plans as a night or two on Long Island turned into a little bit over a week. Part of it was helping my Aunt Eileen, who had fractured her ankle and, at 88, was having a little difficulty getting around, but most of it was just taking some time to stop and visit and enjoy what we were doing, and as it turned out we had a lot of visiting to do between Aunt Eileen and family, her church family, and our friends Mari and Zoe from Belize who are now also living on Long Island. And, after the harrowing drive from the ferry in Port Jefferson to Sea Cliff, we just needed some time to get our sh*t together and decompress.
From Belize to Long Island, we had been using the GPS systems on our phones, which was a combination of Apple Maps, Google Maps, and maps.me. We’d run into a few problems where we didn’t quite end up where we expected, but for the most part those systems got us from point A to point B without any major problems. However, as we were driving from the ferry to Sea Cliff, we followed the directions and found ourselves on a parkway with bridge underpasses that were barely tall enough - in the middle! - for our truck. The ramp where we got on the parkway wasn’t clearly marked that low clearance bridges were in our path, and by the time we realized we were heading for low underpasses it was too late to get off the ramp. We were lucky that nice drivers were behind us and blocked traffic so we could creep under the middle at about 30mph, and that there was an exit back to normal roads before the next low underpass, but it was tense, to say the least. And, to make matters worse, as we tried to manipulate the GPS to get us to Aunt Eileen’s without putting us on a parkway, it kept routing us towards other bridges that were too low for our 12’ height and we had to make some, er, awkward turns to keep ourselves where we needed to be. What started out as a 90 minute route turned into about two and a half hours, but we eventually made it to Aunt Eileen’s, where my cousin Karen had a delicious dinner waiting for us.
Needless to say, job #1 was to find a GPS system where we could put our truck dimensions into the GPS to keep us off roads where we don’t fit. Tom spent hours and hours online, and eventually ended up buying a TomTom Trucker GPS which allows us to put in our vehicle height, width, and weight, as well as the fact that we carry LP tanks, so we now run that as our primary GPS with the other map apps on the side to make sure it’s not leading us astray. We’re now safely in Maryland, and so far it has kept us safe, as well as off a number of roads where we were probably seriously overweight. It was nice to be in one place for more than a couple of days, and somewhere where we could take the time to have things shipped to an address where we knew we’d be for a few days.
From Belize to Long Island, we had been using the GPS systems on our phones, which was a combination of Apple Maps, Google Maps, and maps.me. We’d run into a few problems where we didn’t quite end up where we expected, but for the most part those systems got us from point A to point B without any major problems. However, as we were driving from the ferry to Sea Cliff, we followed the directions and found ourselves on a parkway with bridge underpasses that were barely tall enough - in the middle! - for our truck. The ramp where we got on the parkway wasn’t clearly marked that low clearance bridges were in our path, and by the time we realized we were heading for low underpasses it was too late to get off the ramp. We were lucky that nice drivers were behind us and blocked traffic so we could creep under the middle at about 30mph, and that there was an exit back to normal roads before the next low underpass, but it was tense, to say the least. And, to make matters worse, as we tried to manipulate the GPS to get us to Aunt Eileen’s without putting us on a parkway, it kept routing us towards other bridges that were too low for our 12’ height and we had to make some, er, awkward turns to keep ourselves where we needed to be. What started out as a 90 minute route turned into about two and a half hours, but we eventually made it to Aunt Eileen’s, where my cousin Karen had a delicious dinner waiting for us.
Needless to say, job #1 was to find a GPS system where we could put our truck dimensions into the GPS to keep us off roads where we don’t fit. Tom spent hours and hours online, and eventually ended up buying a TomTom Trucker GPS which allows us to put in our vehicle height, width, and weight, as well as the fact that we carry LP tanks, so we now run that as our primary GPS with the other map apps on the side to make sure it’s not leading us astray. We’re now safely in Maryland, and so far it has kept us safe, as well as off a number of roads where we were probably seriously overweight. It was nice to be in one place for more than a couple of days, and somewhere where we could take the time to have things shipped to an address where we knew we’d be for a few days.
