Driving to New Jersey

Well finally after almost a year of living here and NOT driving I drove yesterday. I don’t include the two driving lessons and the exam for my NYS license as true driving experiences here in New York. They were in a controlled environment and generally in little or no traffic.

Hugo and I decided that we would hire a car and take the girls to a farm. We decided on going on the Sunday of the New York Marathon as we figured it would be good to get out of the city.

We picked up the car and the excitement on the girl’s faces was truly priceless. However that excitement soon turned to boredom not too long after. We thankfully had a GPS system in the car. I did feel somewhat confident however having the children in the car did probably intensify the nervous energy that later on in the day would reach full intensity.

We drove over the George Washington Bridge which would have been spectacular if I was able to enjoy the view. I was so focused on the lanes and the turn offs that the GPS kept “telling” me to do. Driving whilst being guided by a GPS is not exactly easy especially when you are driving in a totally different environment!

It was lovely to be behind the wheel of the car. We actually were a bit disappointed with the farm so we decided to head to Ikea and do some shopping. Unlike back home where you take having a car for granted its something you take full advantage of here. We headed to Ikea and spent some time there.

We had an hour to go till we had to return the car. You have a few companies here that do car hire by the hour. The hourly rate included gas and insurance so perfect for day trips.
Hetz on Demand

We loaded the address into the GPS and again followed instructions. Not being familiar at all I did as I was “told”. After driving for some time I realized that we were not heading in the direction I had thought we would have been heading. Instead we were heading toward Staten Island from Elizabeth, New Jersey. I had to face my worst nightmare. I was heading into full NY traffic and a lot of it as there was so many road closures due to the Marathon. One thing I observed and also applied to my driving technique is an aggressive style of driving. There was very little indicating, manners or room for error if you miss a turn. It’s pretty much every man for himself! The journey should have probably taken 45 minutes to get home instead it was close to 2 hours!

The GPS for some reason had taken us a different way and we had no way of turning back! We followed and by now we were late for the cars return. Finally in the distance I could see the Empire State Building and all I kept thinking was if we got onto Manhattan I felt confident to navigate myself. Finally after much anxiety we crossed the Queensboro Bridge and I felt a HUGE sense of relief. I was on my “home turf”.

I navigated around the road closures and did my best Manhattan aggressive driving I could. I even crossed before the pedestrians which is something we NEVER do in Australia. I did it and I did it well!

I can laugh about it now but it was definitely not for the faint hearted!