Back on Broadway: The Unsettling Homecoming

After a week in the Old Trees of New Hampshire, Walking Off the Big Apple returned to Metropolis last night via I-95 and a rented car. A few hours of pleasant motoring gave way to a living hell somewhere around New Haven. The memories of an endless vista of trees cross-faded into a slow-motion nightmare of red rear car lights punctuating the darkness.

In this bumper-to-bumper traffic, I was expecting to see the skyline of New York, New York appear in its god-like form, but a smoggy fog cloaked the city entirely. Breaking free of the circle of hell that is the Cross Bronx Expressway, we drove south on the Hudson Parkway and eventually home. As someone who walks everywhere, I found the experience driving along familiar streets so surreal and unsettling that I almost became ill. Once home, I opened the terrace door. After time spent in the woods, New York stinks and is too noisy. Everyone go home now.

The only way for me to re-acclimate is to walk down noisy and stinky Broadway.

Walking Off the Big Apple, having indulged in literary fantasies and vacations for the past two weeks, vows to resume her thematic walks throughout the great city and present them to you. It's Back to School time, and we must work.