Besides getting to visit with Aunt Eileen and my cousin Karen, we had the great pleasure to get to know Aunt Eileen’s Sea Cliff church family. Before heading to Long Island, my cousin Maria had called the local priest, Father Azubuike, to see if we could fit in the church parking lot if we didn’t fit in Aunt Eileen’s driveway. We ended up fitting in the driveway, but Father Azubuike wanted to meet us and see the truck, so he stopped by after dinner the second night we were there - with a couple of bottles of wine. Over a few drinks, we found out that we had a lot in common, being citizens of a country other than our birth countries, as well as many common interests and philosophies. After our initial meeting, Father Azubuike came back for a dinner where I made eggplant parmesan and he brought Nigerian hot chicken and rice which was utterly delicious, and we spent another evening talking about just about everything. Coming from vastly different backgrounds, we didn’t always agree, but that just made the conversations that much more interesting and engaging. Aunt Eileen was delighted that we all liked each other so much, and that we all appreciated her bringing us together and being part of the fascinating conversations. Maria planned to come from Massachusetts during the last few days we were there, and Father Azubuike ended up inviting all of us to the rectory for an African dinner with his Nigerian cousin Kevin, fellow Nigerian priest Father Hilary, and two African priests from a neighboring parish, Father John from Uganda and Father Nick from Kenya. Tom and I spent that day hiking with Mari and friend Katrina from Florida (story to be continued below), so Maria cooked a turkey breast and mashed potatoes, as well as making cranberry sauce from Plymouth-picked cranberries.
Sea Cliff is a beautiful town located on a bay off the Long Island Sound. We walked every day, and always found different beautiful views.
Before heading to the rectory for dinner, Tom and I took the dogs for a walk and found a man with a flat tire on his Ford F-150. Tom ended up helping the man, who turned out to be a Colombian named Armando, so he had a chance to practice his Spanish. It made us late for the dinner at the rectory, but as The Good Samaritan, Tom was a hit with the priests. We partied with the priests for about five hours (!) and near the end of the evening Father Nick commented on how much Tom and the priests were enjoying each other. Father Nick asked Tom if he would like to be a priest, and when Tom commented that he was a) not Catholic, and b) married, Father Nick said that those problems could be fixed. Not Catholic, is a minor problem, but as far as being married…
The resolution was that Father Nick and Father John offered me 20 cows for Tom. I thought about it, and asked if the 20 cows could be changed to 20 horses. For 20 horses, it could be a fair trade. However, the priests were firm that in their countries, they only traded in cows, not horses. I also wasn’t interested in goats or sheep, just horses, so in the end we weren’t able to make a deal. At the end of the night, after a lot of laughter and a few great photos, Tom and I left the rectory, still married, and Tom not a priest. We left Long Island the next day, with Aunt Eileen proving to Maria that she could take care of herself, and our job was done.
The resolution was that Father Nick and Father John offered me 20 cows for Tom. I thought about it, and asked if the 20 cows could be changed to 20 horses. For 20 horses, it could be a fair trade. However, the priests were firm that in their countries, they only traded in cows, not horses. I also wasn’t interested in goats or sheep, just horses, so in the end we weren’t able to make a deal. At the end of the night, after a lot of laughter and a few great photos, Tom and I left the rectory, still married, and Tom not a priest. We left Long Island the next day, with Aunt Eileen proving to Maria that she could take care of herself, and our job was done.
We also had other fun on Long Island. My friend Mari, whose farm we stayed at in Belize for the six months before starting this trip, is a vet working at Belmont and Aqueduct. Her daughter Zoe, who is also our friend from Belize, has come north to go to US high school. The evening after Maria arrived on Long Island, we met them in a great pizza restaurant in Elmont, very close to Belmont, and had delicious pizza with the two of them and their friend Katrina, whom Mari had just picked up at LaGuardia for a visit. Over pizza, we made plans for the next day. Zoe, unfortunately, had to go to school, but Mari, Katrina, Tom, and I went to Caumsett State Historic Park Preserve and had a great all day hike. The scenery was beautiful, the hiking was vigorous enough to keep us interested, and we had time to catch up on all the talking that had been abbreviated on Messenger for far too long. The day passed in a flash, but we took lots of photos and made great memories and we will, of course, keep in touch.
The next day Tom and I left Long Island. It’s tough to leave older relatives, but Aunt Eileen is in pretty good shape, and she has lots of family close enough to take care of her. We made some great new friends with Father Azubuike and company. And, it was great to reconnect with Mari in person, and we’re sure we can see her again in the US, and definitely in Belize when we all return. We had the new TomTom to get us off Long Island and back to Upstate…which will all be covered in the next blog post.